How Much Can a Toyota Highlander Tow? 5,000 lb, or 1,000 Unbraked

U-Haul's 5x9 utility trailer with a ramp weighs 1,240 lb empty. That is the figure on U-Haul's own equipment page, and it describes the trailer standing in the lot with nothing on it. Toyota rates a 2026 Highlander at 1,000 lb without trailer brakes, and U-Haul fits brakes to nothing smaller than its 6x12, so the cheapest and most obvious rental in the row is already 240 lb outside a Highlander's unbraked rating before the ramp comes down.

The braked figure is the one everybody quotes, and it is real: 5,000 lb on every 2026 gas grade, 3,500 lb on every hybrid. The person handing over the trailer is checking neither one. U-Haul's published requirement for a tow vehicle contains no tow rating at all. It reads curb weight, which is the one quantity on this vehicle that moves the opposite way from the rating.

How much can a Toyota Highlander tow?

Toyota rates the 2026 gas Highlander at 5,000 lb and the 2026 hybrid at 3,500 lb, and the grade you bought moves neither figure. Powertrain is the only axis with any towing consequence for this model year. All-wheel drive became standard across the whole lineup for 2026, the front-drive gas cars and the LE grade are gone, and the gas range is XLE, XSE, Limited and Platinum while the hybrid range is XLE, Limited and Platinum.

Page 187 of the 2026 gas owner's manual and Toyota's 2026 Product Information sheet agree on all of it: 5,000 lb of trailer, 1,000 lb without trailer brakes, a gross combined weight rating of 10,600 lb, and an SAE J2807 footnote under all three. The hybrid's 3,500 lb and 6,000 lb are from its own Product Information sheet and Toyota's September 5, 2025 press release. The hybrid runs on a separate owner's manual, so its unbraked figure and its combined rating belong to that book rather than to this one.

Conditions sit underneath the braked number, all of them in the gas manual. Trailer service brakes are required above the 1,000 lb unbraked rating, a sway control device with sufficient capacity above 2,000 lb of gross trailer weight, and two or more trailer axles are recommended above 3,000 lb. A weight distributing hitch is required above 5,000 lb, which is exactly where the gas rating stops, so no 2026 Highlander reaches that one. Where the Highlander's 5,000 lb lands against other three-row vehicles is a job for the towing capacity chart.

There is no tow package to look for on a 2026 order sheet. Neither Product Information sheet lists one, and the only towing line on either is a single maximum towing row. The manual treats the hitch as an accessory: if you wish to install a trailer hitch, contact your Toyota dealer. Toyota's genuine part is a Class III 2-inch receiver, PT228-48200, with PT228-48211 as the version bundled with the harness.

Can a Highlander tow a U-Haul trailer?

Yes, up to a point U-Haul sets with its own arithmetic rather than with Toyota's rating. U-Haul describes the counter process plainly: during the reservation you enter your towing vehicle information, and its towing validation system recommends compatible trailers and shows how much cargo weight your specific vehicle and trailer combination can safely handle. Then it asks you to check your vehicle owner's manual and towing specifications to confirm compatibility.

The rule that system applies is published on U-Haul's master trailer instructions page, in two sentences. For occasional towing, a properly equipped vehicle can tow any recommended U-Haul trailer if the loaded weight of the trailer does not exceed the vehicle's curb weight. And it can tow any U-Haul trailer with brakes provided the curb weight of the tow vehicle is at least 80% of the loaded weight of the braked trailer. Six of the twelve pieces of equipment list an automatic hydraulic surge brake; the six lighter ones list no brake system at all.

Here is the lot as U-Haul publishes it, read against one 2026 gas Limited at 4,453 lb of curb weight.

The top three clear the counter's rule with room to spare and run into Toyota's instead. A 5x8 utility trailer weighs 1,000 lb empty, which is the entire unbraked rating with nothing on the deck, and the 5x9 with a ramp is 240 lb past it in the same state. Loaded anywhere near their own capacities, every unbraked trailer in that list is well outside what a Highlander is rated to pull without brakes on the trailer.

That leaves the 6x12, where the counter's rule does the deciding and the two documents stop agreeing about which Highlander is the better tow vehicle.

