Reference · The truck
How to read a truck
A nameplate is not a rating. Year, cab, bed, engine, axle, drivetrain, package, and hitch each change the number.
Shoppers ask what an F-150 can tow. The chart answers a narrower question: what one configuration of one model year can tow, with one hitch, under the test the manufacturer published. A different cab in the next column can be thousands of pounds lower.
This guide keeps a page for every model year a nameplate was sold in the published range. A number appears only when a source names that year. A blank year stays blank. The nearest cited year is linked, and its figure is not copied across.
Generation tells you the body and the engineering era. It does not tell you the rating. A 2010 F-150 and a 2014 F-150 can share a generation and still need their own charts.