< 34 ft. diesel pusher unbalanced?
Several salesmen "informed" me that few diesel pushers under 34 ft. are made on an unmodified chassis, because the required overhang/rear weight results in an unbalanced coach and poor handling. Is t...
Forum Discussion
DeWat wrote:
I remember being told of a formula "back when". What I was told is that for ease of handling, you want to stay away from coaches whose wheelbase is less than 53% of the coach length. With that said, AND if the statement is accurate, then you would want a 32 foot coach (384 inches) to have a wheelbase greater than 203 inches to avoid potential handling problems. Again, something I was told but can't personally verify.
DeWat has just about got it. Basically, you want the wheelbase to be 50% or greater than the overall length of the coach. As an example, I'm looking into a 42 foot coach. It has an overall length of 43 feet with a wheelbase of 296 inches. When we calculate this out the 43 feet is equal to 516 inches so we take the WB/Overall length 296/516 = 57%. This tells us that the WB is 57% of the coach and will provide for really good handling characteristics.
-paul
