Choosing The Right Trailer Hitch For The Job

There are times when larger loads need to be transported. Maybe it's a boat, jet ski, snow mobile, or dirt bike for a day of play. Perhaps it's a trailer or camper for a relaxing get-away or you're transporting your horses to show. When you need to tow a trailer, safety is a primary consideration to get you and your load to your destination and back. This begins with a proper vehicle that can pull and control the weight safely and a proper hitch to secure the trailer to the vehicle.

The first thing to do is determine the towing capacity of your vehicle. You can find this information in your vehicle owner's manual. Typically, cars can safely tow up to about 3,000 pounds. Heavy duty trucks can often tow well over 10,000 pound loads. Secondly, you need to know the weight of your tow load. For small trailers carrying a couple of dirt bikes, for example, most any vehicle can handle those. If there's a question, you can have the load towed to a scale for an exact weight. Always better to be safe than sorry.

Once you have this information you can select the proper trailer hitch to install on your vehicle. Trailer hitches come in different sizes and classes. Following is break-down of the different classes of hitches and their capacities.

The Class I hitch is ordinarily used on cars, small trucks, and minivans. It can handle about 2,000 pounds of weight that would include such things as a trailer carrying a jet ski or dirt bike, a pop-up camper, or small fishing boat. This is also a good choice for hitch-mounted cargo and bike racks.

For heavier loads including power boats, small campers, and trailers carrying multiple motorcycles, snow mobiles, and the like, the Class II hitch can support up to 3,500 pounds. This size hitch can be used for pickup trucks, mid-sized cars, and smaller SUVs.

If your vehicle is a full-sized car, pickup, van, or SUV you may want to have a Class III hitch installed that is often specifically designed for the vehicle. This hitch can carry up to 5,000 pounds of total weight to two a larger boat, camper, or horse trailer. A Class IV hitch can handle up to 10,000 pounds and a Class V hitch supports weights above 10,000 pounds.

It is essential to choose the right equipment for the job and when it comes to trailer hitches there is little room for error. Visit a dealer and take advantage of their expertise to make the right choice for your specific needs.