2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Towing Capacities (With Charts)

The 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe had a pretty decent towing capacity attached to it and to my surprise, was able to achieve a 5,000 lb rating, according to Hyundai. That's pretty impressive, especially for a midsize SUV that is not really known for pulling heavier loads, but you did have to have the proper equipment installed on your vehicle and on your trailer in order to achieve the higher ratings that were shown in the charts.

I go into all of that information in this article to clear up any confusion that might come up when looking at the charts and the data. Let's dive In!

Your owner's manual is probably the most valuable resource you have about your vehicle and I highly recommend that you read through it and that you abide by all of Hyundai's recommendations and requirements when it comes to towing or anything else regarding your vehicle.

Overall Capacity: The overall towing capacity for the 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe ranged from 1,653-5,000 lbs. for standard models and 750-3,500 lbs. for sport models. 

The maximum trailer weight ratings were affected by three main things which were: the engine that you had equipped in your vehicle, which only applied to the sport models, whether the trailer you're pulling behind you had brakes, independent of your own vehicle's brakes and whether or not you had the trailer package installed on your vehicle that was offered from the factory.

The Tow Charts:

Below I have two different charts listed and that's because one is for the standard Hyundai Santa Fe models and then the other chart is for the sport models. Both of the charts share some similarities, such as the specifications with and without trailer brakes and separate ratings depending on if you had the trailer package equipped on your vehicle.

The maximum trailer weight ratings are very different for each chart, however, and this is mainly due to the different engine options that were available for each of the two models. If we look at the first chart, we can see that the standard models had the 3.3 liter engine, while the sport models had the 2.0 L turbo engine option, along with a 2.4 L engine option.

2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Towing Chart
2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport Towing Chart

Sport Models

Comparing The Data:

By Trim Level: I went ahead and broke down the towing capacity range according to the two different trim levels that were available for each model. For the standard models, we have the GLS and Limited trim levels and the two sport models are listed as the Sport and then the Sport 2.0. 

I basically was able to gather the capacity ranges based on what engine was offered for each trim level and as you can see, the standard models had only one engine option, so their range was identical, but for the sport model there was a slight difference in the maximum capacity ratings on the high end.

  • GLS: 1,653-5,000 lbs.
  • Limited: 1,653-5,000 lbs.
  • Sport: 750-1,588 lbs.
  • Sport 2.0: 750-1,270 lbs.

By Engine Options: I went ahead and also broke down the capacities according to what engine options were available and even though there wasn't a lot of information, you can clearly see the differences in the two different sport model engine options. This is how I gathered my information above (by trim level).

  • 3.3L (V6): 1,653-5,000 lbs.
  • 2.4L (4 cylinder) Sport Model: 750-1,588
  • 2.0L (4 cylinder) Sport Model: 750-1,270

Other Important Information...

Just like a lot of the other late model Santa Fe's, there was additional information that I found in the resources I used for this article that talk about trailer brakes and about the tongue load weight rating that you should be aiming for with your trailer.

The manual doesn't really go into specifics about trailer brakes and all I was able to find was this little excerpt that I have listed below that basically just stays that the trailer brakes need to be installed properly and that they must comply with Federal and local regulations and that's about it.

If we look at the top of the chart though, it does give us the unbraked trailer weight ratings which were 1,653 pounds for standard models and then 750 pounds for sport models.

The maximum tongue load weight rating that should be on your vehicle should be about 10% of the trailer's overall weight. If we look back on the charts I have posted at the top of this article, we can see the maximum tongue load weight ratings that are listed at the bottom row of the charts, which is also 10% of the maximum trailer weight rating. So always shoot for a 10% tongue load weight on your vehicle to stay on the safe side.

Hyundai Trailer Brakes Note
Hyundai Tongue Load

A Few Helpful Links:

I went ahead and posted the links of the resources I used to gather the information for the 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe's and I highly recommend that you check those resources out because they are chalked full of tons of information about your vehicle.

Most of the information in this article came directly from the owner's manual itself, but the brochure provided a little bit more detailed view on the different trim levels and what was equipped with those trim levels.

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