Read the two right-hand columns together. The hybrid Limited is rated 1,500 lb lower than the gas XLE and clears the counter's strict rule by 195 lb, while the gas XLE misses it by 24. On Toyota's side of the same pairing the order is the other way around: the gas car has 600 lb of unused rating behind that trailer and the hybrid is 900 lb past its own. Two published rules, one nameplate, and the lineup sorts into opposite orders depending on which desk is asking.

The gas XLE is also the one grade where U-Haul's two documents disagree with each other. Both 4,400 lb 6x12s carry surge brakes, so the 80% allowance applies, and 4,376 lb of curb weight permits a braked trailer of 5,470 lb, which clears the 6x12 by 1,070 lb. Under the strict sentence printed on every equipment page, curb weight of the vehicle must exceed the weight of the loaded trailer, the same car misses by 24.

Why is the tow capacity lower than the curb weight?

Because a tow rating and a curb weight measure different things, and on a hybrid Highlander they point in opposite directions. A trailer weight rating describes what the driveline, brakes and cooling were tested to pull, with a base vehicle, one driver and one front passenger assumed. Curb weight describes what the vehicle itself weighs standing empty. Nothing requires the two to move together, and here they do not: a hybrid Limited weighs 142 lb more than the gas Limited and 219 lb more than the gas XLE, while its rating sits 1,500 lb lower.

The 2026 model-year change reads both ways for the same reason. Making all-wheel drive standard on gas models added weight and left the ratings alone: a 2025 front-drive XLE was 4,199 lb against this year's 4,376 lb, and a 2025 front-drive Limited was 4,265 lb against this year's 4,453 lb. GVWR rose from 5,870 to 5,970 lb for those grades, covering 100 lb of it. At a rental counter the same 188 lb moves a Limited from 135 lb short of the 4,400 lb 6x12 to 53 lb clear of it. What costs carrying room buys eligibility.

One trap sits on Toyota's own paperwork, because the wrong number is printed first. The 2026 gas Product Information sheet still carries a Curb Weight (FWD/AWD) header and still prints 4,199 lb for the XLE and 4,265 lb for the Limited, carry-over rows for a drivetrain no 2026 gas Highlander has. The all-wheel-drive figure is the one that describes a car you can order.

For a hybrid owner reading the same 6x12 booking, put the hybrid Limited's published figures against that trailer and Can I Tow It? returns caution (careful). The towing comparison is what produces it: at the trailer's full 4,400 lb the hybrid is 899 lb past its rating, so roughly 900 lb of that trailer's own load capacity is locked out and about 1,581 lb of it stays usable, while the vehicle-weight comparison clears by 966 lb. The counter's rule and Toyota's rule are both satisfiable here, but only by not filling the trailer.

Which limit stops a Highlander first?

On the biggest box trailer U-Haul rents, the counter's own rule, by more than a factor of ten. Take one pairing all the way through: a gas Limited at 4,453 lb, a 6x12 cargo trailer loaded to its published 4,400 lb maximum, and the tongue packed at 10% of that, which is 440 lb and sits in the middle of Toyota's 9% to 11% instruction.

Toyota's tightest check leaves 600 lb. The rental company's strict rule leaves 53.

Toyota's combined rating takes back something the other two figures appear to grant. GVWR is 5,970 lb and the trailer rating is 5,000 lb, which add up to 10,970 lb against a published GCWR of 10,600 lb. The 370 lb gap means a gas Highlander towing at its full rating may only be loaded to 5,600 lb rather than to its own GVWR, which leaves 1,147 lb on a Limited for occupants, cargo and tongue weight together, and 1,224 lb on an XLE. Neither figure is printed anywhere. Both fall out of two numbers Toyota does print.

One requirement in the manual has nowhere to land on a rental. Toyota asks for a sway control device with sufficient capacity above 2,000 lb of gross trailer weight, and the 6x12 cargo trailer weighs 1,920 lb before anything goes in it. U-Haul's master instructions state that weight distributing or sway control devices are not used for towing U-Haul trailers. What every gas Highlander does ship with is Trailer Sway Control, part of the vehicle stability control system rather than a device with a rating of its own, inoperative if that system is switched off or has a fault, and described by Toyota as not able to reduce trailer sway in all situations. The gap between a rig that is inside every weight and a rig that behaves is worked through on the Jeep Wrangler page.

What both companies ask you to check before you pull out

The two lists agree on almost everything, and they differ on the two items that decide how the drive feels: speed, and where the load sits in the trailer. Toyota's before-towing list, from pages 182 and 183 of the 2026 manual, runs like this.

