Where do I find my payload number?

Open the driver's door and look at the pillar behind it. On the white-and-yellow Tire and Loading Information label there is a sentence that reads: The combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed XXX lbs. That figure is the payload for your truck as it was built, with its own options fitted. It beats every brochure, spec table and forum post.

Does tongue weight come out of payload?

Yes, all of it. The front of the trailer rests on the truck's hitch, so every pound of tongue weight is carried by the truck and counts against payload exactly like a passenger does. That is why the payload you have left, divided by the tongue weight percentage, is the honest ceiling on trailer size.

A conventional bumper-pull trailer normally sits between 10 and 15 percent of its loaded weight on the tongue, and 13 percent is a reasonable middle for planning. Fifth wheels and goosenecks sit far higher, at 20 to 25 percent. How you load the trailer moves the real figure, and a full fresh water tank or a cargo box at the nose pushes it up.

Is the trailer figure here the trailer's dry weight?

No, and this is where most people are caught out. It is the loaded weight of the trailer, with water, propane, bedding, tools, food and everything else in it. A trailer advertised at 4,900 lb dry will weigh well over 6,000 lb once it is packed, so compare this figure against the trailer's GVWR rather than the brochure's dry weight.

Is payload the only limit I need to check?

No. Payload is usually the first one to run out on a half-ton pickup, which is why it is worth checking on its own, but GVWR, GCWR and the rear axle rating can each bind before or after it. The full calculator checks all four at once from the same sticker figures.

How Much Payload Do I Have Left?

What payload actually is

Payload is the weight your truck is allowed to carry on top of itself. It is not the weight it can pull. Everything that is not the truck as it left the factory comes out of it: you, your passengers, the dog, the toolbox, the firewood, the bed cover, and — the one that surprises people — the part of the trailer that rests on the hitch.

It is also a per-truck number, not a per-model one. Two identically badged pickups on the same lot can be five hundred pounds apart because one has four-wheel drive, a sunroof and the heavier engine. That is why this page asks you for the figure off your own door rather than looking up a model.

Why the trailer number is the one you actually want

A trailer does not sit entirely on its own wheels. The front of it presses down on the truck's hitch, and that downward force is called tongue weight. On a normal bumper-pull trailer it is usually 10 to 15 percent of what the loaded trailer weighs.

Every pound of it is carried by the truck, so it comes straight out of payload, exactly like a passenger. Turn that around and you get the useful answer: whatever payload you have left, divided by 13 percent, is roughly the heaviest loaded trailer you can hitch up.

A worked example. A truck with 1,600 lb of payload, four people at 180 lb, 150 lb in the bed, 40 lb in the cab and a 50 lb ball mount has 640 lb left. At 13 percent that is a loaded trailer of about 4,900 lb. Trucks advertised as towing 11,000 lb regularly land here.

Loaded weight, not the brochure weight

The trailer figure on this page is what the trailer weighs packed and ready to leave — water in the tank, propane in the bottles, bedding, food, tools, awning, the lot. A trailer sold as 4,900 lb dry will be well over 6,000 lb by the time it is loaded.

So compare the number here against the trailer's GVWR, which is printed on the trailer's own sticker and is the most it is ever allowed to weigh. Comparing it against a dry weight is how people end up a thousand pounds over without noticing.

Fifth wheels and goosenecks are different

A fifth wheel or gooseneck puts 20 to 25 percent of its weight on the truck instead of 10 to 15. The same 640 lb of payload that carries a 4,900 lb travel trailer carries roughly a 2,900 lb fifth wheel — which is to say, none of them. That is why fifth wheels sit on three-quarter and one-ton trucks.

What this page does not check

Payload is usually the first limit to run out on a half-ton pickup, which is why it is worth checking on its own. But it is one of four:

GVWR — the most the loaded truck alone may weigh.
GCWR — the most the truck and trailer may weigh together.
Rear axle rating (GAWR) — the most that one axle may carry, and tongue weight lands almost entirely on it.
Payload — this page.

Any one of them can bind first. The full calculator checks all four together, works backwards to the largest trailer that clears every one of them, and shows you which limit is the one actually stopping you.

And then weigh it

Everything on this page is arithmetic on figures you typed in. A CAT scale ticket costs about the price of lunch, takes ten minutes, and replaces every estimate here with a measurement of your truck on the day, loaded the way you actually load it. If you tow regularly, do it once. How to use a CAT scale walks through it.

Print this and keep it in the glovebox

If you would rather not come back here, the table below converts payload left into trailer size at all three common tongue weight percentages. The arithmetic does not change.

Heaviest loaded trailer, by the payload you have left. Conventional bumper-pull.
Payload left	At 10%	At 13%	At 15%

A planning tool only. Every figure here is arithmetic on numbers you entered, not a measurement — a certified scale ticket is the real answer and nothing on this page replaces one. The payload label inside your driver's door beats every published specification, including anything on this site. Not vehicle, mechanical or legal advice.

How much payload do I have left?