Towing Capacity
I am going to re-visit this subject with a little more specificity to my situation. I ordered back in March a 2022 Tiffin Allegro Open Road 36LA with the new to this year liquid spring option. This wa...
Forum Discussion
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
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
