2008 38' New Horizons

[easdsa]

Saw this one yesterday: 2008 New Horizons 38RLTSS for Sale - F349 - PPL Motor Homes and it looks interesting. The listing says wide-body, but I thought the Summit was standard body. Anyone know this coach?

If I read the sticker correctly, this coach has a gross weight of 19,500 pounds. The listing says the weight is 16,285 pounds, so I assume that is an empty weight, giving it a CCC of somewhat over 3000 pounds. Does this make sense?

Also, I wasn't able to open the upper left hatch on the front (visible in the first three pictures). What's behind there? Picture 4 shows a small light on the side, facing backward. Is that the backup light?

This is listed as a 38' coach. How close is that to reality? I understand that the length is calculated from pin to bumper. The reason I'm asking is that, if we decide to go for something like this, we'll get a used F450 4-door to pull it, and I'm a bit concerned about overall length.

Final question: about how tall is something like this? I understand that if we buy something I'll actually measure it, but I'd like a rough guess at this point.

[NewHorizons]

I just happen to be on here today and noticed your questions so I thought I'd take the time to answer and help out the best I can.

The Summit body before this years model was 96" wide.

As far as I can tell without having the VIN # it looks as if the GVW for the the unit is probably 19,500 and the UVW is 16,285. That is pretty typical for a New Horizons.

Behind the upper left front door would be your electrical compartment for the unit. The small light on the side in picture 4 is the backup light.

The true measurements of the coach could be off up to a foot and a half. It's really hard to say since each coach is custom built.

The height of a Summit with the air conditioners is 12'8".

I hope this helps.
Candie

[Judy L]

David, My husband and I own a 2007 Summit that is very similar to the one that you’re considering. The primary interior difference is that ours includes a washer/dryer and therefore has a smaller toilet room and no cupboard to the right of the door as you enter. We have owned it for about 1.5 years and are loving it.

The dry weight rating on ours is 17,350 and the GVWR is 22500. I think this might be because ours has the MorRyde IS suspension. We had the height measured once and the actual height measured 13’ 3”. We also had the wheels changed to 17.5” G114 and added dexter disc brakes when we bought it.

You mentioned that you would probably pull the trailer with an F450 so I thought you might be interested in our experience. We originally used a 2013 F450 to haul our Summit and when we had it weighed by the RVSEF folks, we found that the rear axle of the F450 was at 97% of its capacity. Our pin weight is 4300 lbs. and the trailer weight is about 20,000. We added Firestone airbags to the truck to keep the rear from sagging too much.

We eventually decided that we weren't comfortable running that close to the max weight capacity and we also weren't comfortable with its braking power, so we sold the F450 and are now towing with a 610 Volvo. I know of others towing similar loads with F450s and they seem to do just fine. We just weren’t comfortable with it. The capacities of F450s seem to vary considerably from one year to the next so I would suggest researching carefully.

At any rate, I thought it might be helpful for you to have this information. Make of it what you will. Best of luck with your decision.

Judy