Towing with MoHo

[rvdawg]

Hey All

I am new to this Moho thing, just got our Sighseer 34A with the workhorse, and would like to tow up 7500# on a dual axle 21' flat bed. We have Atv's and antique tractors that we occasionally take along. Have already replaced the 5000# factory reciever for a 10,000# unit and installed a brake controller. According to the Sightseer GCVW it should handle 7500#, and tongue wieght of 750#. Does anyone have experince doing this? How's it handle and hows the extra wieght effect the steering(can it get front end light).
We won't be going cross country loaded like this, taking trips of couple hundred miles.
I would appreicate any advice.

[rvdawg]

Hey All

I am new to this Moho thing, just got our Sighseer 34A with the workhorse, and would like to tow up 7500# on a dual axle 21' flat bed. We have Atv's and antique tractors that we occasionally take along. Have already replaced the 5000# factory reciever for a 10,000# unit and installed a brake controller. According to the Sightseer GCVW it should handle 7500#, and tongue wieght of 750#. Does anyone have experince doing this? How's it handle and hows the extra wieght effect the steering(can it get front end light).
We won't be going cross country loaded like this, taking trips of couple hundred miles.
I would appreicate any advice.

[smlranger]

Dawg:

Glad you came back to the forum for your first 'newby' questions. Since you have replaced the receiver with a 10K lb receiver and determined the 7,500 lbs you may tow will not exceed your GCVWR, sounds like tongue weight might be the main issue. As you said, if tongue weight is too much, may make the front end of your MH light and negatively impact steering. You might want to consider using weight equalizing bars on the hitch set up. Or, if you can adjust the axle/s location on your flatbed, you can modify tongue weight.

Hang on and some of our other experts may respond with other suggestions.

[dirko]

Hi Ho: I can't address your specific situation because our motor home is different (Suncruiser 35U), but we didn't have any problem towing our 26 ft. cabin cruiser which weighs about 7000 lbs. Your motor home is heavy, so it actually isn't as unstable as a smaller vehicle would be. It isn't a good idea to reduce the tounge weight very much because the old 10:1 ratio is required for the trailer to maintain stability, especially if the loading is different from time to time. You could probably reduce it to around 500 lbs. but only if you know that it can't become less than that. Nothing is worse than having too little tounge weight unless the hitch breaks, and this isn't likely. The real answer is just to try it out and see how it goes. Don't forget the standard stuff like tire pressure, lights, and safety chains. Good luck!

[Y-Guy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">rvdawg </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I had a question about the brake controller - was it pre-wired or did you have to run wires to the back for it first?

[zertrider]

Do not use a weight disributing hitch. Never a good idea on a motorhome that has any sort of overhang. You should be alright, mostly due to the fact that the 34A has a relatively short rear overhang, so there will not be a whole lot of leverage on the rear. I would suggest loading the unit as you normally would and put the trailer on with the full 750lb of tongue weight and then get the rear axle weighed to make sure you have not exceeded the rear axle GVW, which is 13,500lbs.

[rvdawg]

Had to wire it, just a ran a lead to the back, local trailer shop did it for me. Didn't take very long and about $ 135 for a digital impulse controller and labor.

Everything we haul is wheeled, easy to load and balance on the trailer to keep the tongue weight correct. The most we would ever have behind the MoHo is 7500lbs but we have had over 10,000lbs on the trailer behind the pick-up never had any problems getting the load balanced.

Appreicate the advise I am really curious as to how this is going to work.