What RV to buy for my towing needs?

[Guyver280z]

Hi everybody. I've been looking for a Motorhome capable of towing a two car trailer, but when I search RVs nobody mentions its towing capacity and most of the time the owners only know the motor's HP but not the Torque rating and I know that's what I need to figure out if its going to be good or not for my needs.

I'm looking to spend less than $35,000 on the motorhome and I've found some big diesel pushers for around that price or less, but some research has led me to believe that the engines on those are not going to be enough for my towing needs, so here's what I need and I hope you guys can tell me from experience what would be a good RV to buy.

-I don't need a lot of room so actually a short RV that sleeps 4 people is good enough.
-Is a Diesel pusher better for towing that a front engined diesel?? and is a V10 gasoline engine an option?? (I rather do diesel tho)
-I want to tow a two car trailer with two lightweight racecars (maybe 2,200lbs each, so maybe no more than 8,000lbs.
-Also I don't need it to be super fast, but just reliable on uphills (no warming up or running out of power)

Thanks a lot for your help!!

Moved to Class A Motorhome forum from Towing at OP request.

[zmotorsports]

768Q wrote:
Good too see other drag racers on here, thought I would chime in with our set up. We have a 28' Coachman Santara that we bought almost 2 years ago solely to tow our 24' pace to the track, loaded it is around 8k and our Santara with no slides weighs in at 13k with a GVCW of 25k so my best guess is we are at about 15,500# full of fuel, water, etc.
So around 1k less than the GCWR, we recently traded the scooter in the trailer for a golf cart so I am looking into getting a trailer toad to make sure the tongue weight is not too great that and I am in hopes of a few 12 hour tows to vegas this year rather than the 1- 5 hour tows thus far prior to the golf cart. I have too say at 1st I didn't think the stock 460 would do very well towing but thus far I am quite happy with it's power and can still make most grades at 55. We originally wanted to spend a bit more but this one owner coach with 33k on it was well maintained including new tires at the time and it's $9k price was too good too pass up. Hope the OP's search goes well and just remember to use common sense.

Nice setup. Goes to show you don't have to have a DP to tow an enclosed trailer. I used to get quite a bit of criticism with our old 1984 30' carbureted motorhome pulling out 24' Wells Cargo enclosed trailer but it did it. No ball of fire but it did it and did it safely.

Mike.

[768Q]

Good too see other drag racers on here, thought I would chime in with our set up. We have a 28' Coachman Santara that we bought almost 2 years ago solely to tow our 24' pace to the track, loaded it is around 8k and our Santara with no slides weighs in at 13k with a GVCW of 25k so my best guess is we are at about 15,500# full of fuel, water, etc.
So around 1k less than the GCWR, we recently traded the scooter in the trailer for a golf cart so I am looking into getting a trailer toad to make sure the tongue weight is not too great that and I am in hopes of a few 12 hour tows to vegas this year rather than the 1- 5 hour tows thus far prior to the golf cart. I have too say at 1st I didn't think the stock 460 would do very well towing but thus far I am quite happy with it's power and can still make most grades at 55. We originally wanted to spend a bit more but this one owner coach with 33k on it was well maintained including new tires at the time and it's $9k price was too good too pass up. Hope the OP's search goes well and just remember to use common sense.

[ferndaleflyer]

Maybe I spoke to soon----I see that one of the above has a DP that out weighs mine by 8--10,000lbs to start with and a 3700lb jeep behind. I may be close to 40,000 total-MAYBE- But regardless of how high the Mountain is it is a 7 - 8 mile 6% grade to the top of Fancy Gap and I routinely top it at 55.....but no need to debate the point because we are all out on the road doing what we can with what we have and I hope everyone has at least as good a time as I do.....sure wish I could afford one of those fancy 43ft long DPs with a 600hp motor. Might be hard to park:)

[JetAonly]

It appears Fancy Gap is about 2900MSL.

[zmotorsports]

Nope, nothing wrong with the coach. I too have been towing for a couple of decades now. Can't speak for whatever grade Fancy Gap is but here in the west I am routinely passing coaches going up both passes that I mentioned but not @ 55 MPH and I am sitting at 49k pounds combined weight.

Mike.

[ferndaleflyer]

I think 2 of you above need to get your DPs checked out----I have been over Fancy Gap on I-77 several times with this set up going to Bristol to race and it tops that at 55mph. I sometimes wonder where some of the information on here comes from in regards to towing as I have been doing it for 30 years or so with a motor home of some type + several pick ups and speak from experience not some ones "book" or Georges experience. I do it every weekend 10 months out of the year. I can't quote anything about GVW etc from a book but I can tell you how I have done it pretty much without incident for many years. Think what you want but we get it done.......

[zmotorsports]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Son if you don't think it can be done you have never been to a drag strip-----My trailer is 32ft long and my DP is 38 ft long. Trailer loaded is around 16,000lbs I imagine. I have an 8.3 325 HP Cummins with a 6spd Allison trans. It will top the longest, highest hill around here at 55mph in the hot sun and never get hot. Ran to Fl at 70mph on the cruise. There are a ton of DPs for sale in the East that will get it done for you at that price.....Come buy mine, I'll get another one.

