GMC Sierra 1500 Towing Capacity by Year, Engine and Package

What a Sierra 1500 can tow, year by year

Find your model year below. Each figure is the highest conventional trailer weight GMC published that year, for one specific build with the right engine and equipment, not a figure every Sierra of that year gets.

Sources: 2016 to 2018 from the GMC Sierra owner manuals, for example the 2018 manual; 2020 and 2021 from the GMC Trailering Guides; 2022 to 2024 from GMC's Sierra features, specs and options sheets; 2025 from GM's Fleet Guide; 2026 from GMC's 2026 Sierra 1500 trailering chart. No GMC document with 2019 Sierra 1500 trailer ratings is published on a GM site, so that year is left blank rather than filled from a neighbouring year. Two GMC documents disagree on 2024 (13,300 lb on the specs sheet, 13,200 lb on GMC's media fact sheet) and on 2026 (13,300 lb on the chart, 13,200 lb in GM's Fleet Guide); the fuller documents are used here. The 2022 Sierra 1500 Limited was the carry-over truck sold alongside the new 2022 Sierra, and its manual prints no rating table at all.

Can it pull a travel trailer with the family aboard?

Usually the trailer weight is not what stops you. What stops you is payload: everything the truck itself carries, including the weight the trailer presses down on the hitch. For 2026 GMC publishes these maximum payloads by cab and bed:

• Crew Cab, short bed: up to 2,020 lb
• Crew Cab, standard bed: up to 1,950 lb
• Double Cab, standard bed: up to 2,040 lb
• Regular Cab, standard bed: up to 2,230 lb
• Regular Cab, long bed: up to 2,230 lb

GMC puts conventional trailer tongue weight at 10 to 15 percent of the loaded trailer weight. A 7,000 lb travel trailer therefore presses 700 to 1,050 lb on the hitch (calculated). On a Double Cab with 2,040 lb of payload, that leaves 990 to 1,340 lb (calculated) for everyone in the truck and everything in the bed.

Those are maximums for the lightest build in each body style, and the figures fall as trim and option content rise: GMC's 2024 sheet shows AT4X rows down at 1,350 lb of base payload. Your own truck's number is the Max Payload line on its trailering label.

For a fifth wheel or gooseneck, the 2026 chart tops out at 9,900 lb, with the 5.3L V8, the Max Trailering Package and a customer-installed hitch on a Double Cab. Fitting a bed hitch loads the frame and is work for a qualified installer.

Which 2026 Sierra 1500 tows the most

Each engine has its own ceiling, and reaching it takes the right cab, drivetrain and equipment.

Figures from GMC's 2026 Sierra 1500 trailering chart, linked above, which lists every cab, bed and drivetrain combination along with the tire and transmission options that move individual rows. The chart prints no payload figures. If your trailer is heavier than these numbers, the next step up is a heavy-duty pickup, not a better-equipped half-ton.

What the trims are rated for

The headline figure does not belong to the expensive trims. GMC's 2026 Denali page lists available towing up to 9,400 lb and the AT4 page up to 9,000 lb, both far below the 13,300 lb line maximum. On the 2026 chart, the AT4X carries its own lower ratings: 8,700 lb with the 6.2L V8 and 8,500 lb with the Duramax.

Part of the reason is equipment availability. GMC's 2022 to 2024 specs sheets list the Max Trailering Package as available on SLE, Elevation and SLT only, and that package is what the top ratings require.

The engines over the years

Through 2016 to 2018 the lineup was a 4.3L V6, a 5.3L V8 and a 6.2L V8. The V6 topped out at 7,600 lb in those manuals, the 5.3L at 11,100 lb when it had the 8-speed automatic with the Enhanced Towing Package or the 3.73 axle, and the 6.2L carried the year's maximum.

The current body brought a 2.7L turbo four and the 3.0L Duramax diesel. GMC's 2020 guide rated the 2.7L at 6,900 lb at most; the 2021 guide raised it to 9,200 lb on a higher combined weight rating, and the engine was renamed TurboMax for 2024. The 2021 guide also lists two 5.3L V8 versions: one at 9,900 lb, and the one that reaches 11,300 lb with the Max Trailering Package.

Hitch, trailer brakes and weight distribution

GM's shared 2026 Silverado and Sierra 1500 towing supplement sets two thresholds for a half-ton Sierra. A weight-distributing hitch is optional up to 7,000 lb of trailer weight and required above it, with 50 percent distribution. Loaded trailers over 2,000 lb must have brakes on each axle, and state law may require them sooner.

Receiver tongue limits changed with the model year. The 2016 manual allows 800 lb with a weight-carrying hitch and 1,200 lb with a weight-distributing hitch; 2017 and 2018 print 700 lb and 1,250 lb. The 2019 and 2022 manuals cap conventional-hitch tongue weight at 1,250 lb and step-bumper towing at 5,000 lb of total trailer weight. For 2026 GMC prints no fixed receiver figure: the maximum tongue weight is on the truck's trailering label.

Where your own truck's figure is

Every Sierra 1500 carries a trailering information label on the driver-side center pillar, listing the combined weight rating, the max payload and the trailer weight rating for that exact build. Read that label first, then match the row in the table above only to check what the configuration should be worth; reading the labels step by step is covered separately.

Sierra 1500 against Silverado 1500

They share engine names and one towing supplement, but each brand publishes its own ratings, and they are not always the same. In 2020 GMC's guide put the Sierra at 12,100 lb against the Silverado's 13,400 lb, and in 2021 at 11,800 lb against 13,300 lb, mostly because GMC listed no 6.2L Double Cab that year.

For 2026 the gap is narrow. Chevrolet's guide prints the TurboMax at 9,500 lb, the 5.3L at 11,300 lb and the 6.2L at 13,200 lb, each 100 lb above the GMC chart; the Duramax matches at 13,300 lb, and the Silverado's fifth-wheel maximum is 400 lb higher at 10,300 lb.

Common questions