Class C extended chassis, Thoughts or your experiences

klutchdust wrote:
Itasca Cambria 30ft. Nose to tail. Getting in and out of some driveways the tail drags.

Oops, forgot to mention that.

It's a bit harder to judge a driveway dip that is too deep but most minor scrapes won't really hurt anything......other than scraping a bit of the pavement away.

The ball hitch for my trailer is the first thing to hit, when it's on there. Once had my wire harness for the trailer lights routed wrong and they got pinched and mangled during a driveway drag.

Pretty much what everyone else has said. Mine is a 28A but is actually about 31' long. We tow a Subaru, about 3000+ lbs. Never have noticed any problems with it.

Itasca Cambria 30ft. Nose to tail. Getting in and out of some driveways the tail drags. I go in at an angle.Going to add rollers to the rear. Towing a 20ft. trailer I pump up the air bags to 75/80 psi. It handles well. mine has aftermarket suspension upgrades and Koni shocks which improved the ride dramatically. A rear facing camera is a must IMO. I can hitch to my trailer with one try.

We have a 32'2" Jayco Greyhawk 31FS on a 2008 Ford E-450 Chassis. The frame is stout from front bumper to rear bumper and is rated to two 5000 lbs. As j-d mentioned, the turning radius is not so great for making u-turns, but I've never had an issue making any other turn.

Ours is the only Motorhome I have driven, so I can't really compare how our Motorhome drives compared to smaller Motorhomes. I have read a lot of horror stories on here about how folks had have white knuckle rides in their Class C. That is not the case with ours. I am comfortable driving ours all day, with the longest single day trip being 900 miles.

-Michael

We have a 31' Itasca class c also. Big frame bolted on with big bolts. Our weight is close to GVWR all the time. 220" wheel base so turns are big. Handles well as long as the tire pressures are up close to max (80) on all tires. It handles well even pulling the 2500 lbs. we normally tow. She is easy to get over weight so we do a 4 corner weight check every spring and remove anything not used or overly heavy.

Dave

Ford and Chevy both have specific specs on how far their chassis may be stretched, and how it is to be done. Ford, if I recall, allows just a little more than GM does, so the very longest ones will be on Ford. Ours is a 31, a little over 32 overall. As the coach is stretched, several things can happen:

1. Turning circle will increase. The E-Series only has about 25-degrees of front wheel "cut" so we have a HUGE turning circle. It has never prevented us from making a turn on a road, except a U-Turn. Takes four lanes and one shoulder to do that.

2. The overall coach may be very close to GVWR. Longer frame and bigger, therefore heavier, body go together.

3. Handling may or may not suffer. The floor plan seems to have more to do with wheelbase than actual weight distribution. That's unfortunate. It's possible for a coach to be over weight on the rear axle while too light on the front axle. Not just hard on tires. Too light a front end will allow the coach to wander on the road. Ford wants AT LEAST 1/3 of loaded weight on the front axle. That's probably skimpy for a long, wide, high motorhome.

Wheelbase affects all this! The newer 31's have a wheelbase around 220". ALWAYS weigh a coach you're considering. Drive it to a CAT Scale, get Front and Rear Weights, then adjust Tire Pressure according to Michelin's RV pressure chart. Then continue your test drive and see if it's better.

EDIT: I see you posted this in Super C. Same factors apply, you just have more weight to work with.

piconroy wrote:
To me the extension from a 26-28' just seems to be pushing the limits.

Pushing the limits of what, exactly ??

I've got what they call a 29 but really is 28 without the rear bumper.

The only problem I've had is getting used to the wide swing the tail makes on corners.

I don't know if it's called an "extended chassis"or not but we have a 31 ft. 2002 Itasca Class C. No complaints or special problems except that the overhang behind the rear axle is really long so have to watch very closely about the rear "swinging out" when you turn if you are very close to something at all.

I have a '98 32' long (actual measured length, bumper to bumper) Coachmen class C on a Ford E series chassis. I think it handles just fine for what it is. It's entirely manageable in crosswinds or when big rigs pass. I've no length related complaints. The engine is adequately powerful, though of course more power would at times be nice. The newer V10s have somewhat more power (even the two valve variants); the current V8 is roughly equivalent in power rating to my V10.

What specific limits do you think are being pushed?