Thanks for the information Mikeh. Looks like you are 20 pounds under the GAWR for the front axle. According to Newell's website, beginning with coach 1251, weight ratings are:
Front 18,700
Drive 28,600
Tag 16,000
GVWR 63,600
45' Prevost conversions have always fought with front end weight near or over the GAWR when loaded. BlueBird has a recall underway for their 450 LXI coaches built with overloaded front axles which they are solving by moving the generators further back in the coach and other changes. As the high end coaches have gotten long, wider, gone to larger and more slides and added new features, weight has steadily increased. Newell has typically had more Cargo Carrying Capacity than other high end coaches. Currently Newell has the highest GVWR of any coach. Newell works very hard to meet their customers demands and that means maintaining high quality standards while adding more amenities and more square footage with the slides extended.
There are certainly ways to reduce the weight of the high end coaches using techniques employed in the private aircraft conversion industry but the cost impacts are significant. An example is granite. Granite weighs about 168 pounds per cubic foot versus ceramic tile which weighs about 45 pounds per cubic foot. In some private jet conversions, the granite used is a thinner layer of granite bonded to an aluminum honeycomb, thus significantly reducing its weight while retaining the benefits of real granite.
It can be surprising that even some of the plastic (fiberglass) coaches, including the Country Coach Affinity and the Newmar KingAir, have increased GVWR to 54,000 pounds to meet the high weights associated with large quad slides and increased levels of ammenities.
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