Vehicle Studio guide

How to Add a Tow Hitch to a FiveM Car (Real Towing)

To add a tow hitch to a FiveM car that really tows, the car needs two things: a hitch model on the rear, and a tow point that GTA can hook a trailer to, with the trailer types listed in vehicles.meta. The FiveMRides Vehicle Studio builds both in one step: pick a hitch, press Auto place, build, and your car tows a boat trailer or a small trailer in game.

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.

Why a hitch model alone does not tow

A hitch that is only a 3D part is decoration. GTA decides whether a trailer can attach from the vehicle’s skeleton and its metadata, not from what the rear bumper looks like. A towing car has a bone where the trailer couples, and its vehicles.meta entry lists the trailer models it accepts. Without those, the trailer drives through the car or never hooks.

The full background (bones, natives, vanilla trailers) is in GTA 5 trailers explained. The short version is what the build does for you:

• It adds a bone named attach_female at the ball, the same name the vanilla towing cars use.
• It adds boattrailer and trailersmall to the car’s trailers list, and trailersmall2 to its additional trailers list, and keeps any entries the car already had.
• It adds a small client script, fmr_hitch.lua, with /hitch and a rebindable key.

The 8 hitch models

All eight are original models made for this tool. The ball comes in three sizes, 1-7/8 in, 2 in and 2-5/16 in. Drop or rise is adjustable from -10 cm to +15 cm on the receiver and the drop ball (-5 to +10 cm on the pintle), and there are finishes such as black powder coat, chrome, steel, carbon, paint and any custom colour.

How do I add a tow hitch to a FiveM car?

1. Open the Vehicle Studio. Upload your car and open the Hitch tool in the left rail.
2. Pick a hitch. Choose one of the 8 models. For towing, take the receiver and ball, the drop ball or the pintle.
3. Auto place. Press Auto place and the hitch lands under the rear bumper on the centre line. Adjust position, rotation or scale with the gizmo if needed.
4. Set the details. Choose the ball size, the drop or rise, the cover and the finish, and leave Tow trailers in game on.
5. Choose how it is fitted. Keep it as a fixed part, put it on an extra slot players can toggle, or make it a tuning shop part.
6. Build and install. Download the resource, add it to your server and test with a trailer.

Fixed part, extra or tuning shop part

• Fixed part: always on the car. Simplest for a work truck.
• Extra slot: the hitch is an extra (1 to 12) that players switch on and off from the vehicle menu, so a car can be clean or ready to tow.
• Tuning shop part: the hitch becomes an option in a tuning shop slot, with a name you choose. The tuning option and the tow point are built together.

A car carries at most 2 hitch items and only one of them can be the towing one.

Towing in game

Back the car up to the trailer’s tongue. When the tow point and the trailer’s coupler are close, GTA hooks the trailer. If reversing precisely is fiddly, the resource also registers /hitch (key U, rebindable): it attaches the trailer coupler that is within a few metres and detaches it 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 can still pivot.

The command /attelage_info prints what the script finds around the car, which is useful when you debug.

We saw the automatic hook in game with the small utility trailer (trailersmall) on a 6×6 pickup and with the anti-aircraft trailer (trailersmall2) on a sedan. We have not tested every trailer model, every car or GTA V Enhanced.

Trailer will not attach? Check this

1. Is the hitch a towing model? Bike rack, cargo tray, step and LED cover do not tow.
2. Is the trailer in the list? The car accepts boattrailer, trailersmall and trailersmall2. Other trailer models need their own entry in the car’s metadata.
3. Height. The tow point is at the ball. A very low or very high ball can miss the trailer’s coupler. Edit the drop or rise and rebuild.
4. Use /hitch. Stand close, face the trailer and use the command to rule out a reversing problem.
5. Another script. A trailer or attach script on your server can fight the native hook. Test on a clean server first.

Limits

• One vehicle per upload.
• Cars whose skeleton repeats bone names (for example a second taillight_l.001) can fail a parts build.
• Trailers may tilt a little depending on ball height.

FiveM tow hitch questions

How do I add a tow hitch to a FiveM car?

Open the Hitch tool in the FiveMRides Vehicle Studio, upload the car, choose a receiver and ball, a drop ball or a pintle, press Auto place, then build and install the resource. The build adds the tow point and the trailer entries.

Does the tow hitch cost credits?

The hitch tool is free. A hitch-only build has no debadge charge.

Can the car really tow a trailer in FiveM?

Yes. The build adds the GTA tow point and lists boattrailer, trailersmall and trailersmall2 in the car’s vehicles.meta, and we saw trailers hook and follow in game.

Which trailers can it tow?

boattrailer, trailersmall and trailersmall2 are listed by default. Other trailer types would need extra entries in the car’s metadata.

What is attach_female on a car?

It is the bone where GTA couples a trailer to a towing car. Vanilla towing cars such as the Sadler have it, and trailers carry the matching attach_male bone.

What do /hitch and the U key do?

They attach the trailer coupler within a few metres to the car’s tow point, and detach it when used again. The key can be rebound.

Can I make the hitch a tuning option?

Yes. You can build it as a fixed part, an extra players toggle, or a tuning shop part with its own name.