Motorhomes:
Having been through THREE Motorhomes in the past four years this
is what I've learned.
1) Find out what your loaded trailer weighs.
- Make sure it does not exceed the GCWR of the motorhome when its
weight is added to the rig. Why? The axles of the towing
vehicle is the final common denominator. -I.e. the service brakes of
the axles are limmited to their capacity. If the trailer brakes are
weak or fail you can only depend upon the motorhomes axles to slow you..... I
found out the hard way.
2) If you have a lot of storage room don't load it with heavy stuff it is
easy to load the rig heavy. Most "lower" end motorhomes pretend to be bigger
end "Coaches" (sorry for this distinction but it helps in explanation.) If
you look at the data of a motorhome (Winnabago, Bounder, ....) you will
likely find that the Most they are rated for is about 2,500-3,000 lbs in
towing. And when that weight is added to the total weight of the rig (wet
weight -fuel, water, food, family, stuff..) you have probably exceeded the
specs. Could you get a traffic citation for this? Yes - I know someone
who did.. It cost about $2,000.00! -it is very rare but all it takes is a
Highway patrolman to ask you to get a certified weight at the station.....
3) Make sure the water capacity is sufficient for a dry camp. One hundred
Gallons for four people for 4 days will work.
4) Make sure the air conditioning is sufficient and that the APU/generator
is rated for more than the current draw of the unit...
5) If you get a diesle get one with the rated HP for the load. And WITH
some sort of RETARDER, exhaust, Jacobs, or Transmission.
6) I could go on...But these are key. I had a very bad encounter with a
"wanna-be" Coach from a Winnabago. - I finally settled with Winnabago to
buy the rig back. I now have a Monaco and am happy as can be. Just ask
Don Queen....
Mordy
_____________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: RV's for race weekends
Author: Malcolm Cox <malcox.ppp@napanet.net> at INTERNET
Date: 5/31/97 11:15 PM
I'm looking for some comments, rude or otherwise, from RV'ers.
I'm seriously thinking of getting a RV (motorhome) for lugging trailer
(with MGA) to events (my Plymouth Caravan really strains with 3500lb to
pull) and what with cost of hotels, fun for kids etc, an RV looks handy.
It seems that 24 to 30 ft range with a 450 ish motor looks about right.
But these are my concerns
1) Are large RV's frowned on in the padock for taking up so much space?
2) Is backing up an RV with trailer as impossibl;e as it looks?
3) Will 4 of us go bonkers (2 big uns + 2 medium uns) in a 24ft RV over
a race weekend.
Any comments, lucid or otherwise would be handy.
Malcolm Cox
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