• Set the vehicle's tire pressures, and set the trailer's tires to the trailer maker's figure.
• Check that every trailer light works, and check them again each time the trailer is reconnected.
• Match the ball height to the coupler, and confirm the trailer sits level once it is hitched.
• Secure the cargo, and fit mirrors that comply with the rules where you are driving.
• Stop after a short distance and re-check the lights, the tires and the connections.

Four more items come from elsewhere in the same book. No towing at all for the first 500 miles of a new Highlander, then below 50 mph and no full throttle for the next 500. Retighten the hitch ball and its bracket bolts after about 600 miles of towing. No towing while the compact spare is fitted, which bites on the tire types that ship a T165/90D18 rather than the full-size 235/65R18. And a list of driver-assistance systems to switch off while towing, including full-speed-range radar cruise, lane tracing, the pre-collision system, blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert.

One item there is specific to this vehicle and easy to be caught by. Toyota current-limits the trailer light circuits and cuts them automatically when the limit is passed: 4.5 A on the tail lights, 7.8 A on the right stop and turn circuit, 4.5 A on the left. When the cut-off fires the light stays dark until the relevant switch is turned off and back on, and if that does not restore it the manual sends you to a dealer. U-Haul's own rule is that tow vehicle and trailer lighting must be operational at all times, day and night.

U-Haul's list adds four items Toyota's does not, and the last of them turns out to be the same instruction from the other direction. Maximum recommended speed is 55 mph. Load 60% of the cargo weight in the front half of the trailer box, where Toyota asks for a tongue at 9% to 11% of the total. Never use a tow vehicle other than the one listed on the rental contract. And the hitch system is only as strong as its lowest-rated component, which is Toyota's instruction from the other side: the hitch assembly has its own rating, and even though the vehicle may be physically capable of towing a higher weight, the operator must determine the maximum weight rating of the particular hitch assembly. Neither company publishes a gross trailer weight for the Toyota accessory receiver, so that number lives on the labels stamped into the hitch, the ball and the ball mount, and reading those three is a two-minute job at the back of the car.

Everything above has a label, a switch or a printed figure behind it. The weight of the Highlander with the family, the bags and 440 lb of tongue in it does not, and it is the quantity both rule sets are quietly built on. Take the Limited and a fully loaded 6x12 through the check and Can I Tow It? has four comparisons to make on those published figures. It reads the loaded trailer off Toyota's 5,000 lb rating, the load off the trailer's own maximum, the Highlander plus its 440 lb of tongue off the 5,970 lb GVWR, and the coupled pair off the 10,600 lb combined rating. That pairing returns pass (well matched), with the towing comparison the tightest of the four at 88% of the rating. Toyota publishes no tongue weight in pounds for the Highlander, so there is no figure to grade the ball against and that row reads as not assessed; the 440 lb is still counted, inside the vehicle-weight comparison where it is carried. Swap in the weights of the unit you actually booked and the answer moves with them, as far as fail (no) once the trailer is heavy enough. It runs in the browser at no cost, and the app's demo rig opens the same way. In the app that readiness list belongs to a rig rather than to a morning: service, tire condition, the hitch check and the last weigh-in each sit on the sweep carrying the date they were last done, so the one nobody can remember doing is visible before the coupler goes down. That is the question worth asking out loud in the parking lot: is this rig, assembled an hour ago out of a rental yard, ready to leave?

loadmate provides decision support for towing safety, not legal weight certification. Score, compliance checks, and trip readiness are based on the data you enter and the regulator information current at the time of release. For legal weight evidence, use a certified truck scale / CAT scale. Towing remains the operator's responsibility. See /safety-disclaimer.

Can a Highlander move a car on a dolly or an auto transport?

Within limits, and which company stops you first depends on which of the two you booked. The equipment's own weight decides it: a dolly is light enough to leave the rating room and an auto transport is not.

U-Haul's dolly rule is that the tow vehicle must be at least 750 pounds heavier than the vehicle in tow, so curb weight sets the limit and the 5,000 lb rating never gets a say. The auto transport weighs 2,210 lb before a car is on it, which is 44% of the gas rating spent on the trailer alone, and there the rating binds first while U-Haul's 80% allowance is still 470 lb further out. Same driveway, same week, and the document that stops you changes with the equipment.

