Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

the '8,000lb hitch' actually never means that you can ever tow 8,000 lbs, especially if a trailer with a lot of tongue weight. Manufacturers of RVs look at the GVWR and GVCWR of the chassis, add the weight of the 'house' that they build on top of it, add some CCC weight for people, fuel, water, and stuff, and then find the difference - which would be the maximum towing capability, according to the Chassis manufacturer specs.

If the max tow capability is in the range of 3,000 to 6,000 lbs, then they will add a Tow Hitch that AT LEAST has that capability, not that it will be the maximum that you can tow from what's printed on it's own label. Some coaches will have a 10,000lb hitch, some only a 5,000, some less...

An interesting point, though, is that even the manufacturers don't necessarily use either the same weight averages, or don't use the same process to arrive at these hitch weight considerations when they decide what size hitch to add.... for example:

My Palazzo, with a Freightliner XCS chassis, a GVCWR of 30,000lbs, and a 300hp ISB Cummins engine, has a 10,000lb rated hitch, but with my total weight I'm only left with 4,400 lbs of towable capability on my Chassis...

A ForestRiver Legacy, the 'twin' to the Palazzo, with a similar Freightliner XCS GVCWR, but a larger 340hp engine, has only a 5,000 rated hitch (?) go figure... I'm sure those owners wonder why they can only tow 1/2 as much as I can (!) [but in reality, it's probably exactly the same!]

Thor could have gave me a 20,000lb hitch, but it would not make any difference of what the REAL weight I could tow... it would still only be 4,400lbs.