Tour/Ellipse Weight

[boge513]

We are looking at the 42QD floorplan in either brand and were wondering if any owners have weighed their coach. I'm curious to know if any certain axle or corner is close to max axle weight or if there's a good buffer from the rated axle capacity.

Thank You
T.J.

[kjburns]

A recent article in Motorhome Magazine shows the actual wet weights and axle capacities for the 2011 Tour. The front only has about 800 lbs left. The rears have plenty (7500 lbs).

[boge513]

Thanks for the reply
I haven't seen the Motorhome magazine article, but the FMCA magazine article listed the following weights.
Front Axle 13,500#
Drive Axle 10,420#
Tag Axle 10,760#
Going by these weights it seems to me that the chassis isn't set up correctly. The tag axle is overloaded, which means if the tag axle pressure was set correctly at the factory there should be less weight on the front and more on the drive axle.

Thanks
T.J.

[Traps90]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjburns A recent article in Motorhome Magazine shows the actual wet weights and axle capacities for the 2011 Tour. The front only has about 800 lbs left. The rears have plenty (7500 lbs).

Wow according to the article our within 780lbs of your front GAWR without passengers, I think that;s cutting it a little to close for comfort,

[rv rick]

We have a 2010 Tour 42AD and have had it weighed a couple times. I also read the FMCA coach review and subsequent discussion between FMCA and Winnebago (click to review) and noted that there apparently some significant differences in the weights.

I have had these exact weighing discrepancies as well. When weighing at each corner on individual scales (at FMCA rally), my coach came out almost at the exact weights noted in the FMCA article. As it happened, I was at the Winnebago factory the next week after this weighing and reported these weights. Winnebago then checked it and found that their weights were notably different -- less weight on the front axle, more on the drives and less on the tag. In short, things were fine.

Then, two weeks later, I had it weighed again using independent scales (at the Escapees Rally) and noted the higher weights similar to the original numbers. My loading was virtually the same each time, so I could not figure out what could be going in.

Finally, I think we figured it out. The tag axle weights were about 10,800 -- well over the 10,000 gvw - but the drive axle was only about 11,000 -- well UNDER the 20,000 gvw for it. Then we figured out that the tag air bag was over inflated. I dumped the tag air a few times and then the weights for the tag/drive axles moved into a better relationship. Also, when the tag is over filled, it apparently moved weight forward to the front -- adjusting the tag helped that too.

Bottom line -- it appears that the tag axle air valve regulator is faulty and sometimes fills correctly (causing correct weights) or overfills -- causing incorrect loadings. We will get that checked now and I think this will take care of it.

Finally, the coach has been great on our 7,000 mile break in trip this summer and we really enjoy it.