What vehicles does my hitch trailer fit?

There are 5 different classes of hitches, there are many parts of a hitch and a couple of factors to consider when using a hitch in your car. The short answer is that for most sedan cars Class 1 or 2 is the most common hitch and for SUV’s or Pick up trucks the most common Class will be 3 or 4.

Read on to learn all the aspects you need to consider about Classes of hitches, types of hardware, towing capacity.

Let’s say you were planning for a long road trip along with your camper trailer and you are totally confused about which type of trailer hitch you would require.

Hold on don’t change your plans, you just need a suitable hitch according to your vehicle type. To understand more technically about what the class of hitches is and what are its prerequisites, just go through this article and you will get clarity about everything related to your trailer hitch queries and its compatible vehicles.

What is a Trailer Hitch?

First, we need to understand what the Trailer Hitch is. The Trailer hitch is a basic specialized tool to connect your vehicle with a trailer on rear side of your vehicle.

Basically, it is a connection between your vehicle to the stand-alone object mounted on trailer this could be a Caravan, a boat, or a flat bed trailer there are several other utility trailers which can be towed with your vehicle.

The selection of hitch trailer is little tricky you must analyze the need and purpose of your requirement.

Here we will discuss some common type of trailer hitches.

Types of trailer hitches

There are five types of trailer hitches which are as follows.

Receiver Hitch

Among the five hitches the Receiver type hitch is more commonly used hitch, which is further divided in to five classes, (Class 1 to Class 5) which will be discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.

5^th Wheel Hitch

The 5^th Wheel hitch is required for heavy duty works it is installed on truck bed and coordinated with kingpin of a trailer. Its main advantage is for better control of tall trailer which will likely to face cross wind effects on speedy freeways.

Weight Distribution Hitch

This is a receiver hitch attachment the sole purpose of this type of hitch is to distribute the center weight of trailer and vehicle in order to increase the control of vehicle.

Gooseneck Hitch

This type of hitch is used for heavier towing capacity, it is similar to 5^th wheel hitch as it is also installed on truck bed connected with a trailer tongue receiver and ball fitted on the truck bed over the axle.

Pintle Hitch

A pintle hitch is used for off road purposes mainly suitable for farms and agriculture use connected with hook and a ring which allows the extra movement at the connecting point.

Trailer Hitch Classes

The selection of right trailer hitch class is depending on the type of your vehicle and what type of trailer you want to tow , for the correct selection of hitch you must also know the maximum towing capacity of your vehicle,

for this purpose you can refer with owner manual or you can talk directly to your automobile dealer or alternatively you can also reach up to any reliable trailer hitch dealer near you for better understanding.

But don’t worry this article will also help you to find the most compatible trailer hitch class for your vehicle. And you can also calculate the towing capacity of vehicle on your own by visiting a nearby vehicle scale facility.

The basics of towing capacity and related terms are explained in detail in coming paragraphs.

Here you can see the hitch class comparison table. From this table you can easily ascertain that in which class your vehicle type lies.

Class	Vehicle type	Receiver Size	Gross Trailer Weight capacity (lbs.)	Tongue Weight Capacity (lbs.)	Load Type
Class 1	Cars/Crossovers	1-1/4-inch	Up to 2,000	Up to 200	Bikes/ scooters/kayaks/beach buggy
Class 2	Mini Vans/Crossovers/Cars	1-1/4-inch	Up to 3,500	Up to 350	small size boats/ campers
Class 3	Crossovers/Vans/SUVs/Minitrucks	2-inch	Up to 8,000	Up to 800	Midsize Campers, Utility Trailers, Motorcycles, Snowmobiles
Class 4	Only Trucks & SUVs	2-inch	Up to 10,000	Up to 1,000	Large Caravan, Large Boats, Horse Trailers
Class 5	Heavy Duty commercial trucks	2-inch	16,000 to 17,000	2,400 to 2,550	Fifth Wheels, Multi-car trailers, Horse Trailers

Vehicle compatibility

According to above illustration , the most compatible hitch for cars is class 1 hitches and even class 2 in case you have a more power full car.

For most of crossover vehicles and Mini Vans you can use class 1, class 2 and even class 3 in some cases.

If you own a SUV you can easily go for class 2 and up to class 5 as now a days in some cases the SUVs are too much power full and have strong fuller frame for towing any type of load, so it is always depends upon your need and which type of trailer you are towing. Here one should keep in mind that if you are going for tow the large camper or anything which is taller in height, then you may need weight distribution hitch for better control.

In case of Trucks and for heavier load towing requirements you need to select from class 3 up to class 5, depends upon the requirement, it is also recommended to use Weight distribution hitch if you are towing a longer trailer.

The most important factor for above analysis is the towing capacity of your vehicle, here we need to learn what the towing capacity is and how it will calculate and what are the terms used in the calculation and their brief description.

Towing Capacity

The maximum amount of weight your vehicle can pull is called towing capacity, following term is being used when discussing about towing capacity;

GVWR

GVWR represent Gross Vehicle Weight Rating The maximum loaded weight of your vehicle, as per manufacturer, it is the maximum load bearing capacity of vehicle before attaching any trailer. It represents how much load a vehicle can tow.

GCWR

GCWR represents Gross Combined Weight Rating, It is the maximum weight of your vehicle along with a trailer attached.

GAWR

GAWR represents Gross Axle Weight Rating It is the maximum weight one can put one can put on vehicles axles either front or rear.

GTW

GTW represent Gross Trailer Weight the total weight of the trailer and its cargo mounted on trailer. It can be determined by putting the fully loaded trailer on a vehicle scale, here one need to make sure that the GTW should always lesser than GVWR.

TW represent the Tongue Weight , the downward force applied on the rear of the vehicle due to the load of trailer.

CW represents the Curb Weight, this is the total weight of vehicle without any passenger or cargo, it does include all the liquids necessary for the vehicle to operate which include, gasoline, mobil oil, other transmission and hydraulic oils.

DW represents the Dry Weight it is the total weight of vehicle excluding all fluids and also without any passenger or cargo load.

PL represents Payload, it is the maximum amount of cargo load a vehicle can pull.

Final thoughts and tips:

My personal advice is consider whether the cost of the hitch, installation and wiring system is worth how many times you will be using it to tow items. I found out that for towing stuff once every 2 months I would be better off just renting a uhaul or a home depot truck.

Both U-Haul or Home Depot Trucks are well priced but the selection of the best one for you comes down to time and mileage you will need it.

Tip: To find out the right hitch for your car and it’s capabilities we recommend you go to uhaul.com and simulate purchasing a hitch for your car, their database will give you your different options.