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towing GVW

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mikebohart

RVF Newbee
Joined
Feb 18, 2022
Messages
1
Has anyone towed a trailer with vehicle on it that weighs over 5000 lbs. Mercedes Sprinter vans have a 5000 lb tow limit they impose. What puzzles me is that Mercedes shows for their various Sprinter models the same tow rating. A Sprinter cargo van single rear wheel is not going to have a curb weight anywhere near what my Tiffin Wayfarer 25 TW with the coach body weighs, so how come they are rated the same towing-wise? Too much of a puzzle for my feeble brain! Thanks for any replies.
 
You are comparing apples and oranges. The cargo van may have less capacity due to axle specs, but it still has a GCVW rating. So if it has a combined total of only 8000 GVWR, it can still pull 5000 if the GCWR is rated at 13000 (yours is 15,250). Also the limiting factor is often the hitch itself (in this case 5000lbs) although it wouldn't make much sense to put a 10k hitch on a vehicle if towing that much would be over the GCWR.
 
Last edited:
Looking at the specs you can only tow 4220 with the van loaded to capacity. But since they didnt bother to provide the approximate unladen weight of the coach, you don’t know your net cargo capacity, so you can’t determine your payload from the brochure. You would have to weigh the coach empty and do the math (GVWR minus actual weight) to figure out what you can carry, then weigh it again loaded for camping, and then figure out what you can tow. If you are under 11,030 you can add the difference to the 4,220, but not to exceed 5000 because of the hitch. But certainly that 5,000lb hitch looks like it was a proper choice. It would be interesting to see your actual weights.

 

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