Vehicle Studio guide

GTA 5 Trailers Explained: Attach Points and vehicles.meta

In GTA 5 a trailer hooks to a car through two bones and one metadata list. The towing vehicle has a bone called attach_female, the trailer has a bone called attach_male at its coupler, and the towing vehicle’s vehicles.meta entry lists which trailer models it accepts in trailers and additionalTrailers. This guide explains each part and how to check them on your own cars.

By FiveMRides. Updated November 2, 2026. Tested in game on FiveM with a sedan and a 6×6 pickup. Other cars, other servers and GTA V Enhanced have not been tested.

The two attach bones

A vehicle model in GTA has a skeleton, and a few bones have special meaning to the game. For trailers there are two:

We read these from the vanilla game files while building the Vehicle Studio hitch. It is easy to get this backwards: it is the trailer that carries attach_male, and a car that also has attach_male has two trailer ends and will not hook. Our first build made exactly that mistake and the trailer never attached; the build now adds attach_female.

The vehicles.meta trailer lists

The towing vehicle’s entry in vehicles.meta names the trailers it accepts:

<trailers>
  <Item>boattrailer</Item>
  <Item>trailersmall</Item>
</trailers>
<additionalTrailers>
  <Item>trailersmall2</Item>
</additionalTrailers>

The vanilla pickups and SUVs use lists like this one. The names are model names from the trailer’s own vehicles.meta entry. When the list is empty or does not contain the trailer, you should not expect a clean hook. The Vehicle Studio build keeps any entries your car already had and appends boattrailer, trailersmall and trailersmall2.

Natives and scripts

Hooking can also be done by script. The relevant natives are:

AttachVehicleToTrailer(vehicle, trailer, radius)
DetachVehicleFromTrailer(vehicle)
IsVehicleAttachedToTrailer(vehicle)
GetVehicleTrailerVehicle(vehicle)

Check each native’s current documentation before you rely on it, since argument details have a history of being corrected. The resource built by the Vehicle Studio uses these natives in fmr_hitch.lua: /hitch (key U) looks for a trailer’s coupler within a few metres and attaches it to the car’s tow point, and detaches on the second use. If the native hook does not take, the script falls back to a physical joint between the two points so the trailer still pivots.

Why a trailer does not attach

1. No tow bone. A custom car without attach_female has nothing to hook.
2. Bone on the wrong vehicle. attach_male on the car is the classic mistake.
3. Trailer not listed. The trailer’s model name is missing from trailers and additionalTrailers.
4. Wrong height. The two points have to meet. A car with a coupler far above or below the trailer’s tongue will miss.
5. Metadata load order. Another resource that overrides your vehicle’s vehicles.meta entry wins. Make sure the right file is the one the game reads.

The /attelage_info command of the resource prints what the script finds around the car, which helps with the first four.

How to check a car yourself

1. Open the model. Open the car’s .yft in a model tool such as CodeWalker or Blender with Sollumz.
2. Look for the bone. Search the skeleton for attach_female. A car that tows should have it near the rear bumper.
3. Check vehicles.meta. Find the car’s entry and look for the trailers and additionalTrailers lists.
4. Test in game. Spawn the car and a trailer, reverse until the points meet, or use a script that calls the attach native.
5. Or skip the manual work. Upload the car to the Vehicle Studio, add a hitch with Tow trailers in game on and build.

What the Vehicle Studio adds for you

The Hitch tool places one of eight original hitch models, then on build adds attach_female at the ball, the trailer lists in vehicles.meta and the fmr_hitch.lua helper. We saw trailers hook and follow in game with a sedan and a 6×6 pickup. We have not tested every trailer model, every car, or GTA V Enhanced. See the step by step guide How to add a tow hitch to any FiveM car.

Vanilla trailers you can test with

The big semi trailers are made for tractor units with a fifth wheel, not for a pickup, so test with the small ones first. Remember that a trailer that hooks is not always a trailer you want to tow: weight and handling are a server design choice, and a car that tows well in a test can feel different once the trailer is loaded with props.

If you are adding towing to a pack of cars, do it per model: the tow point height, the ball size and the trailer list should match the vehicle. A lifted pickup needs a higher ball than a sedan, and the drop or rise setting of the hitch is there for that.

GTA 5 trailer questions

What is attach_female in GTA 5?

It is the bone on a towing vehicle where a trailer couples. Vanilla towing cars such as the Sadler and the Bison have it near the rear edge.

What is attach_male in GTA 5?

It is the bone at the coupler of a trailer. Every vanilla trailer, such as boattrailer and trailersmall, carries it.

What do the trailers lists in vehicles.meta do?

They name the trailer models a vehicle accepts. The towing vehicle’s entry has a trailers list and an additionalTrailers list.

Why will my trailer not hook to my custom car?

Usually the car has no attach_female bone, the trailer is not listed in vehicles.meta, or the points do not meet because of the height. A car with attach_male has the wrong bone.

Which native attaches a vehicle to a trailer?

AttachVehicleToTrailer attaches a vehicle to a trailer within a radius, and DetachVehicleFromTrailer releases it. Check the native documentation for the current argument details.

Can I add a tow hitch to a car without Blender?

Yes. The Hitch tool in the FiveMRides Vehicle Studio adds a hitch model, the tow bone and the trailer entries, and it is free.