Towing capability 03 Adventurer 33' ?

[Big Viking]

Hello! I'm new to the forum (or any forum, actually) so any guidance is appreciated.

My wife and I just bought our first motorhome - a 2003 Adventurer 33' with an 8.1 liter (496 c.i.) GM V8 and Workhorse chassis.

We're trying to figure out an appropriate vehicle to tow behind. I believe the written documents suggest we can tow up to 5,000 lbs. That would be heavier than my GMC Sierra extra cab with a canopy.

We don't want to over-tax our MH or be the slowest vehicle going up hills. Fiat 500s are about 2,300 lbs. and too small for my 6'4" 280 lbs. frame. Jeep Cherokees are about 4,000 lbs. Wranglers are about 4,600 lbs.

What does the practical experience and wisdom of the group say regarding the reasonable weight of a dingy for our particular motorhome?

[BirchyBoy]

I’d stick with something under the max allowed and then decide which vehicle fits you. We’re currently looking for something ourselves and I think we’re going to go with an early 2000’s Wrangler because there are a lot of them and they can be easy and cheap to fix.

[BobC]

The max of 5,000 pounds may be just be the rating of your hitch or may be the theoretical max for your vehicle. You really need to do the math based on your actual motorhome weight, packed, full fuel and freshwater tanks, etc. Ideally you should also try to stay at or below 80% of the max.

Here's a site that may help you:
https://www.lichtsinn.com/blog/how-m...motorhome-tow/

[al1florida]

You can find a brochure for your RV here: https://winnebagoind.com/product-res...ct-information


That may give you the towing capacity. Probably 5000 pounds.


HOWEVER, there is also a figure for GCWR. That is the weight of your RV with everything in it ready to go RV'ing including passengers plus the weight of the truck. You need to weigh the RV at a truck scale to find your actual weight. Do a search for "CAT Scale Locations" to find a place to weigh your rig.



I think a full sized, pretty much empty, p/u is at least 5000 pounds.


BTW, don't worry about going slow up the mountains, or down for that matter. Going up you want to keep your RPM's up in the 3500 to 4500 range to keep from overheating. If that means being in 3rd gear at 35-45mph then that is the correct speed.