I have a new-to-me Class C, a 1997 Four Winds, 23ft long.
Often, when I enter a gas station or other driveway, I drag my butt on the pavement. Technically, I drag the hitch (see pic below). I'm afraid this will get worse when I'm towing my 7x14 trailer that will carry my motorcycle. I also want to go onto dirt roads and perhaps a tiny bit offroad to do some boondocking.
This picture shows the problem:
And how low the hitch has been placed is making it worse:
My options seem to be:
I'm sorting through the options and, as this is my first RV, I'm learning fast.
A few notes and tips I've learned from others:
But the problem is made much worse with the hitch placement. My question to the folks here is whether the hitch can be raised in some way. The visible part appears to be attached to a long bar that appears, in turn, to be attached to the frame. Is there a hitch design that isn't so low? It looks like that alone would give me four more precious inches.
Then again, with the wheels and airbags, maybe lifting the hitch isn't necessary. Perhaps I should spend only a bit of time and money since I expect this to be my training rig to be upgraded within 24 months.
Thoughts?
Edit: got the pictures in
Often, when I enter a gas station or other driveway, I drag my butt on the pavement. Technically, I drag the hitch (see pic below). I'm afraid this will get worse when I'm towing my 7x14 trailer that will carry my motorcycle. I also want to go onto dirt roads and perhaps a tiny bit offroad to do some boondocking.
This picture shows the problem:
And how low the hitch has been placed is making it worse:
My options seem to be:
- add castor wheels
- raise the vehicle permanently with a lift kit; I've identified one for $2k (installation extra) that will do the job
- raise the vehicle on-demand with air bags
- raise the hitch
- a combination of the above
I'm sorting through the options and, as this is my first RV, I'm learning fast.
A few notes and tips I've learned from others:
- the lift kit will bring up the entire rig by 5", front and back
- the geometry of this type of vehicle does not allow for many good options (agreed! who designed this with so much cabin behind the rear wheel?); the person who mentioned this to me stressed getting castor wheels no matter what else I do
- like the castor wheels, I've been advised to add airbags no matter what as this helps firm up the rear when loaded with the trailer; this person also suggested foregoing the lift kit and just going with the castor wheels and air bags because lifting the entire rig will make the steering less safe. This makes sense to me and I'm leaning toward this (castor wheels plus air bags, no lift kit).
But the problem is made much worse with the hitch placement. My question to the folks here is whether the hitch can be raised in some way. The visible part appears to be attached to a long bar that appears, in turn, to be attached to the frame. Is there a hitch design that isn't so low? It looks like that alone would give me four more precious inches.
Then again, with the wheels and airbags, maybe lifting the hitch isn't necessary. Perhaps I should spend only a bit of time and money since I expect this to be my training rig to be upgraded within 24 months.
Thoughts?
Edit: got the pictures in
Gjac wrote:
Is this tail dragging an issue for all short Class C's or only certain ones. I notice some rear overhangs taper up slightly from the rear wheels and some have a more defined taper starting half way between rear tires and back bumper. Is one a better design than the other?
The older Four Winds certainly were designed with a long overhang, as shown by the OP's original image:
Ours was 27'; it had that long overhang as well:
I had those airbags inflated to maximum pressure as much as possible:
Our Sunseeker on Chevy is 24'; due to the shorter overhang and the lower frontend typical of GM's cutaway chassis, we've never touched the tail on any surface:
It all depends on the manufacturer, model and the chassis.
In addition to installing the airbags to lift the tail a couple inches, here's my solution to our '00 Four Winds 5000 butt dragging:
This resulted in a tiny decrease in clearance, but allowed things to "roll along" instead of digging in:
More projects on our Four Winds 5000.
This resulted in a tiny decrease in clearance, but allowed things to "roll along" instead of digging in:
More projects on our Four Winds 5000.
