
A container trailer hauled by a Packer in Grand Theft Auto V.
A trailer is an unpowered vehicle towed by another vehicle, often used to transport goods. Trailers have appeared throughout the Grand Theft Auto series in a variety of designs.
Trailers in the majority of the GTA series appear as static props rather than controllable or otherwise usable vehicles, however certain games such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V include towable trailers in a variety of designs.
In all games they appear in, towable trailers can be attached and detached from a parent vehicle if it has the ability to tow said trailer. Certain trailers can only be towed by certain vehicles. Towable trailers are considered vehicles within their own right, and as such, share many of the properties with drivable vehicles, such as the ability to be damaged and eventually destroyed. In earlier GTA games, trailers cannot be detached with a specific control and can only be disconnected when jackknifing or rolling over the vehicle. Upon connecting towable trailers to a vehicle, the player's camera (be it top-down or third-person perspective) will automatically adjust to best accommodate both vehicles within view, sometimes resulting in somewhat drastically high or distance camera positions.
2D Universe[]

A Truck Cab SX towing a Transporter in Grand Theft Auto 2. A Z-Type is mounted on the trailer.
The Tanker truck in Grand Theft Auto assumes the design of a tractor unit with a connected tractor trailer. The trailer itself is not a separate vehicle and, as such, does not articulate with the cab itself.
Grand Theft Auto 2 is the first game in the series to include towable trailers. The game includes two towable trailers: the Container trailer and the Transporter trailer. A third trailer also exists in the game's files, but is not used in-game. All towable trailers can be attached to and pulled by the Truck Cab and Truck Cab SX.
Cars can be placed on the back of the Transporter trailer using Cranes.
As expected from larger trailers, the parent vehicle's acceleration and overall top speed is severely impacted when pulling a trailer, as is the steering responsiveness and the ability to reverse.
All towable trailers can be attached to a tractor unit by reversing up to them. Once the tractor's third wheel aligns with the trailer's coupler, the trailer will be connected. Trailers can only be detached by jackknifing the vehicle.
3D Universe[]

A Tanker with a Petrol Truck trailer attached in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
A huge variety of towable trailers make an appearance in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Alongside traditional tractor trailers such as the Articulated Trailer and Petrol Truck, a variety of smaller utilitarian trailers are also added, including the Farm Trailer. Each trailer can only be towed by specific parent vehicles, for example, the aforementioned Farm Trailer can only be connected to and pulled by the Tractor.

A Baggage Handler towing multiple airport-related trailers in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Each trailer can be attached to another trailer if it bears both a female and a male coupling.
GTA San Andreas also includes numerous airport trailers which have a towing ability themselves, allowing players to attach multiple trailers together. These can only be pulled by the Baggage Handler. GTA San Andreas remains the only game to include this feature.
Like GTA 2, towable trailers can be attached to a parent vehicle by reversing up to them, but cannot be detached without jackknifing or rolling over the vehicle.
Alongside towable trailers, a variety of static prop trailers appear around the map in almost all games within the 3D Universe. These cannot be connected to a parent vehicle and merely serve as set dressing props.
HD Universe[]

One of many static trailers appearing in Grand Theft Auto IV. It is the only game in the HD Universe not to feature towable trailers in some form.
As with previous titles, a variety of static prop trailers are found around Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV. The game's only tractor unit, the Phantom, is often found nearby, despite not being able to tow said props.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars includes a partially-functional trailer in the form of the Tanker, returning from the 3D Universe. Similar to its design in the first GTA, the Tanker in GTA Chinatown Wars is a tractor unit with a pre-attached tractor trailer, however, unlike GTA, the trailer itself moves independently from the tractor unit itself, at least to an extent.

Like GTA San Andreas, GTA V features mixed usage of both static and towable trailers, such as these found at LSIA. The towable tanker trailer is slightly offset from the static equivalents.
Towable trailers return in Grand Theft Auto V and Online. The game features a large variety of towable trailers, big and small. The small utility trailer has the chance of spawning with props in the rear, which appear static when the trailer is towed by an NPC, but will become dynamic once driven by the player, allowing them to fall out.
For the first time in the series, trailers can spawn attached to vehicles driven by NPCs in traffic. Larger tractor trailers spawn attached to semi trucks such as the Phantom and Hauler on highways around San Andreas. Smaller trailers, such as the Boat Trailer and smaller utility trailer, can be seen hauled by pickup trucks around rural areas of the map such as Sandy Shores and Paleto Bay. Some trailers driven by NPCs may also spawn with driveable vehicles attached to them, including the car carrier trailer and the boat trailer. Such vehicles can be detached if entered (while in water in the case of the boat trailer), but cannot be securely reattached once detached.
In GTA V and GTA Online, trailers attached to vehicles can be detached by holding (Xbox) /
(PlayStation) /
(PC) while in the parent vehicle.

The Anti-Aircraft Trailer in GTA Online, one of the only weaponized and occupiable trailers in the series.
Grand Theft Auto Online introduces more trailers through content updates, including the Anti-Aircraft Trailer, the series' only fully functioning weaponized trailer. The Mobile Operations Center, added in the same update, serves as the series' only enterable trailer, complete with upgradable modules for storing vehicles, weapons and conducting missions.
Several towable trailers in GTA V and GTA Online include static versions of otherwise controllable vehicles attached to them, such as the yacht trailer (which features a static version of the Marquis) and later added Dinghy Boat Trailer (which features a static version of the Dinghy).



A Patriot Beer-branded box trailer hauled by a Phantom Custom in Grand Theft Auto VI's first trailer.
Towable trailers are seen to return in Grand Theft Auto VI. In the game's first trailer, several vehicles are depicted towing trailers, including a Phantom Custom hauling a Patriot Beer-branded box trailer, and a Bobcat XL hauling a Boat Trailer with a bow rider mounted on it. One scene depicts a lifeguard truck with a boat trailer partially submerged on Vice Beach.
Footage from the September 2022 GTA VI leaks depicts a small utility trailer with an inflatable ring being interacted with by a developer.[1] The same trailer and is seen being pulled by a Sadler in another clip.[2]
Oversights[]
- In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the Tractor shares its ability with the Towtruck to tow any vehicle, including trucks, cars and helicopters, rather than just the Farm Trailer it appears to have been designed to tow. This ability means the player can tow an endless number of Tractors with a parent Tractor.
- In the PS2 version of GTA San Andreas, taking a picture of a trailer's attachment with the Camera will detach it from the parent vehicle. This was fixed in other versions of the game.[vague]
- In Grand Theft Auto V and Online, despite trailers with rear lights correctly syncing up with the parent vehicle, lights on NPC-towed trailers are only rendered at close range[vague], appearing to pop-in once approached. This is particularly noticeable at night.
- Furthermore, turn signals do not function, despite numerous trailers including them as separate objects in the vehicle's model hierarchy.
See Also[]
- Towing - tow truck towing gameplay mechanic.
- Category:Trailers - list of trailers by type in the Grand Theft Auto series.
- Category:Trailers by style - list of trailers by style in the Grand Theft Auto series.
- Category:Vehicles with trailer towing ability - list of vehicles which can tow trailers in the Grand Theft Auto series.