Cadillac 2007 owner manual Total Weight on Your Vehicle’s Tires, Hitches

Your vehicle now weighs:

Weight is still below 7,200 lbs (3 266 kg) and you may think that you should subtract 700 additional pounds (318 kg) from your trailering capacity

to stay within GCWR limits. Your maximum trailer would only be 7,800 lbs (3 538 kg). You may

go further and think you must limit tongue weight to less than 1,000 lbs (454 kg) to avoid exceeding GVWR. But, you must still consider the effect on the rear axle. Because your rear axle now weighs 3,100 lbs (1 406 kg), you can only put 900 lbs (408 kg) on the rear axle without exceeding RGAWR. The effect of tongue weight is about 1.5 times the actual weight. Dividing the 900 lbs (408 kg) by 1.5 leaves you with being able to handle only 600 lbs (272 kg) of tongue weight. Since tongue weight is usually at least

10 percent of total loaded trailer weight, you can expect that the largest trailer your vehicle can properly handle is 6,000 lbs (2 721 kg).

It is important that you make sure your vehicle does not exceed any of its ratings — GCWR, GVWR, RGAWR, Maximum Trailer Rating

or Tongue Weight. The only way to be sure you are not exceeding any of these ratings is to weigh your vehicle and trailer.

Total Weight on Your Vehicle’s Tires

Be sure your vehicle’s tires are inflated to the upper limit for cold tires. You’ll find these numbers on the Certification label at the rear edge of the driver’s door or see Loading Your Vehicle on page 372. Then be sure you do not go over the GVW limit for your vehicle, or the GAWR, including the weight of the trailer tongue. If you use a weight distributing hitch, make sure you don’t go over the rear axle limit before you apply the weight distribution spring bars.

Hitches

It’s important to have the correct hitch equipment. Crosswinds, large trucks going by and rough roads are a few reasons why you’ll need the right hitch.

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