Community Forums

John H... · 07-18-2011, 03:02 PM

If you supposedly get someone to BEEF it up with extra welds, will they sign some sort of release saying you are legal to tow the extra weight. I don't think so. If you are in an accident pulling more than your rated to, your insurance will more than likely not pay and claims or law suits.

johnsonjm209 · 07-18-2011, 05:26 PM

It sounds pretty simple to me.
Get in an accident.
Police will weigh the vehicle(s).
If over the stated weights more than 1-2% or so, get a ticket for Reckless Driving. i.e. Knowingly driving overweight for vehicle,wheels,tires, brakes etc.
Insurance company drops you and your probably broke by now, (before the civil suit).

Big Bear Local · 07-18-2011, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsonjm209

It sounds pretty simple to me.
Get in an accident.
Police will weigh the vehicle(s).
If over the stated weights more than 1-2% or so, get a ticket for Reckless Driving. i.e. Knowingly driving overweight for vehicle,wheels,tires, brakes etc.
Insurance company drops you and your probably broke by now, (before the civil suit).

Darn ! You guy's take all the excitment out of RVing..........

Mark

frankdamp · 07-18-2011, 08:38 PM

I also have a toad weight issue. Our daily driver (and only car) is an 03 Kia Sedona. I was amazed to find that it weighs over 4700 pounds. It's not flat towable without about $3K in mods, but it's too heavy for most dollies (they seem to max out at 4500) and on a dolly it would exceed the 5000 lb rating of my hitch.

We've kinda concluded that $3K would pay for a lot of days with Enterprise, and since we have two Labradors, we don't need that independent set of wheels more than once or twice a season.

Finhawk · 07-18-2011, 11:12 PM

The key words here are "Supplemental Brake System!!!!!!!

kfalls · 07-18-2011, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nonno

IMO you need to clarify the "rated to tow 4000lbs" you mentioned in the original post. Even if you can keep the total weight under 26,000 if the hitch is truly rated for 4k and you get into an accident pulling 4600lbs, your insurance company will more than likely deny your claim.

As Gary mentioned it could be a frame extension issue. I had a 37' MH with the W24 chassis GVWR 24K GCWR 30K but the hitch was only rated for 5k. I asked manufacturer about a larger hitch
and they said no because the frame extension wouldn't allow it. Ended up trading what I wanted to use for a toad to a toad under 5k.

Sorry about the confusion on the hitch rating. The motorhome brochure says 4000 lb hitch. I dug further and found the manual says 5000 lbs AND better still the plate on the hitch says 5000 lbs.

All that said. I have decided it is not worth the risk. I never meant to imply getting someone to beef up welds would make it doable. Just as an added precaution. I thought about making sure the GCVW was not exceeded. At first it seemed doable, but 600 lbs off the motorhome load is quite a bit and then there is issue of fuel in the toad and whatever else ends up in there.

Thanks for your input!

Mr_D · 07-18-2011, 11:28 PM

Our DSDP is rated to tow 6,000#'s. I called Spartan and found that all I had to do was change the hitch to a 10,000# rated one and I was good up to the 10,000# limit.
In most cases you can't load light in order to tow more as it's a hitch or frame rating problem. Just reinforcing the frame to tow more isn't legal either as it would have to be recertified by the MH manufacturer.