Weights and measures

[grusco]

I've had 2 motor homes since the mid 1990's. the first was a 33' Sea Breeze (vacation coach) and the 2nd was a 2001 Country Coach Intrigue with double slide (full time for 3 years). I pay attention to weights, axle and suspension ratings and find that probably (at least) 90% of motor home owners haven't a clue or care about how much weight they're carrying or it's distribution. I don't own a Newell (yet) but would like to hear from owners who have had their coaches weighed (fully loaded) at each wheel. Are Newells built to evenly distribute weight on the 4 corners? Do you find too much weight in the front and not the back? Is carrying capacity evenly distributed in the basement? How do options such as washer/dryers, etc affect your weight?
I realize each coach is custom but there must be a common thread in chassis build and weight distribution.

[fulltiming]

Newell's are custom built for each owner. The owner dictates the layout they want and the features they would like to have. Consequently, you will find significant diversity in the weight loading per wheel and per axle on various coaches built in the same year, much less across a range of years. The diversity I would expect to be significantly greater than on mass produced coaches where there is little opportunity for customer to create their own floorplan.

Newell provides significantly more basement storage than most other motorhomes or motorcoaches. This allows the flexibility of either carrying more 'stuff' to add to the weight or rearranging where you store things to even out the load on the various wheel positions if it isn't fairly well distributed to begin with.

Another issue is the almost record setting tank sizes on Newells. Most early 1990 Newells carried approximately 320 gallons of fuel, 165 gallons of water plus 20 gallons in the water heater, and 175 gallons of combined gray/black water storage and in those with propane, 55 gallons of propane (80% of the 69 gallon tank). Just filling the fuel, propane and water tanks added 3775 pounds.

With the advent of slides, the coaches got heavier and the suspension and GVWR were increased to deal with the additional weight.

In general, I would say that, as with most all large, heavy coaches, the front axle is the closest to its GAWR. Even back in the early 1990's, Newells typically had GVWR's in excess of 45,000 pounds and CGVWR of 65,000 pounds and those ratings have risen considerably during the past 18 years.

On my coach, I can adjust the pressure on the tag axle to equalize the reserve capacity between the tag and the drive axle. Even though I carry over 4,000 pounds of personal 'stuff' in my coach in addition to myself, my wife and a 150 pound dog, I am below GVWR with all tanks full. I have been able to balance the load such that no corner is overloaded but there are still differences in various tire positions. The front is well balanced side to side but very near the GAWR. the rear is somewhat heavier on the left side than the right side but has more capacity remaining than the front.