The 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe actually surprised me when it came to their maximum towing capacity, as it topped out at 5,000 pounds for standard models and 3,500 pounds for sport models. Keep in mind, that you had to have the right equipment installed on your vehicle in order to achieve these higher ratings, as some models were only able to achieve a mere 1,653 pound rating if they were not properly equipped.
I recommend that you read through your owner's manual, as it contains a lot of information about your Santa Fe. Also, be sure to adhere to all of Hyundai's recommendations and requirements.
Overall Capacity: The overall towing capacity for the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe ranged from 1,653-5,000 lbs., depending on the model you had (standard or sport model), the engine you had equipped, whether you had a trailer package installed on your vehicle and whether the trailer you were using had its own brakes.
The Two Charts (Standard and Sport Models):
If you look down below, you can see two different charts that I have listed and this was due to the fact that there were two different models of Santa Fe's and they each had different specs when it came to their maximum trailer weight ratings because of the different engine options that were available.
The first chart I have listed below is for the standard models and then the chart below that one is for the Sport models. The information in the charts is pretty much identical, with the exception of the different engine options.
Even the maximum trailer weight ratings were similar for both charts except for the highest capacity ratings, which the standard models had an advantage, able to achieve a maximum rating of up to 5000 pounds, if your vehicle was properly equipped.
Sport Models
Let's Compare The Data...
By Trim Level: In this section, I wanted to compare the different trim levels that were available and see if there was any difference in their maximum trailer weight ratings according to the different turn level options.
All I did to gather the data was take the engine that was available for each trim level and then use that data in the above charts to get the range for the specific trim levels. The first two trim levels I have listed are for the standard models and then the last two models are for the sport models.
- GLS: 1,653-5,000 lbs.
- Limited: 1,653-5,000 lbs.
- Sport: 1,653-2,800 lbs.
- Sport 2.0: 1,653-3,500 lbs.
By Engine Options: I went ahead and did the same kind of comparison for the different engine options, which really lays out how capable each engine was when it came to these model year vehicle's towing capacity ratings.
- 3.3L (V6): 1,653-5,000 lbs.
- 2.4L (4 cylinder) Sport Model: 1,653-2,800 lbs.
- 2.0L (4 cylinder) Sport Model: 1,653-3,500 lbs.
Other Essential Information...
There were also a couple of other essential pieces of information that I came across while browsing through some of the resources and these are notes on two specific topics which are trailer brakes and trailer tongue load weight ratings.
The note on trailer brakes is pretty general in nature and there was really not much information for these vehicles when it came to trailer brakes, other than the unbraked trailer weights that were provided in the charts above, which was 1,653 pounds, no matter if you had a standard or sport model.
I was also able to find another image that talked about the trailer tongue load weight ratings and if we look at it, we can see that Hyundai recommends a tongue load of 10% on your vehicle and they are referring to 10% of the trailer's total weight. Remember, in the charts I have posted at the top of this article, the maximum tongue load weight ratings are listed and you do not want to exceed those specifications.
Some Helpful Links You Might Like:
I always like to list my resources are used when researching my articles and for the 2013 Santa Fe, I used four different resources which are all listed below. Feel free to check these out if you have some spare time as there are tons of information listed about these vehicles and I highly recommend that you read through them.