Lifting rear of coach

[Jeff Bayley]

Jeez I'm way late on this perpetual suject and deffinitley not a pro and forget who said what becuase it was so lengthy but here goes.

Regarding the $1,000 of weight, my opinion (from Dum and Dumber........i'm both) is the same as the member that answer Johns concern about the bus handeling differently and all that stuff. No way that extra weight is going to be noticed by a tag, drive axle or anything else.

Next, whever the "rating" for the specs are are probabley concervitive. Case in point, the thing is supposed to have a 10,000 lb limit right ? I pulled that stacker from CA to FL and weight it on the way and it was 17k pounds. Further to the breaking isssue Jon mentioned, I drove the trailer around (empty at 12k pounds) getting the electrick brake controler installed and yes I could feel a difference but had not problem stopping. So the extra $1,000 pounds on a already 45k pound coach.........immaterial (again, I'm dumb and dumber).

Since I'm rigging up a truck tool box to go on the hitch (a fraction of the weight discussed so far) I'm interested in (I thin it was Kevins) eleboration on modifying the hitch to avoid the left to right sway. putting the box in the single hitch won't work. I either need to remove the bumper and make cut out's in it for some stabalizing rods that might insert or possibly go ahead nad proivision it at that time with two addition Reese hitches if I decide to try carrying something heaver later (like the motor bike carrier you all have been bantering on) Peeking under the coach, I'm not certain where those femal Reese connectors would go and they wouldn't need to be rated at 10,000 pounds, they would just be "hamburger helper" for stabilizing mostly. I thought about riggging up turnbuckles to tighten up. The triple Resse hitch would be a bit unsightly I guess but then again I plan on having the box and aux gen there all the time.

One thing nobody touched on too much was getting the motorcycle lift (and in my case the full size truck tool box, up off the ground enough to prevent dragging. I'm supposing on having something fabricated to get the bottom of my box at leat a foot higher than my bumber unless they make those adjustment adapters for raising or lowering the height with enough travel. Anyone know what max size is on those ?

[Just Plain Jeff]

I forgot (big surprise) to add another part of the Overbilt-style lift into the discussion.

Not only are you hanging 1K lbs out over the rear of the coach, but also extending the hitch by about 18 inches beyond the rear bumper of a coach.

So the hitch is not only adding additional weight to the rear of the coach (which in some conversions may 'lift' up the front, bringing it back to factory specs, BTW due to being front heavy), you are creating a pivot point for the tow vehicle yet another foot and a half or so beyond its original design.

That weren't in the plans at the factory when the shells were assembled.

[lewpopp]

Jeff B.,

I guess it goes without saying that even "spell check" was so confused that is just threw up its' hands and sent it thru.

You guys are saying I'm feeling better the way I'm starting to scratch backs with roughness, but what you don't know is I haven't been myself for over 3 years and when I come out of this I will become uncontrolable.

[gmcbuffalo]

I saw a guy at Havasu Lake who had a trailer attached to his MH with two trailer hitches and the trailer had two pivoting wheels on the back. The
trailer then was than a fixed extension of the MH and the wheels carried the back half of the load and turned with the MH. He carried all his ATV's and PVC's on it.
GregM

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Lew thanks to you I have mastered the spell checker.

TA DA

Thank you for your push. Who knows how long it would have taken without you.

I was trying to figure out what you might poke me about now.

[merle&louise]

Peter,

In light of all the discussion about raising the front of the coach when a motorcycle and lift are added to the rear; would you be willing to measure the vertical clearance of your front bumper from the ground with the Smart car mounted on the back of your bus. And then measure the same distance with it not mounted. This would tell us how much the extra weight in the back will affect the way the bus handles, n'est pas?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Tuga,

With any lift attached to the rear, unless there is excessive weight that goes beyond the ability of the air bags to support, the heights front and rear are unaffected by changes of load, such as the addition of the Smart car.

The valves which determine the height of the bus when it is in the road position add or release air pressure to regulate the height based on the position of and arm which pivots up and down. The only limitation to whether the coach can maintain a specific height is the pressure of the air system, and usually the front air bags will require a greater pressure to bring the front end up to the proper height, than the rears. Adding a heavy weight to the rear actually reduces that requirement.

What will be affected with changes of weight is the rate of speed for the bus to return to the road height. In the case of Peter's coach he is adding weight to the rear, and reducing weight on the front so if the coach starts out with all bags deflated, it will take a little longer for the rear air bags to bring the coach up, and a little less time for the front air bags to raise the coach up.

When travelling down the road it is the rate at which the air bags recover that determines if the rear of the bus will drag.

[truk4u]

Should be the same if the leveling valves are working correctly!

[Petervs]

Hi Jon and Tom and Tuga,
Jon and Tom are right, the height is the same with or without the Smart on the back. When you first load it, before you start the bus engine, the back sags down about one half inch. Not much.

The weight on the front axle goes down 1000 pounds, from 14,000 to 13,000 give or take. Same effect as if 5 men walked from the front row of a transit bus to the bathroom in the back! It is a trivial change in weights and moments.

I believe there is no problem adding weight back there, but there is a big problem if you only weld on huge steel brackets at the bottom and cantilever all the weight off the rear bottom end. My design attaches top and bottom and so it just extends the truss. If I remove the rack, the only thin visible is 2 3/4 inch holes above the tail lights. They were covered with a little piece of tape at POG II, nobody noticed.

Hope that clarifies.

[gmcbuffalo]

Peter can you send pictures of your Smart on the back and the rach attachments.
GregM