8,000# hitch on new E-450 Chassis
It has recently come to my attention that all new Thor Motorhomes on the E-450 chassis built after 10/01/2014 come equipped standard with an 8,000 pound receiver hitch instead of the 5,000 pound hitch previously used.
Has anyone visually looked at a chassis with this new hitch on it to see if there are any other changes made to the chassis besides just bolting the new larger hitch on? And what is a 8,000# hitch anyway? I've always thought that a Class II is a 5,000# total\500# tongue hitch and a Class III is a 10,000# total\1,000# tongue weight hitch.
A little background on us, we have recently started looking for our first RV to use on long weekends, few driving vacations a year and as a tow vehicle\portable home to use to take my car to a race track a few times a year. Being able to tow an open trailer with a 3500 pound car on it is important (total weight around 5500-6000#) as well as being able to easily dry camp for 2-3 days at a time. We've gone all across the board, started looking at small class As, considered the F-550 Super Cs for a bit, leaned toward the B+s and now since this latest hitch revelation has surfaced are now looking at Class Cs again as well as small Class As.
It's just the two of us, no kids, 2 small dogs, brand new RVers, walk around bed is important, opposing dinette and couch floor plan preferable, driver and passenger seat swivels help increase living space, being rated to tow 6,000-7,000 pounds comfortably is important, fitting under an 11"11" door to my building would also be a plus.
We have found many RVs that fit all of the above requirements but have that 5,000# hitch on the E-450 Chassis even though the GCVW has room to tow 7,500 pounds. Being able to adapt an 8,000# hitch on any of the other E-450 chassis would really open up our possibilities. Or if more of the other manufacturers also start putting the 8,000# hitches on their E-450 chassis soon that would also work (ie Coachmen Concord).
Interested in any and all comments that may help steer us down the proper path here. I'm not looking to step way over any lines here but at the same time am not afraid to modify things just a bit to fit my needs if applicable.
Has anyone visually looked at a chassis with this new hitch on it to see if there are any other changes made to the chassis besides just bolting the new larger hitch on? And what is a 8,000# hitch anyway? I've always thought that a Class II is a 5,000# total\500# tongue hitch and a Class III is a 10,000# total\1,000# tongue weight hitch.
A little background on us, we have recently started looking for our first RV to use on long weekends, few driving vacations a year and as a tow vehicle\portable home to use to take my car to a race track a few times a year. Being able to tow an open trailer with a 3500 pound car on it is important (total weight around 5500-6000#) as well as being able to easily dry camp for 2-3 days at a time. We've gone all across the board, started looking at small class As, considered the F-550 Super Cs for a bit, leaned toward the B+s and now since this latest hitch revelation has surfaced are now looking at Class Cs again as well as small Class As.
It's just the two of us, no kids, 2 small dogs, brand new RVers, walk around bed is important, opposing dinette and couch floor plan preferable, driver and passenger seat swivels help increase living space, being rated to tow 6,000-7,000 pounds comfortably is important, fitting under an 11"11" door to my building would also be a plus.
We have found many RVs that fit all of the above requirements but have that 5,000# hitch on the E-450 Chassis even though the GCVW has room to tow 7,500 pounds. Being able to adapt an 8,000# hitch on any of the other E-450 chassis would really open up our possibilities. Or if more of the other manufacturers also start putting the 8,000# hitches on their E-450 chassis soon that would also work (ie Coachmen Concord).
Interested in any and all comments that may help steer us down the proper path here. I'm not looking to step way over any lines here but at the same time am not afraid to modify things just a bit to fit my needs if applicable.
