Class A Towing capacity
I apologize as I'm sure this topic has been discussed in the past! We are looking at buying our 1st Class A motorhome(33ft-36ft) but not sure if we should go diesel or gas. At times we will be pulling...
Forum Discussion
Lbligh, I am curious to know what the criteria is for any of the particular load limits? Is it a wear limit? Is it a stress limit, where if exceeded, it will immediately have catastrophic failure?
A perfect example would be my front differential. It is a Dana 70. If you look at the specs, it gives 2 numbers. One is a continuous operation and the other is a peak limit. Basically what those numbers mean is that the differential is expected to last X amount of miles if a continuous load of 2500 ft-lbs. It is rated for a peak torque load of 7000 ft-lbs. Basically if you exceed the peak torque, you will break teeth. That means you can exceed the continuous load rating and not break anything, but you will shorten the life. So if you use this axle in a towing situation, the tow rating will be based on the expected average torque load, because they want to get decent wear. So if you exceed the tow rating, what happens? NOTHING, except you will probably slightly shorten the life of the differential. So in this single example of one component, in this specific case, exceeding the tow rating is not catastrophic.
That is what tow rating are. If you have a 5000 lbs tow rating, and you tow 5001 lbs, does that mean you are taking a serious chance at causing a problem? Lets not be silly. Ratings are based on worse case scenario. IF you are more cautious about how you treat the vehicle, you can compensate for the limits of a rating up to a point.
A perfect example would be my front differential. It is a Dana 70. If you look at the specs, it gives 2 numbers. One is a continuous operation and the other is a peak limit. Basically what those numbers mean is that the differential is expected to last X amount of miles if a continuous load of 2500 ft-lbs. It is rated for a peak torque load of 7000 ft-lbs. Basically if you exceed the peak torque, you will break teeth. That means you can exceed the continuous load rating and not break anything, but you will shorten the life. So if you use this axle in a towing situation, the tow rating will be based on the expected average torque load, because they want to get decent wear. So if you exceed the tow rating, what happens? NOTHING, except you will probably slightly shorten the life of the differential. So in this single example of one component, in this specific case, exceeding the tow rating is not catastrophic.
That is what tow rating are. If you have a 5000 lbs tow rating, and you tow 5001 lbs, does that mean you are taking a serious chance at causing a problem? Lets not be silly. Ratings are based on worse case scenario. IF you are more cautious about how you treat the vehicle, you can compensate for the limits of a rating up to a point.
