EDIT: I had trouble posting this, and when it "took" it didn't get all I meant to say. I'll try to recap from memory:
The rear slide makes sense, you get a big bed without having to drive a long RV. The wardrobe slide allows good walk room both sides of the bed.
Wheelbase is very important! If it isn't long enough, you can have a coach with little or no carrying capacity left from an empty coach, even an overloaded rear axle. Not enough wheelbase can lead to an underloaded front axle and that makes for sloppy steering and poor tracking on the road. My best guess based on length/wheelbase of 26A (59%) suggests you should be OK but I'd like to see that guess proven true. By that I mean, actual scale weights. From there you'd have to look at your storage areas and location of the fresh water tank to estimate what it'd weigh out ready for travel. Ford wants at least 32% of loaded weight on the front axle. That sounds easy, but based on Ford's front axle rating of 5000-lb and rear of 9500 (14500 total) a fully loaded coach, maxed out both ends, would have only 34% forward. Our 31-ft has 33% with its 218" wheelbase.
When we bought our Jayco 31A, we compromised on length to get a non-slide floorplan with the features we wanted. One was a "bed down" that was walk-around and could be left made up. Just on that preference, we decided we probably wouldn't get Winnebago's Sprinter model with rear slide and a folded bed. The idea makes total sense, just be sure it works for you.
If God's Your Co-Pilot Move Over, jd
2003 Jayco Escapade 31A on 2002 Ford E450 V10 4R100 218" WB
