Hitch weight

[Racine96]

As I look at Class A, I see some list 5,000 pound hitch weight and others list 10,000. Am I to assume that the higher the hitch weight the better the chassis of the motorhome?

[VintageRacer]

Often it's more the chassis type than anything else. Front engined Class A's have a fairly long chassis section cantilevered back from the rear axle, carrying all of the load of the "house" so there isn't that much strength for 1,000 - 1,500 lbs of tongue weight as you might get with a 10,000 lb trailer, not to mention what that might do to front axle weight. Rear engined Class A's have a completely different type of chassis, designed to carry the high weight of the engine and have sufficient capacity for the larger load. Some high end rear engined Class A's are rated to 20,000 lbs trailer weight (some Prevosts)

Brian

[msturtz]

A few things come into play here. The hitch rating and the GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) My unit has a 10K rated hitch that can tow up to 10K. However, my unit has a maximum GCWR of 30,000# which means that I need to deduct the loaded weight of my unit from what I can tow. For example if I am loaded to 25,000# then I can safely tow 5,000# however if I am loaded to 21,000# I can tow 9,000#. It is very rare unit that has a GCWR that allows you to tow the full hitch rating while at your GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating). There are a few but not many. As long as you understand the limitations and stay under the weights there won't be any problems.

[trop-a-cal]

Yes, and the more torque the engine has for hauling.