Trailer brake laws by state

Nothing is sent anywhere. Each threshold is quoted from the state's own code, or from a state agency or archive that publishes the same text, and every row names the section and links to where it was read. Where a state's code could not be read at all, the row says so.

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There is no national number

The rule most pages quote is 49 CFR 393.42, which requires brakes on a trailer over 3,000 pounds. It is real, and it does not apply to a personal RV: it sits in the part of the federal rules that governs commercial motor vehicles, which is defined by weight and by interstate commerce, and a travel trailer behind a pickup is neither. What binds a private trailer is the equipment law of the state it is registered and towed in.

Those laws do not cluster around 3,000 pounds. California draws its lowest line at 1,500 pounds. Idaho's threshold is unladen weight, so the trailer trips it empty. Ohio's is empty weight too, at 2,000 pounds. North Dakota has no weight threshold at all and triggers on speed instead. Oregon, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming and Missouri set no trailer weight threshold in their own codes, and use a stopping-distance standard or say nothing on the subject. Any of those states can still require brakes on a trailer you own, through a performance standard, a manufacturer's equipment, or a rule this table has not read yet.

Two shapes of wording mean the same thing and read differently. Some states state a requirement: a trailer at or above this weight shall have brakes. Others state an exception: a trailer at or below this weight need not. Where a state attaches a condition, most often that the trailer's weight stay within some percentage of the tow vehicle's, the row says so, because the condition is what decides the answer for a light trailer behind a light truck.

Every state read so far

Sorted by name. Each threshold is quoted from the section beside it, which links to the state's own site.

What this does not cover yet

Every state and the District of Columbia has a row above except one. Mississippi is missing because its code could not be read: the Legislature publishes only bills, the official publisher's free portal serves no text to anything but a browser, and no Mississippi state agency page restates the section. Its threshold is not printed here on a third party's word. A guessed number is the one failure that matters on this page, because a limit that is too high tells somebody to tow without brakes.

Some rows are read with a caveat, and each of those says so where it sits rather than in a footnote. California's code site refuses automated reads, so its row carries the section and the threshold without a quotation. Texas, Georgia and Tennessee publish their codes through a JavaScript application, an unpublished section and an anti-bot wall, so those three are quoted from the state agency that restates the same section, and the row names the agency. Utah adopts the federal braking standards by administrative rule, which is where a breakaway requirement would sit, and that rule could not be read from the state's own site, so its row says nothing about breakaway rather than assuming the federal text applies. New Jersey and the District of Columbia serve their codes through viewers that return no text, so those rows are quoted from each jurisdiction's own published archive instead.

The rest of the job

Knowing the threshold is the first half. The second is whether the brakes you already have are doing anything, and that has a ten-second answer at walking pace: squeeze the controller's manual override and see whether the trailer pulls back against the truck. If nothing happens, the tow vehicle is doing all of the braking. The full procedure, the breakaway test and how the gain is set are in the trailer brake guide. The trailer's weight against the tow vehicle's ratings is the weight calculator's question. If towing is new, the first-timer's walkthrough covers the systems in order.

Sources

Every threshold on this page is quoted from the state's own vehicle code, and the section is named in the row it belongs to with a link to the state's site. Nothing here comes from an aggregator, a law firm's summary, or another RV site. Where a state's code could not be read directly, the row says so rather than being filled in from a secondary source.

By OriginRV. Last reviewed on Nov 2, 2026.