How To Calculate Tow Capacity

DallasSteve wrote:
Rich

Thanks for the reply, but I'm still confused. Is the GVWR (16,000) the empty weight and GCWR (23,000) the maximum load including the toad? So if I weigh the motorhome and it's at 17,000 then I have 6,000 load left (23,000 - 17,000), right? But since the hitch max is 5,000 I still can only tow 5,000 (if I have a tow bar rated at least 5,000), right? So if the Jeep loaded is under 5,000 I'm OK? But if the motorme loaded was 18,500 my max load remaining is only 4,500 (23,000 - 18,500) and that would be the limit that I could pull as a toad, right?

But then my confusion is how does the front and rear GAWR figure into this? In this case they total 17,500 (6,500 + 11,000). Can somebody please explain?

This weight questions are actually pretty simple and often overthought. Your GVWR (stands for Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) of 16000 pounds is the maximum loaded weight, not the empty weight, of the motorhome by itself. The GCWR is the maximum weight of the motorhome and trailer (or tow vehicle) combined. So doing the math, when fully loaded the motorhome can still tow 8000 pounds. But all of this math is basically irrelevant, because the motorhome hitch is only rated at 5,000 pounds. That's the maximum weight the motorhome can tow because in this case the hitch is the "weakest link". Tongue or hitch weight does not really factor into the equation in the case of four-down towing because the motorhome only carries half the weight of the tow bar itself, probably 50 pounds or less.

So, as far as towing a toad goes, this motorhome can handle any that weighs less than 5,000 pounds. But a bit of unsolicited advice, make sure that the motorhome itself has enough payload capacity to handle the weight of passengers, water, food, beer, and anything else you plan on loading into the motorhome. Personally I'd look for a motorhome with at least 2,000 pounds of payload capacity.