How to Weigh a Truck and Travel Trailer

To weigh a truck and travel trailer for a towing margin check, load the rig like a real trip, record truck-only and connected-rig scale passes, then bring the numbers back to the calculator.

Put the expected passengers, cab cargo, bed cargo, hitch hardware, tools, bikes, water, propane, batteries, and trailer cargo in place before weighing.

For a truck-only pass, record steer axle, drive axle, and gross truck weight. Use the gross truck weight as actual truck loaded weight before trailer hookup when the pass matches the trip load.

With the trailer connected, record steer axle, drive axle, trailer axle group, and gross combination weight.

If you use a WDH, keep the ticket date or a short note and record whether the WDH was engaged for each pass. A WDH can move weight across axles, but it does not raise factory payload, GVWR, GAWR, GCWR, or tow rating.

Enter actual loaded trailer weight only when the scale passes and subtraction method clearly support it.

Connected-rig truck axle weights already include tongue or pin weight carried by the truck after hookup, so do not add estimated tongue or pin weight again.

After updating actual truck weight or loaded trailer weight, open the report again and check payload remaining, tow rating margin, GCWR, GVWR, receiver margins, and limiting factor.