Class C and Horse Trailers

What is your rig rated for?

ppine wrote:
What is your rig rated for?

The motor home has a 12000lb hitch. Question is about the long overhang...

Does it have a custom hitch?
I’ve never heard of a class C with a hitch rated more than 7500 lbs, most are 5000 lbs.
For the overhang, 1200 lbs at the length would be a lot behind the axle and you also have to figure the GVW of the MH.
More than I would tow.

Simple answer. No! You'll be way overweight. With that rear overhang, in a 29' Class C E-450 you'll be like a piece of spaghetti going down the road. At least for a little while. Your horses probably won't like it either. I'm thinking more like an F-350 dually.

Chum lee

Two horses plus the trailer would probably weigh somewhere in the rough neighborhood of 5000 pounds, or perhaps more. Obviously it depends on the size of the horses, among other things. I'm guessing with two horses in a three horse trailer the tongue weight is going to be relatively on the high side (greater than 10%), and with the leverage from the rear overhang on the motorhome you're quite possibly adding 1000 pounds or so of weight to the rear axle. I suspect it would result in exceeding the rear GAWR, the GVWR, and/or the GCWR, and possibly all three; even if they aren't exceeded, you'd be very very near the limits, and that's probably not what you want for long-distance towing.

Note that some motorhomes have reduced tongue weight limits (compared to the trailer weight limits) due to the frame extensions and their construction. Partly, too, this is because many people use them for towing cars four down or on a dolly, both of which have little to no tongue weight.

(Backing a shortish trailer behind a longish vehicle with a long rear overhang is not exactly the easiest trailer handling job in the world, as well...though I guess a three horse trailer isn't super short.)

Thanks for the info. Perhaps we should be looking at a diesel pusher. Would there be any issues on a 40 footer as well?

If the motorhome is your on a E450 your 12000 is kilograms not pounds the motorhomeis built in Canada. That would mean the hitch would be 5442 lbs and a hitch weight of 544lbs. The numbers fall in line with my E450. Your biggest problem would be overloading the rear tires. I had a two horse side by side with two quarter horses and weight 4500lbs at the scale. I would run with all tanks empty and never more than 3/4 of a tank of gas. And was 300lbs under GRAW . Good luck

akrv wrote:
If the motorhome is your on a E450 your 12000 is kilograms not pounds the motorhomeis built in Canada. That would mean the hitch would be 5442 lbs and a hitch weight of 544lbs. The numbers fall in line with my E450. Your biggest problem would be overloading the rear tires. I had a two horse side by side with two quarter horses and weight 4500lbs at the scale. I would run with all tanks empty and never more than 3/4 of a tank of gas. And was 300lbs under GRAW . Good luck

Hi there. It's a Class IV, which is rated to 12,000 lbs. That's why I'm a bit confused. But from a physics standpoint, the tongue weight would seem to be the issue. Which is a bummer, because 29' serves our family better than 24'.

That said, a forty foot diesel pusher shouldnt' be a problem, from what I understand....

Up until about 2009, nearly all Class C's came with a 3,500 or 5,000 pound hitch receiver, because that's what was available off-the-shelf cheaply at the time.

Ford allows full utilization of the 20,000 (or 22,000 starting around 2007) Gross Combined Weight Rating IF all provisions of QVM Q-18 were followed for both the main frame modifications, and also the rear frame extensions.

The Class 5 receiver on your rig was added by a previous owner (all E-series hitches are essentially compatible), so hopefully they either verified compliance with the document above, or they had their frame reinforced if it wasn't.

Go to any rodeo out west and Class C's with 3 and 4 horse trailers are common.

The biggest issue with that particular Bigfoot coach is the short wheelbase. I think that model only came with a 200" wheelbase. This means the rear axle is already carrying more than it's share of the total rig's weight, leaving little to no additional rear axle carrying capacity for tongue weight, unless the previous owner also upgraded the tires. Some newer Class C's with the same overall length have a 218"-220" wheelbase. These would work much better for towing a heavy trailer.

40' diesel pushers might not be in much better shape, since these will be single-axle. Some of those are already over legal highway axle weights. Also, because the hitch receiver on these mounts to the engine sub-frame, older coaches have surprisingly low trailer tow limits. So, check all the hitch receiver labels before you consider an older one for towing horses.

The capacity of your hitch has nothing to do with the towing capability of your MH. The overhang provides leverage.