Class C Specifications

ron.dittmer wrote:

Chum lee wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
I weighed our rig empty removing anything that wasn't bolted down, no people, no fresh or waste water, but it did have a full 55 gallons of fuel and full 40 pounds of propane. It weighed in at 9,920. For the record, we don't have a slide out.

Loaded up during our "heaviest trip" full fresh water, two adults, full fuel, etc, the rig weighed 11480, just 20 pounds shy of the chassis limit.

During that "heavy" trip, our rear axle was officially over-loaded by 420 pounds, and our front axle was under-loaded by 1340 pounds.

And it sounds like it worked out just fine. Per the photo in your sig (it's a beautiful rig) have a great trip! Chum lee

Yes the trip worked out perfectly fine. I never noticed the extra weight being of any concern. I made sure the tires were inflated according to the load and had a good trip.

I wonder if "some" of the reason why the 2007 E350 and earlier years, the Ford spec'd rear axle limit of 7800 pounds was stated as such because the rear end was not equipped with any kind of rear stabilizer bar or trac bar. My rig has both (heavy duty versions) installed after I took delivery. The rig handles nicely. Maybe my suspension upgrades indirectly increased the rear axle limit by some amount.

It would be nice to hear from an expert on this subject matter.

I'm assuming you have the same load range E rated tires that are used on the E450? In that case you have a lot of reserve tire capacity. An issue on the bigger E450s is that when you load up to the GAWR, the limits of the tires are approached. With the cramped wheelwells these rigs have, there is not much air circulation for tire cooling and these tires heat up when loaded to their max. IMO I think that's why owners of larger E450s or 4500s need to watch their RGAW to keep from overloading the tires.