Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by bjones3211

Question I have a 2014 freedom elite 31L has an E4 50 chassis and cording to the specs the weight is 14,500 pounds says I can have 5000 pounds on the front axle and 9600 on the rear axle the other day I finally took my motorhome and towed and had it weighed over all it looked good I was only at 18, 360 pounds but their rear axle was at 10,040 pounds which put that over 440 pounds and the coach itself has over 340 pounds overweight understanding I need to remove at least the 340 pounds what I don’t understand is why did they make the largest storage area in the back if the rear axle was so weight critical or is there something I’m missing
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You’re not the first to report a large Class C like the 31L that is overloaded. If you do a forum search, you’ll find others. I have read Motorhome Magazine reviews where some motorhomes had an axle overloaded when unit was empty, which I find inexcusable. It should never be allowed to happen, but apparently it does.

You didn’t mention if you weighed motorhome with full tanks or not, or how much gear you had in it. Weight you remove from further back will help most. Another issue if I recall correctly is that side-to-side weight distribution is not even, so one side of rear axle can be overloaded even worse than your scale readings suggest. Most likely you have more rear weight on passenger side.

On E-450 the rear 9,600-pound axle rating happens to be the same as tire maximum ratings, so you’re overloading tires also. I would personally not want an RV that’s overloaded in any way. If it were me, I’d empty the rig and weigh all four corners to see where the starting point is, then load from there.

Your gross combined weight is OK, so that part is good. Also, tow bars add very little hitch weight — essentially insignificant.