Towing Rating at 5000 pounds

There was someone on one of the forums that changed out his class III hitch to a 4 or 5 but he was a welder and did some reinforcements to the frame. Not sure what all it entailed but he wanted to tow a enclosed trailer for his toys. I.m sure that if you talk to a welding shop they can figure out something that would work.

MontanaCamper wrote:
Have a question on towing rating.. The MH we are looking at only has a tow rating of 5000 pounds. I want to tow my subaru legacy in an enclosed trailer...but if I run the numbers, Im at 6100 pounds, 1100 pounds over. Now my question... what makes the towing only 5000 pounds? is there something you can upgrade to raise the towing capacity?? My Dads 71 3/4 ton pickup, we added a leaf, changed the rear gearing and air bags...supposedly we raised the towing capacity and registered it as a 1 ton.... was wondering if you could do something like that on a MH.

If you have nothing positive to say, keep it to yourself. Is just a question....if the answer is no, thats it...so beit.


thanks in advance

You can always beef things up, if you're concerned about jerking the hitch off and then there's the 500lb hitch weight limitation to consider, but the real numbers are subtracting the GVWR from the GCWR which takes a lot more factors into consideration and the first thing to usually cause a problem if there's going to be one, is the transmission overheating on long steep climbs, so you might want to install one of those, if you don't have one already.

A big factor in towing limits is the Transmission, Most MH's with a 5000 lbs towing limit have the Allison 2500 trans, those with 10000 lbs towing have the Allison 3000 trans.

On a Hurricane, the reason for Thor bringing towing capacity down to 5000 pounds will be frame extensions and grade of hitch. That 5000 is for flat towing, not trailering. You might see the hitch annotated for maximum tongue weight of 300 or 350 pounds, which means not much more than 2000 pounds of trailer.

Another typical limitation on extended frame motorhomes is that weight distributing hitches are not recommended. Aside from loads on the frame extensions, the proportions, wheelbase to overall length to rear overhang, are wrong for the assumptions in the weight distribution model, so a WD hitch that might work will be rated very differently than the rating used to fit the hitch to the load for a pickup truck, van, or SUV.

If you want a motorhome to pull a moderately heavy trailer, look at diesel pusher models in the 33,000 pound or higher GVWR class. They have heavy frames all the way to the hitch, air suspension for leveling with a hitch load, and often have tag axles to help pick up and adjust to the added weight out at the end of a long lever.

Or you might consider pulling a "four wheel" trailer, i.e. a design that supports all of the load on trailer axles, puts only the weight of the hitch mechanism (rather half of that) on the tow vehicle. This is how heavy duty trucks manage to haul heavy non-semi trailers.

ok, thanks for the replys. Its a Class A Hurricane 31H. I wished it had a longer wheel base...but I really like the floorplan.

Besides the frame extension weight limit is the class of hitch used. Just guessing here, but I suspect that the RV mfgr used a class 3 hitch (6000 pounds towing and 600 tongue weight). If the frame extension will handle it you could upgrade to a class 4 hitch which has a towing capacity of 12,000 pounds & a tongue weight of 1000 pounds. I have gotten all my receiver hitches from U-Haul so if I were you I would take the MH to them and see what they say about putting a class 4 hitch on it. They have the resources and knowledge to know what can be done with all vehicles. Now I am talking about a regular U-Haul dealer, not just someone who rents out U-Haul trucks and trailers. If you don't have one close, you could call them and get some answers.

Hi,

A motorhome like a class C built on the 19,500 pound GVWR Ford pickup or GM 5500 series pickup, it can tow about 10,000 pounds. Some call them "Super C". International also is building chassis for some class C motorhomes with a 24,000 GVWR.

One reason that there is a 5,000 pound limit is the frame extension behind the rear of the class C frame. Ford rates their van based chassis with a 14,050 GVWR and 22,000 GCVWR, so Ford is ready to tow a 9,000 pound trailer with a 13,000 pound RV, and 1,000 pounds on the rear axle of the RV. But Ford is not the final producer of a motorhome, it is Jayco, Fleetwood, Coachman, or who ever. It is the final manufacture that determines the hitch weight rating.

So you can have one commissioned. One owner of a large boat wanted to tow a larger boat with a class C chassis. So they bought a GM chassis, had a cargo box installed on it, and huge hitch. Short overhang from the rear axle to bumper, and the van was able to tow about 10,000 pounds. Because it was light, they could also handle 2,500 pounds of cargo and hitch weight before reaching the 12,000 GVWR.

Good luck finding something!

Fred.