Today we're going to cover a common question, what does class I, II, and III mean and what does it mean to my vehicle. We're going to go through them all and show you what the differences are, some are subtle and some are rather apparent. Basically, we'll make it easier for you. We're going to start off with this example here which is a class I hitch. Class I means this hitch is good for trailers up to 2000 pounds. What we're going to show you over here is the sticker which shows the different weights and capacities involved. We'll show you what those mean. As you can see by the sticker here, we're going to show you some notes on it, these stickers will apply to any class hitch that you come across. Once you figure out what this means, you're home free. Starting here at max gross trailer weight which shows 2000 pounds.

So that means the total weight you can pull with your trailer, for example if your load on your trailer is 500 pounds, you have 1500 pounds of weight to put on it so it remains at a safe capacity for this hitch. Moving on to this next number which is max gross tongue weight, it shows 200 pounds there. That means the force that actually pushes down on the hitch ball itself from the vertical force. That limits it to about 200 pounds which is traditionally about 10 percent of the trailer weight. Just those two notes apply to any hitch that's out there. The only thing that changes is the capacity of the hitch and the weight of the trailer itself. Now we'll go into detail with the receiver tube of the class I hitch. You may think it's not a big deal, actually there are a few distinguishing marks about them. One is aesthetics and the other is technical safety feature. As you can see on the front of the hitch here, there's nothing around it, it's just plain steel. All manufacturers will build them just like that. That will always show it's a class I receiver hitch just by glancing at it. The next detail is for safety, it looks minor but it's there for a reason. If you can see this there's a little dent-in here or a punch. This forces the steel to go inside the receiver tube. The reason is lets say you have a ballmount lying around, and you want to use this on your brand new hitch. That ballmount may be from a class II receiver hitch, which we'll talk about next. Basically that's a ballmount of a higher capacity, the idea is you don't want to forget that you have a lower capacity hitch when you try to install a higher capacity draw bar.

What happens is that dent-in prevents you from putting that draw bar into it. We'll show you how that happens. As you can see we installed it all the way and you can only see a sliver of the original ballmount hole, which means you can put the pin and clip through the hole. Ultimately that's what keeps you from putting an over-sized draw bar into an undersized hitch. It's there for you protection. This also applies in bicycle racks and cargo carriers too. Also with the class I hitches, you mainly find those on smaller vehicles and some compact vehicles. That pretty much covers the details of a class I receiver hitch. Now we'll move on to a class II receiver hitch. We'll cover the weights on the sticker and cover a couple of differences on the receiver tube itself. You see here it says “weight carrying ballmount” that means the ballmount going into the receiver and the ball, that's what that means. You see here where it says “weight distribution” that's a separate device that allows you to carry heavier weights, that doesn't really apply to class II receiver hitches. Again by itself on the hitch it's rated for 3500 pounds, that's the total weight. The tongue weight is listed at 300 pounds. On the details of the Class II hitch, there's not too many details on it compared to a class one. Basically all class II hitches have this ring that goes around the end of the tube. This is so at a quick glance you're working with a class II. The steel on the class II is a little thicker and sturdier than the class I. Essentially the dimensions are going to be the same with a 1-1/4”. Basically there only differences are thicker steel and heavier capacity.

You'll notice the shapes of the hitch are different, this is due to the fact that different hitches need to fit different vehicles. Class II hitches can be found on a variety of different vehicles. Most of the time you can find them on full size cars, mid size cars, and mid size SUVs. However you will not find these on full size SUVs and pickups which are the realm of a class III. That's pretty much it for a Class II receiver hitch, We'll move on to Class III now. Traditionally a class III receiver hitch is good for trailers up to 5000 pounds and 500 pounds tongue weight. There are a few different variances from that, we'll show you that here in a second. Again we're going to start with the stickers and show you the differences, as you can see here the max gross trailer weight is 5000 pounds as we discussed. The tongue weight looks to be 500 pounds, again about 10percent of your trailer weight. On the other side of the class III you'll see a sticker for weight distribution. That's a specification when you use a device that goes in between the truck and the trailer that takes up the tongue weight. What it does is distributes the weight between the truck and the trailer and allows you to carry a heavier weight. As far as a class III hitch is concerned, that increases the rating the hitch can handle. This one goes up to 6000 pounds and 600 pounds in tongue capacity. On different vehicles, that can change. Some can be 7500 pounds, 8000, even 10000 pounds on a class III hitch. Those will all vary in a class III hitch. As you notice the weight distributions capacities do vary again that is going to vary which is going to be dependent on the vehicle. The heavier the vehicle, the heavier the weight distribution capacity. Traditionally speaking though the class III will always be 5000 max weight. There are exceptions though some mid size SUVs will have a two inch receiver for them, but those essentially will be more like a class II. Which means they'll have a two inch receiver, although it will have a max tongue weight of 300 pound and 3500 pounds trailer capacity. Usually on that one you will not find a weight distribution indication for those hitches. Mainly it's there because there's a lot of 2 inch receiver accessories available out there that go good with those particular vehicles. It is a little confusing, but go through our hitch guide and we'll tell you exactly what you can do with your vehicle. To cover some of the aspects of a class III receiver hitch, again it has a 2 inch receiver which is an industry standard. Basically they're going to be made out of a thicker material than the previous two classes. Another thing is you'll see variances in the cross tube. In this example here we have a round cross tube, while other examples will be a square tube. When looking at a hitch you may hear things about one being stronger than the other. Up to a certain capacity, yes the round tube is a bit weaker than it's square counterpart. However that's an application that doesn't involve towing, those are structural applications and stress going in different directions. You can up to 10000 pounds with a round tube hitch, after that traditionally square tubes take over. As long as you know the basics of the weight capacities of the hitch you can figure out exactly what you need for your application. These rules will apply to all three classes even the fours and fives which are reserved for heavy duty towing. One final note about the hitches and this applies to all classes of hitches, you definitely want to double check what the capacity of your vehicle is yourself. Some vehicles will have different engines and transmission combinations, each will have their limited capacities. If you can't find it in your owners manual, take your VIN number and take it to your dealership, they'll type it in and tell you what your vehicle can or can't do. That pretty much covers the basics of the class I, II, and III hitches.