Specification data for towable RVs is unusually dirty. Factory pages roll to the next model year and take the old numbers with them. Brochures are superseded without being withdrawn. Dealer listings copy each other's transcription errors until a wrong figure looks like consensus. This page is the one place the site's sourcing rules are written down: where each figure comes from, the checks it has to pass, and what happens to a figure that fails them. Other pages on this site link here rather than repeat it.
The rule behind all of it
No specification figure is estimated (the loaded hitch range in the tow block is a labelled rule of thumb, not a specification). If no source publishes a figure, the page prints “Not published” or leaves the row out. A plausible number that nobody published is worse than a gap, because a gap is honest and a guess is not. A condensed version of this standard is in /llms.txt for automated systems that cite this catalog.
01 The five-point standard
1. Named sources onlyprovenance
Specifications come from manufacturer factory pages, manufacturer brochures, and structured dealer-network spec records. Each line documents which source supplied which field. No figure enters the catalog from an unattributed aggregator, a forum post, or a competitor's page.
2. Cross-checkingconflict logging
Where two sources disagree, the conflict is logged on the page itself rather than silently resolved. Factory data is treated as authoritative when a conflict has to be broken, and the losing figure is still printed with its source.
3. Weight tie-outarithmetic proof
Where a plan publishes dry weight, cargo capacity and GVWR, dry + CCC = GVWR must hold exactly. Section 04 explains what happens when it does not.
4. No estimationthe cardinal rule
A field that no source publishes is shown as “Not published”. It is never filled in from a sibling floorplan, a twin model from another brand, another model year, or segment convention. Section 05 sets out the rule.
5. Exclusion over guessingthe expensive part
599 floorplans are left out of the tow index because a figure the calculation needs is not published for them. They get no tow block at all rather than a partial or estimated one.
02 Where the figures come from
When sources conflict they are ranked in this order, and the ranking is applied the same way every time rather than figure by figure:
- Manufacturer factory pages for the matching model year. This is the primary record, and the only one that shows a mid-year re-spec.
- Manufacturer brochures for the matching model year. Factory pages roll over every year; a brochure for the right year stays citable after its page is gone. Brochures are read from the manufacturer's own brochure index where it has one (Jayco publishes a year-by-year index), and from the RVUSA brochure library, which holds copies of factory brochures by year, make and line.
- Structured dealer-network spec records, such as RVUSA's model spec pages. They cover many lines with a consistent field layout, and are the most likely of the three to carry a stale figure from another year, so the floorplan code and year on the record are checked before any figure is used.
- Dealer listings and editorial write-ups are used only to corroborate a layout description. No weight, capacity or price in this catalog rests on one.
Safety records come from the federal government, not from manufacturers: recall campaigns and owner complaints are read from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's public data files. Section 07 covers how they are matched to a trailer.
03 One model year, one record
A figure published for one model year is not evidence about another. The same floorplan code can change between years: on one Jayco plan measured across three model years, 13 of 28 published fields differed, including GVWR, dry hitch weight and tire size. So a model-year record carries that year's own published figures, or it is not printed. A year no source covers is listed on the parent page as unsourced rather than filled in from the year next to it. This catalog currently holds 758 model-year records built on that rule, each printed in full on its floorplan’s page.
04 The tie-out rule: dry + CCC = GVWR
A manufacturer that publishes all three weights is making an arithmetic claim: the dry weight plus the cargo carrying capacity equals the GVWR. This site checks it on every plan, to the pound. A transcription error in any one of the three breaks it, which is why it is a useful test.
When a published set does not tie out, the numbers are not adjusted. Where the floorplan has a full page, the mismatch is printed beside the weights with both totals spelled out. Where the gap is bad enough that a tow figure built on it would be irresponsible, the plan gets no page: it is listed in its line's roster with the factory figures and a note saying why. There is no size threshold. A set that misses by one pound is disclosed the same way as one that misses by five hundred, because a threshold would turn a rule into a judgement call. Every such plan is listed with its arithmetic on the published-figure conflicts page.
05 “Not published” means exactly that
“Not published” on a row means no source in the hierarchy above publishes that field for that floorplan and year. It is never a placeholder for a figure this site could not find time to look up, and nothing is computed to fill it. That includes GVWR: since August 2026, a GVWR the manufacturer does not publish prints “Not published” even when dry weight and cargo capacity are both known, because adding two published numbers produces a third that nobody certified.
Each floorplan page ends with a data-completeness figure: the share of the fields this catalog tracks that a named source publishes for that plan. A low figure is not a defect in the page. It measures how much that manufacturer publishes.
06 The federal labels the pages point you to
Several pages tell you to check a label on the trailer itself. These are the federal rules behind those labels, quoted from the Code of Federal Regulations text this site keeps on file.
Certification label49 CFR 567.4
Federal rules require every trailer to carry a certification label. For trailers it must be on “the forward half of the left side”, readable from outside. It states the manufacturer, the month and year of manufacture, the GVWR, and a gross axle weight rating (GAWR) for each axle. This is the unit's own GVWR, and where it differs from a brochure figure, the label is right for that unit.
