4johnsonsandadog wrote:
Our friends are about to take off on their first RV adventure (year long - cross country!) and this is all new to them. I am trying to help as I can. I want to help them make sure they are not overloaded, and they want to go weigh in before their first trip, but I have forgotten more about all of these numbers than I thought and want to make sure I am giving them correct information. Can any of you help me give them the correct #'s? I see that her Tow Limit is 11,000#. Is that just dry trailer (7855#) + trailer cargo (up to 2645#?) ? There is also a GVWR of 8,900#. Is this the Truck (5,635) + Gas (321#) + passengers + stuff in car + tongue weight (??)? Then, where does dry hitch weight factor in? I start to glaze over at that point. Should they just go weigh in and make sure that they aren't pulling over 11,000#, or is it more complicated than that?
Thank you! Want to make sure my friends & their 4 kids +2 dogs are safe!
I think there are a few members here that have owned similar Excursions and hopefully they will chime in with better info, but I have heard in the past several things one has to understand as it pretains to towing with an "X" and especially a 7.3L one.
1. I think that year the GVWR is as you alluded to 8900 and with the diesel engine and options and the HUGE passenger capacity folks can easily run out of TV GVWR very much like a lot of 1/2T trucks do and even more so.
2. That trailer is HUGE 35'+ long and with and over 10K GVWR tells me this is not just a two person family so there are going to me large amounts of wts. added everywhere and this can quickly get out of hand. Again, you will have plenty of "TOWING POWER" your issues will TW and GVWR of the TV.
3. "X" have been know to be for lack of a better word "squirrelly" in the rear towing because of a combo of tires and suspensions. There are fixes/help in this area, but that if beyond my knowledge.
4. I think later X's had their receiver integrated into the bumper/frame and upgrading that to a higher capacity was not an option and the max receivers rating avail was in the 1K to maybe 1.2K TW range so that needs to be checked and understood for any limitations.
Bottom Line is that there are VERY IMPORTANT considerations here and I'm not sure at this point we have enough input to help much except in generalities. In other works "THERE IS A LOT MORE TO THIS STORY" and that's not a criticism, but just an observation ... we need to know more about the family, how they think they pack, any mods already done to their X, what they now have for WDH/Sway, and finally IMO a must is the already mentioned TV wt. by axle FULLY LOADED with all passengers and expected cargo by axle wt.
Larry
