Johnxhc

Wow, 1,500 lbs per person?!!  I just could not image that!

Probably I am too optimistic, since I am not full time RVer, the longest trip for me probably no more than one month in the summer, I really do not expect to carry too much things with me.

Will definitely weigh the couch before I hit the road.

Thanks for all of your help! Your guys are wonderful!

Here is what I found out from Thor Customer service about my couch by giving them my vin number.

GCWR: 26,000
GRWR 22,000
Vehicle Dry Weight: 16,646.

My flat towed vehicle is 4x4

Taking David's suggestion, I will only fill 1/4 of my fresh tank( I am camping at fully hookup camp site 100%) , that will reduce the load by 300 lbs.

The Weight of the whole family(assuming everyone in the family goes): 860 lbs

Taking David's suggestion, I will not take more than 500 lbs of luggage with me (if I do, I will reduce it to under 500 lbs)

Also the curb weight of my towed vehicle DOES include the weight of the driver (165 lbs) since no one will be at towed vehicle when it is flat towed , the weight of my towed vehicle is only going to be 5,856 - 165 = 5,691 lbs

So What I can tow is as following:
26,000 - 16,646 (Motorhome Weight) - 860 lbs (passenger) - 500 (cargo) - 100 lbs (1/4 of fresh tank water) - 88 (propane ) - 480 (gas) = 7,334

My buffer = 7,334- 5,691(towed vehicle weight ) =1,643

So looks like I still have 1,643 lbs buffer to play with. Even I fill the whole fresh water tank, I still have 1,343 lbs buffer.

That makes me very comfortable.

Of course I will definitely weight the motor home when it is loaded.

Thanks again to all of you

David,

Yes, the Esclade is 4x4 and it will be 4-wheel down, no sure what you means by "brake by two") .I will have the hitch depot guys do the whole flat tow package(including connect the motorhome brake with the Escalade brake, tow bar, plate etc) for me, they quoted me $4,500.00, another shop quoted $5,500. 

That is a very good advice to reduce the motorhome load, I will definitely going to do that when I am towing, what do you think is the ideal buffer between the max tow capacity and the tow vehicles? 1000 lbs?

Thanks again for your help.

John

Ray,

Thanks! I will definitely take that in mind.

Hi,All,
I have a 2017 Thor WindSport J34, The GVWR is 22,000 lbs, I could not find the GCWR for 2017, but for 2020, it is 26,000.00  (link as following)

https://www.thormotorcoach.com/hurricane/specs/

I assume it is the same as 2017 (please let me know if anyone believe it is different for 2017 model). 

The dry weight of the motorhome is 16,800. so my calculation is as following:
Max towing capacity = 26,000 - 16,800 (Motorhome Weight) - 2,000 (cargo, passengers) - 420 (water) - 88 (propane tank) -  480 (gas) = 6,212 (lbs)

I would like to flat tow my 2019 Escalade , curb weight  5,856

The motorhome hitch  is rated 8,000lbs.

the difference between Max towing capacity 6,212 - Escalade weight 5,825 = 400 lbs.

I understand this is not ideal, I definitely would prefer more than 400 lbs difference between my Max towing capacity and towed vehicle. However it is what it is, I figure I probably will not able to drive 70 miles/hour or even 55 mile uphills.

Other than that, does any experts here see any major problems here? (I would like to drive around north American with this)

Please advise.

Thanks in advance.
John