WOW!!! I wish I had that kind of power out of my coach. Even flat-towing our 5500 pound Jeep I get slowed to around 50 MPH pulling Soldier's Summit on highway 6 in Utah or Malad Pass (Southbound) just over the Utah/Idaho border on I-15. Pulling the trailer with Jeep and Harley weighing around 12k pounds I slow to around 45-47 MPH on the same grades, 6-7% grades and quite long pulls. I would love to pull them @ 55 MPH.

Mike.

[zmotorsports]

Number of axles doesn't matter on whether or not a CDL required. It is whether or not the rig is being used for commercial or as an RV. If memory serves there are only a couple of states that require any kind of special drivers license endorsement for an RV over I think 26k pounds.

Here in Utah no special endorsement is required. Personally, I think it would be a good idea to have need some special licensing for air brake equipped RV's or certain size/weight RV's, but that is just my opinion.

Mike.

[Guyver280z]

Dune Hauler wrote:
If you don't need a lot of living space look at Toterhome's you will find 20,000LBS tow capacities.

Well, but Toterhomes seem more expensive and they are made to tow 5th wheel trailers, right? Also won't those require a CDL?? Or is it ok if they only have 2 axles?

[JimM68]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Son if you don't think it can be done you have never been to a drag strip-----My trailer is 32ft long and my DP is 38 ft long. Trailer loaded is around 16,000lbs I imagine. I have an 8.3 325 HP Cummins with a 6spd Allison trans. It will top the longest, highest hill around here at 55mph in the hot sun and never get hot. Ran to Fl at 70mph on the cruise. There are a ton of DPs for sale in the East that will get it done for you at that price.....Come buy mine, I'll get another one.

Yea and you're so silly it's not funny.

My 40 ft coach (33k gvwr, 43k gcwr) towing a 3700 lb jeep wrangler, is sometimes pushed below 45 mph on a steep grade on the interstate. Including the climb into chatanooga, in the east...
8.3, 360hp, 1050 ft-lbs cummins....

OP, most DP's will have a 10k Gross Combined Vehicle weight. This is the number you are looking for.
All this means is it was rated by the manufacturer to tow that much, not that it will be fast doing it.

You'll also need to be at least aware of the length restriction, 65 feet in most states, do your own homework.

[JetAonly]

SIL tows a 10k race trailer with a 34' Bounder with CAT C7 and 6 Speed Allison. A no brainer. His is newer so north of $35k but pick your condition and you can find what you want. I tow a 4x4 Silverado with a Motorcycle in the back and is virtually un-noticed in the performance of the MH.

[zmotorsports]

I have been towing enclosed race trailers for 20+ years now, starting with a 30' gas coach. Can it be done yes, but few in the pre-2000 range have the hitch capacity.

On both my first two coaches I custom fabricated the hitch in order to handle the weight. Our 30' Travelcraft had the carbureted 454 engine/TH400 transmission and we towed a 24' enclosed trailer weighing about 8k pounds. Make certain the trailer has very good brakes as the brakes on the earlier GM P30/P32 chassis were "adequate" at best. Safety concerns should be at the top of your list so do it safely whatever you do.

Our second coach was our first DP. It was a 1991 38' Beaver Contessa on a Gillig chassis. It had a 300 HP CAT engine but was only coupled with the four-speed Allison transmission. It was no ball of fire but handled the trailer very well after fabricating a stronger hitch on the coach. We towed the trailer as well as flat towed our Jeep GC for 7 years and over 65k miles around the western U.S.

From there we stepped up to our current coach, a 40' Dynasty with the ISL400/Allison MD3060 combo. Absolutely fantastic rig on a solid semi-monocoque chassis. It towed our 24' trailer so well we upgraded in 2008 to a 26' Haulmark Edge race trailer. Loaded with sand toys it is right @ 10k pounds, with the Jeep and Harley in the trailer we are @ 12k pounds. I also run a weight distributing hitch although with the tag axle it is not really necessary, it just helps distribute the tongue weight.

For the price range you are looking at I would look at the mid 90's to around 2000 Dynasty or if you run into a screamin' deal an Executive or Signature. Also consider the Country Coaches of the same era and Foretravels as they will have the towing capacity, engine and transmissions that should do what you are asking. They will also be equiped with exhaust brakes. The Foretravel if you could swing it will be equiped with a transmission retarder in place of the exhaust brake. And trust me, despite what you will be told, 8k pounds is not what I would consider "heavy". We recently got out of racing but up until this past year when we traveled with the group we travel with, our rig was one of the smallest and I was the only one without a stacker trailer, although when I ordered our new trailer I did have it built taller than standard.

You will also get a lot of blowback concerning length laws, especially on an RV forum, this one in particular. I belong to a couple of other RV forums and the length police here are definitely high in numbers. However, you cannot go to a racetrack without seeing rows of overlength rigs. Granted it would be my rathers to stay under the 65' length that most states post but I will also say it is not the earth shattering event that many think it is to be slightly overlength. I am sure I will get beat up for that but oh well.

Mike.

[Dune_Hauler]

If you don't need a lot of living space look at Toterhome's you will find 20,000LBS tow capacities.

[Guyver280z]

PERFECT!!! That's exactly the kind of help I needed!!! MUCH MUCH MUCH appreciated!!! 😄

Now off to shop around!!

THANKS A LOT EVERYBODY!!! 🙂