Frame Extension
Can any of you tell me how long the frame extensions are on a 24 ft. Ford E 350 or E450 class c? Thank you Stan
Forum Discussion
MORE LATER... We were in a time crunch to get to church...
Look at the... Spec Pages that our members have graciously posted. You'll see that none of the chassis' have much frame at all BEHIND the axle. So whether stretched or not, pretty much ANY Class C will have a rear Frame Extension. Ford publishes a guide on how to stretch and extend and retain the rated capacity of the chassis. If you're looking at a Chevy chassis, I'm told the "stretchers" follow Ford's guide since GM doesn't publish one. I'd imagine that your "pull" rating will be preserved, up to the rating of the hitch. 3500 used to be common then 5000 became common but some now are 7500. That said, I believe that in EVERY instance, you will find that the "carry" rating (tongue weight) will be limited by the coach builder, even though the hitch itself bears a label with a higher tongue weight rating. The longer the frame extension (the one behind the axle) is, the more reduction you'll notice. So you might have a coach with a 5000 pull/500 tongue hitch and adequate Gross Combined Vehicle Rating (GCWR) to have 7000 of pull left. The most you should tow, is 5000 and the tongue weight might be only 300, limited by the coach builder to less than the hitch is marked.
Look at the... Spec Pages that our members have graciously posted. You'll see that none of the chassis' have much frame at all BEHIND the axle. So whether stretched or not, pretty much ANY Class C will have a rear Frame Extension. Ford publishes a guide on how to stretch and extend and retain the rated capacity of the chassis. If you're looking at a Chevy chassis, I'm told the "stretchers" follow Ford's guide since GM doesn't publish one. I'd imagine that your "pull" rating will be preserved, up to the rating of the hitch. 3500 used to be common then 5000 became common but some now are 7500. That said, I believe that in EVERY instance, you will find that the "carry" rating (tongue weight) will be limited by the coach builder, even though the hitch itself bears a label with a higher tongue weight rating. The longer the frame extension (the one behind the axle) is, the more reduction you'll notice. So you might have a coach with a 5000 pull/500 tongue hitch and adequate Gross Combined Vehicle Rating (GCWR) to have 7000 of pull left. The most you should tow, is 5000 and the tongue weight might be only 300, limited by the coach builder to less than the hitch is marked.
