Towing Capacity

What you have is a standard hitch weight of 5000 pounds. Has nothing to do with your TV. You are limited in your GCWR if you are loaded to your GVWR. You can tow 4000 pounds or less and be within specs. I don't know but is the Bronco four down towable?

Alex and Tee,

You said "The brochure for the 36LA with liquid spring option shows a hitch rating of 5000 lbs. and a max trailer weight of 6000 lbs. On the surface, this doesn’t make sense." You are correct. This does NOT make sense. With a 5,000 lb. hitch, you are limited to towing 5,000 lbs. Period. Perhaps there's a misprint on one of the numbers. But perhaps you can call the factory to verify the true towing capacity?

If your rig is loaded to the 26,000 lb. GVWR, then you can only tow 4,000 lbs, which puts you at the GCWR of 30,000 lbs. It's the GCWR that is the upper limit. That's what bgum mentioned above.

If your rig is loaded to 25,000 lb.s or less, then you can tow up to 5,000 lbs., as your tow bar now limits you to 5,000 lbs. Even if your rig weighs in at 24,000 lbs, with that 5,000 lb. hitch, you will be limited to towing 5,000 lbs., and you will be 1,000 lbs. under your GCWR. Your hitch is limiting your towable weight in this case. You should be OK here, because your trailer and vehicle are 4,600 lbs. By the numbers, that means your rig can weigh up to 25,400 lbs. plus the 4,600 of trailer/vehicle equals the 30,000 lb. GCWR. It's close, but you're within the ratings AS LONG AS the rig is 25,400 lbs. or less, loaded to travel.

IF you upgrade the hitch to say 6,000 lbs. by someone who knows what they're doing, your maximum towing capability will be up to 6,000 lbs. This requires that your loaded rig weighs LESS than 24,000 lbs.

In other words, your towing capacity is the lesser of:

The tow bar rating or
GCWR minus weight of the moho loaded for travel.

I think you'll be OK. I'm wondering why there's a difference in ratings. Do you know if the rear axle weight ratings are different between the two models?

Maybe the new spring system reduces the rear GAWR, which could reduce the hitch weight one is able to put onto the hitch, and to reflect that, they reduced the overall tow rating.

For what it's worth, on our rig, it has a GVWR of 22,000 lbs. and a GCWR of 26,000 lbs. Our Honda Odyssey weighs in a bit under 4,500 pounds, so basically I have to keep the rig's travelling weight down to 21,500 lbs. or so. The empty weight of our rig is about 18,700 lbs., so that gives us just about 2,800 lbs. to carry people, food, water & stuff. We've flirted with reaching the 26,000 GVWR a couple of times, on extended trips, but usually we're under it by at least 500 lbs. And we almost always travel with the fresh water tank full (80 gallons).

Hope this helps!

~Rick

The rear axle is rated at 17,500 with liquid springs, 15,500 without. I think what I need to find out is what the curb weight is so I know what the difference is between that and GVWR.

Bronco sport is not dolly or 4 down towable.

Yes, you need to weigh your MH and get, at a minimum, the front and rear axle weights. I have a 2006 National Seabreeze and have a 22,000/26,000 rating. My weight loaded (full water and load) is 18,980, so I'm 7,020 lbs under my max overall. However, my hitch is a class III hitch, but the manual/specs says I can only tow 5,000 lbs. My Acadia is 4,500 lbs so I'm good. As long as your loaded weight is 25,000 lbs or less you're good with what you have.

BTW - just because the class III hitch can be rated for 6,000 lbs (https://www.drawtite-hitches.com/learning_center/general-towing-classes) you should follow the manufacturers specs for your motorhome, as it's just not the hitch rating, but the hitch/frame combination.

Al

Alex and Tee wrote:
The rear axle is rated at 17,500 with liquid springs, 15,500 without. I think what I need to find out is what the curb weight is so I know what the difference is between that and GVWR.

Bronco sport is not dolly or 4 down towable.

Should have bought a Jeep! ;).
The new Bronco are pretty cool looking, and I think it’s good Jeep has some competition.

Yes, should have gotten a Jeep to tow four down. Why complicate life?

Bill

Because my wife doesn’t like the Jeep. Happy wife, happy life.

Hitch rating is the rating of the hardware that makes up the hitch, normally 5,000 or 10,000 pounds

Max towing capacity of the vehicle is MAX combined vehicle gross weight MINUS the gross vehicle weight of the tow vehicle.

Your actuall max towing limit is the smaller of the two.

NOTE that if you use a drop/rise hitch adapter the hitch rating is greatly reduced. (read that I did and tore the hitch right off the RV. had to have the brackets where it attaches to the frame re-built the rebuilderds,, As I recall Simpson and Son's serice in Indiana off I think 71, Rebilt them... and then some. )

Some RV manuf are installing a 7500lb hitch with a 6k lb tow limit. What is the empty weight of the RV? Should be listed somewhere in line. Take that number and add at least 2k lbs to that number. This would let you know what you are capeable of towing.

“Happy wife happy life” yes that sounds good on the surface till the other one isn’t happy. Then you are at the point you are now!

As has been said. Should have gotten a Jeep!

Alex and Tee wrote:
The rear axle is rated at 17,500 with liquid springs, 15,500 without. I think what I need to find out is what the curb weight is so I know what the difference is between that and GVWR..

I know your right but the MH needs to be loaded up ready to travel with full fuel and if you dry camp, full water. This difference is the key number on how much you can tow and as long as it’s 4600 lbs or hopefully more (up to 5000), you are good to go. The liquid spring version should have a GVW 2000 lbs greater than the regular version.