One more line belongs on any car-moving plan: a Highlander cannot travel on the dolly itself. The dolly's published maximum load is 4,080 lb, which every 2026 Highlander is above, and Toyota's manual states the vehicle is not designed to be dinghy towed and must never be towed with any of its wheels on the ground.

What changed for 2026, and what an older Highlander tows

The ratings did not move, and the vehicle underneath them got heavier. Toyota's September 5, 2025 release made all-wheel drive standard on gas models and simplified the grade structure; the LE grade and every front-drive gas Highlander are gone. Gas towing stayed at 5,000 lb, hybrid towing stayed at 3,500 lb, and gas GVWR settled on one figure, 5,970 lb, where 2025 had two.

The same pattern holds one step further back. The 3.5-liter V6 was dropped for the 2.4-liter turbo four for the 2023 model year and the towing figure did not change; the hybrid has been rated 3,500 lb throughout. So a used shopper reading 5,000 lb against a 2023, 2024 or 2025 gas Highlander is reading a current number, and what is worth checking on the individual car is its curb weight and its drivetrain, since front-wheel-drive gas Highlanders were sold through 2025 and weigh roughly 180 lb less.

One campaign is worth a VIN lookup on a used car. NHTSA returns no recall campaigns at all for a 2026 Highlander as of August 7, 2026. It does list campaign 25V872000, reported December 17, 2025, covering 2024 and 2025 Highlander and Highlander Hybrid vehicles whose third-row center seat belt roof anchor was installed at an incorrect angle, with owner letters mailed January 27, 2026 and reinstallation with a new bolt as the remedy. Third-row occupants are part of the load a Highlander carries while it tows, which is reason enough to have it done before a trip.

Where your own Highlander's figures are printed

On two labels in the driver's door area, and between them they carry the numbers the manual leaves out. The certification label holds the GVWR for your specific car with the front and rear axle ratings beside it. The tire and loading information label holds the vehicle capacity weight, the combined weight of occupants and luggage the car was built to take.

That second figure is a specification rather than a subtraction, and Toyota sets it from the seat count: 1,225 lb on seven-seat Highlanders, 1,330 or 1,390 lb on the eight-seat builds depending on model code. Why a maker's printed load figure and a GVWR-minus-curb subtraction return different answers is worked through on the Toyota 4Runner page, which runs the same two Toyota definitions against each other. At a rental counter the useful part is simpler: the 440 lb on the ball comes out of the same allowance as the people and their bags, and what that trade costs is set out in tongue weight vs payload. The 165 lb roof carrier limit sits outside all of it, as its own permission.

Neither GVWR nor curb weight appears anywhere in the gas owner's manual. Both are on Toyota's 2026 Product Information sheets and both are on the car, which is why the door-frame label is the version to trust for the vehicle you actually own.

A rental tow is one morning's work: a trailer nobody had seen at breakfast, a ball somebody else fitted, a list run once. What is worth keeping afterward is the record of it, because the next time is the same morning with different equipment in it. A loadmate Pro subscription holds your own Highlander inside that record, its door-label figures, the weights you last put against it and the date each check was last done, so the readiness question arrives with something behind it rather than arriving cold.

Related guides

The concepts underneath the two rule sets are unpacked below, and the last four entries are vehicles whose answers were settled by documents of their own.

• What can I tow?: the general form of the check, for whatever else is on the driveway
• Towing capacity chart: the Highlander's two rows against the rest of the three-row field
• Towing weight ratings explained: what GVWR, GCWR and GAWR each restrain, before a rental company adds a rule of its own
• Payload vs towing capacity: the 1,147 lb a gas Limited has left at a full trailer
• Tongue weight vs payload: where the 440 lb on the ball is charged, and how often
• Weigh a travel trailer at a CAT scale: how to replace a published trailer weight with a measured one
• How to read a CAT scale ticket: what the axle lines say about the back of the car
• How much can a Toyota 4Runner tow?: the other Toyota whose door label reads a specification instead of a subtraction
• How much can a Honda Pilot tow?: a three-row rival rated seat count by seat count
• How much can a Ford Explorer tow?: where recalls and a road-check list build the pre-trip list
• How much can a Jeep Gladiator tow?: where U-Haul's configuration requirements land, on a truck whose owner changes its configuration in a driveway