Class C Specifications

[Scott_M]

We started searching for a new class C as it seems we have outgrown our old one. It seems that manufacturers have started to significantly limit the amount of information that they provide in the specifications. I can find the max gross vehicle weight and max gross combined vehicle weight for the toad, but can not find the dry vehicle weight. I am trying to find out how much payload capacity I end up with after fuel, water, people, etc. I want to make sure I have enough payload capacity remaining to put food in the refrigerator. I have downloaded whatever information is available on the manufacturer's websites without success. Is there some place that I can find this information?

[Scott_M]

Forgot to ask, how is everyone liking the E-450 chassis and the 7.3 V8 and the Torqueshift transmission? I know I shouldn't have to ask and it's a little late now anyway, but hows the fuel mileage?

[Scott_M]

Got some numbers from the manufacturer, through a line employee. Out the factory door weight is averaging a little over 2950# of CCC. Adding fuel, water, propane, spare tire and full tanks (1490#), we would have 1460# for us and our stuff (~930#). We travel fairly lite and never with full holding tanks, we should still have additional excess capacity.

Pulled the trigger yesterday on the Odyssey 24B. Should be delivered by late October to early November.

[Atlee]

My 2018 Jayco Redhawk 22J on the E-450 is also 24' long. It has a high CCC, 3,846#. That # is going to go down permanently a little since I'm having a Fantastic Fan And a slide topper installed.

carringb wrote:
FWIW - The Yellow stickers are accurate. Legally they have to be. At least to the point they were equipped when they left the factory floor. Dealer acceesories won't be included, and some (like hydraulic leveling jacks) are quite heavy.

One more data point: My sisters 2020 Forester on a 2019 E450 chassis has in unloaded weight of just over 10,000 pounds and a GVWR of 14,500, so it has over 4,000 pounds of payload!

[carringb]

FWIW - The Yellow stickers are accurate. Legally they have to be. At least to the point they were equipped when they left the factory floor. Dealer acceesories won't be included, and some (like hydraulic leveling jacks) are quite heavy.

One more data point: My sisters 2020 Forester on a 2019 E450 chassis has in unloaded weight of just over 10,000 pounds and a GVWR of 14,500, so it has over 4,000 pounds of payload!

[memtb]

Scott M wrote:
We started searching for a new class C as it seems we have outgrown our old one. It seems that manufacturers have started to significantly limit the amount of information that they provide in the specifications. I can find the max gross vehicle weight and max gross combined vehicle weight for the toad, but can not find the dry vehicle weight. I am trying to find out how much payload capacity I end up with after fuel, water, people, etc. I want to make sure I have enough payload capacity remaining to put food in the refrigerator. I have downloaded whatever information is available on the manufacturer's websites without success. Is there some place that I can find this information?

For much the same reason that persons arrested are given their “Miranda Rights”! :B memtb

[PatJ]

ron.dittmer wrote:
It would be nice to hear from an expert on this subject matter.

Sorry Ron, but like it or not, YOU are the expert on E350 & E450 chassis on this forum, in my opinion anyway.

I agree with all that say the yellow sticker wins. I purchased a brand new from-a-dealer class C in April 2019. It was my third RV over 25 years so I wasn't born yesterday and I shopped and researched hard. It was shocking how much the GVWR/GCWR varied between brands for very similar rigs of similar floor plans and identical lengths as per the yellow sticker. What I learned was there are many subtle options for the Ford chassis C to be aware of that all affect GVWR and GCWR. If you are going to drop $70k-100K on a new rig, take the time to learn the differences and pay attention to the yellow sticker as one of many things to consider when you are comparing models. Just my opinion.

To contribute to the weight conversation; my 2019 Freedom Elite 23H which is the same as a Thor 23U is:

GVWR 12,500
GAWR F 4600
GAWR R 8500
GCWR 18,600

In July 2019 I went through a weigh station mid-1-week-trip. At the point of the weigh in fresh water tank was full and both waste tanks were about 1/4. Everything was loaded, and my wife and one child and I were in the rig, as well as two coolers, all of our bikes, a grille, a 5 gal propane cyl, groceries, two dogs, >3/4 propane, >3/4 fuel, etc. Nothing towed. Weights:

3560 F
7800 R
11,520 Total

Fully loaded I am still 1000 pounds short of GVWR, and similar on each axle. Also, I very often tow a double axle "car hauler" 7K GVWR trailer (2k# empty) with a Polaris RZR and two quads on it (4k# loaded.) My Thor has a GCWR of 18,600 and a hitch rating of 8k#. The RV tows the trailer fantastic with zero issues with about 650# on the hitch.

[carringb]

ron.dittmer wrote:

I wonder if "some" of the reason why the 2007 E350 and earlier years, the Ford spec'd rear axle limit of 7800 pounds was stated as such because the rear end was not equipped with any kind of rear stabilizer bar or trac bar.

It's because the E350 was equipped with Dana 70-2U. For a handful of years, some came with the Dana 70-HD, which was rated at 8500 pounds.

The E450 has a "Modified Dana 70HD", which is sometimes listed as a Dana 78, and is really a Dana 80 housing with a Dana 70 carrier. The older E450s with 4.63 gears have a true Dana 80.

[rjstractor]

ron.dittmer wrote:

Chum lee wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
I weighed our rig empty removing anything that wasn't bolted down, no people, no fresh or waste water, but it did have a full 55 gallons of fuel and full 40 pounds of propane. It weighed in at 9,920. For the record, we don't have a slide out.

Loaded up during our "heaviest trip" full fresh water, two adults, full fuel, etc, the rig weighed 11480, just 20 pounds shy of the chassis limit.

