Anyone know where I can find the towing capacity for my rig? 38ft Barth Regency w/ Cat 3208 w/ turbo and intercooler. It has an allison transmission. The GVWR is 29640 pounds per data tag.

Weigh your coach with full tanks, people and baggage then deduct this from the GVWR and the result is your towing capacity.

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Anyone know where I can find the towing capacity for my rig

"If your rear bumper is draggin' on the pavement, it's too heavy...."

My understanding is that GVWR includes weight of vehicle, all contents and tongue weight of the towed vehicle--- but not the weight of the vehicle being towed. I think some adds by Barth listed the towing capacity-- maybe a Regency add had such info-- I don't have the Barthmobile CD with me to look it up.

Regards Bud

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towing capacity for my rig? 38ft Barth Regency w/ Cat 3208

Guys,

Am I correct that probably between 7000 to 10,000lbs?

I'm going to give my good old boy opinion....

I never heard the term towing capacity until I was probably 30 years old. We just loaded up things and pulled it by feeling.

Since, then, I've learned a few things. There is a difference between "what a vehicle is rated to tow" and "what a vehicle can tow"....engineering teaches us to calculate in for the unforseen or what people will do that you cannot predict...those are called safely factors. Manufacturers will understate towing capacities to keep out of legal problems. If a vehicle is rated for 10,000 there is a safety factor built in so you can safely probably tow 15,000 or more with some preparations... A lot of it is common sense and depends on how far, how fast and how often you want to tow. If you do it all the time, stick to arouns the rated values...for an odd trip, you can go over easily...

More recently, I towed a 12,000 tongue pull trailer with a 1/2 ton Suburban with a 350. I made a few modifications and it towed great and safely...I kept it within a 300 mile radius on the flatlands.

On the other hand, about 20 years ago, a buddy and I were going to Hershey Pennsylvania to the annual car meet. We were driving my 4.3 V-6 Astro Van pulling a 20 foot car hauler with no brakes. It pulled great and no problems. We stopped in Indianna and by fluke got a great deal on and ended up buying 8 engines... four v-12 LIncolns, 3 V-8 cadillacs, 1917, 1925 and 1946 along with a straight 8 Huppomibile with trans along with various other little goodies. The Huppomobile was so heavy that another buddy who weighed 300+ pounds, had to stand on the engine lift to counterbalance the lift so we could load it! We spent a lot of time balancing the load and it actually pulled pretty good. But it braked like crap.....I remember slamming on my brakes onetime and that really jump-started my prayer life....after that, we learned to anticipate stops and be careful. We drove from Indianna to Pennsylvania and then all the way back to Oklahoma with no problems....probably had 6000 lbs or more of engines....didn't need to know and didn't want to know....

I look back on how trailers were towed 50 and 60 years ago. Imagine in the 1950's towing a 40 foot aluminum travel trailer on a 1957 Pontiac etc...no weight distributing hitch (shop built by a local welder), no electric trailer brakes...maybe only a hitch mounted hydraulic setup....no cooling modifications...thinking of this was why I even tried pulling my 12k pound trailer with a 1/2 ton Suburban...

Sometimes we can get so caught up in "recommendations" and what "authorities" say....I think you should use common sense, take into consideration the tongue weight, the overhand of your coach (for the leverage effect of a heavy trailer) , how much extra power your coach has, whether you'll tow a lot of miles or just a few, whether towing through mountains or plains.

Hope that helps...

The mfgers list a gcvw (gross combined vehicle weight) which is the weight of the MH and tow vehicle. Pickups also have this.

I believe in the case of the Barth I believe the max weights are provided by the chassis mfger. In my case Spartan.

Thanks everyone for your detailed input. I was thinking around 10000 pounds myself. My plan is to use the barth and my F-350(7.3 powerstroke to move my entire house hold contents from Charleston, SC to Idaho Falls, ID. Sounds like I should have things covered between the two.

Got to love being in the military(Navy).

Must be getting some nuke training...

More like giving some nuke training for the second time around.