Personally, I don't care for Class C coach designs that load the chassis under them close to maximums. A healthy margin of the chassis components above the actual loaded weight of the coach helps ensure reliability, long wear rates, and safety. Brake wear, engine and transmission cooling, and driveline ruggedness all benefit from having a chassis weight-rated for as much as possible more than what the coach with it's contents will ever weigh.
The U.S. market stills needs an available Class C chassis with a GVWR well above, say, 13,000 lbs. I for one would never buy a Class C that weighs 95-100% of it's chassis GVWR. I guess thousands of RVs and their owners are out there getting away with it, but it's not for me.
IMHO, the Ford E450 and Chevy 4500 chassis with their 300+ HP engines still have a place in the U.S. Class C market.