During that "heavy" trip, our rear axle was officially over-loaded by 420 pounds, and our front axle was under-loaded by 1340 pounds.

And it sounds like it worked out just fine. Per the photo in your sig (it's a beautiful rig) have a great trip! Chum lee

Yes the trip worked out perfectly fine. I never noticed the extra weight being of any concern. I made sure the tires were inflated according to the load and had a good trip.

I wonder if "some" of the reason why the 2007 E350 and earlier years, the Ford spec'd rear axle limit of 7800 pounds was stated as such because the rear end was not equipped with any kind of rear stabilizer bar or trac bar. My rig has both (heavy duty versions) installed after I took delivery. The rig handles nicely. Maybe my suspension upgrades indirectly increased the rear axle limit by some amount.

It would be nice to hear from an expert on this subject matter.

I'm assuming you have the same load range E rated tires that are used on the E450? In that case you have a lot of reserve tire capacity. An issue on the bigger E450s is that when you load up to the GAWR, the limits of the tires are approached. With the cramped wheelwells these rigs have, there is not much air circulation for tire cooling and these tires heat up when loaded to their max. IMO I think that's why owners of larger E450s or 4500s need to watch their RGAW to keep from overloading the tires.

[bobndot]

What is 11,030 ? is that your gvwr ? If so, your rv is basically the same as mine only you have the extra weight of 2 slides . Each slide is maybe 300-400#.

If that's the case it might not leave too much for your personal gear.
I'm not up on the Sprinters but I think it has been mentioned here about the shy payload of the Sprinter chassis being restrictive. Watch the rear axle rating as well.


Specs for 2018 Thor Motor Coach - Four Winds Sprinter Floorplan: 24FS (Class C)
Price. $111,300. $111,300. ...
Engine. Mercedes-Benz / V6. Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. ...
Transmission. 5 Speed Automatic.
Driveline.
Dimensions. 24.67 ft. (296 in.) ...
Weight. Towing Capacity. 11,030 lbs.
Capacities. 26.4 gal. Storage Capacity. ...
Holding Tanks. 30.0 gal.

[Lwiddis]

Running with only a quarter tank of fresh water eliminates so many beautiful dry campsites in the Southwest. Fill and dump whenever possible.

[Scott_M]

I currently have a Four Winds 24FS on a Sprinter chassis. Unfortunately, if it ever had a yellow sticker it was removed. The door jam has numerous conversion stickers, but none with weight information. My previous 5th wheel had the sticker.

I have blown out several tires with considerable damage to the rig, I don’t know it it was from a weight problem or not. I my in-laws blew out at least a dozen tires on their fifth wheel only reason that could be concluded was overweight. They blew tires so frequently, they never got old. Therefore, so I want to make sure all is well with the weight and I have enough capacity to carry what I want.

[BFL13]

Curious about using the door sticker with Class Cs. I don't know how it works with newer Cs, but our 1991 is an RV built on what Ford called an "incomplete truck". ( It could have been made into an ambulance , eg)

The door info for weights on the 1991 incomplete truck is just for that, so it does not take into account the RV part added on after. There would be no way for them to know how much it weighs with the RV part on it. All they knew was how much the truck part can carry.

You have to weigh it with the empty RV part on it to see where to start from for adding more weight.

In our case, the empty RV part took up all the weight allowance for the truck part, so anything we add puts us over GVWR and RAWR. It has been on the road for 30 years well over the weight ratings so I am not too fussed about it (we got it three years ago) I have the back tires with more psi for the actual weight on them, and it has air bags, but that does not change the fact it is way over RAWR and GVWR. Luckily, "they" only make commercials pull into the scales!

[ron_dittmer]

Chum lee wrote:

ron.dittmer wrote:
I weighed our rig empty removing anything that wasn't bolted down, no people, no fresh or waste water, but it did have a full 55 gallons of fuel and full 40 pounds of propane. It weighed in at 9,920. For the record, we don't have a slide out.

Loaded up during our "heaviest trip" full fresh water, two adults, full fuel, etc, the rig weighed 11480, just 20 pounds shy of the chassis limit.

During that "heavy" trip, our rear axle was officially over-loaded by 420 pounds, and our front axle was under-loaded by 1340 pounds.

And it sounds like it worked out just fine. Per the photo in your sig (it's a beautiful rig) have a great trip! Chum lee

Yes the trip worked out perfectly fine. I never noticed the extra weight being of any concern. I made sure the tires were inflated according to the load and had a good trip.

I wonder if "some" of the reason why the 2007 E350 and earlier years, the Ford spec'd rear axle limit of 7800 pounds was stated as such because the rear end was not equipped with any kind of rear stabilizer bar or trac bar. My rig has both (heavy duty versions) installed after I took delivery. The rig handles nicely. Maybe my suspension upgrades indirectly increased the rear axle limit by some amount.

It would be nice to hear from an expert on this subject matter.

[Atlee]

I think that yellow sticker is ideal. I wish all ads for RV's included that sticker. The yellow sticker in my Redhawk 22J tells me I have 3,858# of cargo capacity. What more do I need?

mleekamp wrote:
I too was lacking info when looking at C's a few years ago. I found that the model we were interested in, the best place was on the yellow sticker on the unit itself. Not ideal. Our C dry weight is 11,807lbs (with full propane tank and full fuel tank). It's a 33' C with one slide.

I have the original brocure, both paper and PDF -- it lists basics like grey/black/fresh water tank volumes, basic dimensions. I had a hard time even finding out if we had a 15k or 13.5k AC unit. Strange.