Cargo carrying capacity label49 CFR 571.110 S9.3 / 571.120 S10.4
RV trailers carry a yellow cargo-capacity label, “printed in black print on a yellow background”, inside the forward-most exterior passenger door on the right side. It states the most cargo the trailer may carry and how much of that a full fresh-water load uses, at 1 kg per litre (8.3 lb per gallon). The rule treats on-board potable water as cargo and full propane tanks as part of the unloaded weight. Which standard applies depends on the trailer's GVWR: FMVSS 110 at 10,000 lb or less, FMVSS 120 above.
Tire date code49 CFR 574.5
Every tire's identification number ends in a four-digit date code giving the week and year it was made. Pages that list tire recalls ask you to read it, because a recall covers specific production dates and only your own sidewalls tell you whether yours fall inside them.
07 Recalls and complaints
Recall campaigns are read from NHTSA's recall data file and its recall lookup, and owner complaints from NHTSA's complaint data file. A campaign or complaint is attached to a line or floorplan only where NHTSA's own record names that line and model year. Where NHTSA files a line under its parent nameplate, the page names the parent rather than claiming the record for the line. Coverage is not complete, and no page treats an empty search as a clean record: a line is described as having no recall campaign only where NHTSA’s complete recall flat file has nothing filed against its name. NHTSA’s lookup answers a name it does not index with HTTP 400 and a count of zero; that is read as “not in the index”, never as a clean record. Tire recalls are matched on the exact tire size the page publishes. The page cannot know which tire brand a unit was built with, so it says so. Some matches rest on the wording of a recall rather than its model field, and those are labelled where they appear. Campaigns that affect only units built before 2005 fall outside this catalogue’s range and are not listed. Several trailer lines share a name with a motor home (Winnebago’s Access, Minnie and Voyage among them). A campaign or complaint whose own NHTSA record describes a motor home and never a trailer is not counted against the trailer line, and the line’s recall history page says how many were set aside. Complaints come from NHTSA's complete complaint file, and every count on this site covers model years 2005 on. They are owners' own reports, which NHTSA does not verify, and they are self-selected: a high count tracks how many units a line sold at least as much as how well it was built.
08 Hitch and tongue weights
Every hitch, tongue and pin weight on this site is the manufacturer's published figure
It is called dry only where the maker labels it dry: 439 of the 1,324 figures in the tow blocks are, and the rest are printed as a plain hitch weight. Loaded tongue weight, with water, batteries and gear aboard, runs higher either way. Sizing a tow vehicle against the published number is the most common and most consequential towing mistake, which is why the tow block on each floorplan page leads with loaded weight.
The tow block on 1324 floorplan pages (1001 travel trailers, 323 fifth wheels) works from the plan's GVWR, the loaded ceiling. Its loaded hitch range applies a common rule of thumb: 10–15% of the trailer's weight on the tongue for a travel trailer, 15–25% on the pin for a fifth wheel. That band is not a federal or SAE standard and not a measurement of any unit. No primary source this site has read states it. NHTSA's towing guide gives no percentage; it says manufacturers specify tongue weight from the trailer's loaded weight, and that too little tongue weight can cause sway.
Hitch class is named only as a description, never as a rating. The rating that counts is the one stamped on your own hitch. No page on this site gives a tow rating for a named vehicle. One truck model spans thousands of pounds of capability across engine, axle ratio, cab and package, and the binding figures are on your own door-jamb placard.
09 What is deliberately not published
- Ratings and reviews. No star scores, no aggregate ratings. There is no honest way to produce them across a catalog this size.
- Availability and offers. This site sells nothing, so no page claims a unit is in stock or available at a price.
- Fields the manufacturer withholds. Tire size, axle ratings and interior height are published unevenly across the industry. Where a line does not publish one, the row says so.
10 How this is enforced
The standard is a build gate, not a promise. Pages are generated from verified per-line records, and the whole tree must pass a 23-check validation run before anything ships. The checks cover unreplaced template text, document structure, structured data, internal links, flagged-field notes, canonical URLs, and the scripts that publish the catalog's counts. A run that fails any check does not ship.
11 Sources
The documents this page relies on. Each one was fetched and read; the federal texts are kept on file so the wording quoted above can be checked against them on every build.
- 49 CFR 567.4, Requirements for manufacturers of motor vehicles (certification label). Where a trailer's certification label sits and what it states: GVWR, GAWR, month and year of manufacture.
- 49 CFR 571.110, FMVSS 110 (S9.3, RV load carrying capacity labels). The yellow cargo-capacity label on RV trailers with a GVWR of 10,000 lb or less, the fresh-water weight it states, and where it is fixed.
- 49 CFR 571.120, FMVSS 120 (S10.4, RV load carrying capacity labels). The same label rules for RV trailers with a GVWR above 10,000 lb.
- 49 CFR 574.5, Tire identification requirements. The four-digit tire date code (week and year of manufacture).
- NHTSA, Towing a Trailer: Being Equipped for Safety, DOT HS 809 433 (New York State DMNA copy). Tongue weight is specified from the trailer's loaded weight, and too little of it can cause sway. It gives no percentage band.
- NHTSA recall data file (RCL). Recall campaigns, matched to lines and floorplans by make, model and model year, and tire recalls by size.
- NHTSA complaint data file (FLAT_CMPL). Owner complaints filed with NHTSA, matched the same way.
- Jayco brochure index. An example of a manufacturer's own year-by-year brochure archive used as a source of record.
- RVUSA brochure library (example: 2025 Winnebago Voyage brochure). Copies of factory brochures by year, make and line, used where the factory page for that year is gone.