Last week, I posted about our trip to the RVIA show in Kentucky and asked for suggestions on what to check out or investigate. I will be posting a series of articles responding to some of those ideas over the next several days. One of the questions I was able to track down was posted by Wendy Bell, on Nov. 26 and went as follows:
“Re the new Via from Winnebago. It’s larger than the View (25 feet), yet on the same (?) Sprinter chassis. And it’s got a ton of underneath cargo area. BUT it has a rather limited GVWR at 11,030 lbs. How can they keep making it larger when the View’s promotions a few years ago indicated 24 feet was the limit that the chassis could handle? And didn’t they just build an A box on top of the C chassis? I’m so cynical!”
I was able to track down a rep in the Winnebago area and we discussed this question and he was able to provide what I believe is a suitable answer as follows. First of all, he stated that Winnebago never claimed that 24ft. was a limit on the View. Without any reference, I can only accept what he say. However, on the chassis question, he referred me to the dealer area of the Winnebago website and pointed out the following two images which show the View and the Via chassis.
Via Chassis
View chassis
As you can see, there is a significant difference between the two chassis. Granted they are both “Sprinter” type chassis, but apparently there is more than one style/rating, etc.
Wendy, hopefully this answers your question and I might add that the Via is a very nice coach with apparent quality and some very nice features.
Larry
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Wendy Bell
Wow! Thanks for getting this info for any future Via owners. I was able to test drive one at the PA show and it was a dream, for sure. As for the weight ratings, the GCWR is the GVWR plus the mass of a towed trailer and its contents… not specifically what one could load into the motorhome itself. Moving the mass, however, is what the engine has to do and the GCWR speaks to that, so I’m convinced that this new little motorhome is what it’s cracked up to be. Again, thanks for the inquiries about the chassis.
joyce
hI, IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW WHERE THE ARTICLE IS ON ORPHAN RV’S AND THE PLACE YOU COULD TAKE THEM TO FOR REPAIRS SOME DEALER CALLED NEWMANS??? IN SALT LAKE CITY MAYBE
THANKS JOYCE
larrycad
The Winnebago website lists the Via as having a GCWR of 15250 and a GVWR of 11030 or a difference of almost 4000#.
The View numbers are identical so it would seem there is plenty of carrying capacity.
Jim Meehan
Great answer as far as it went, but I think that one critical c omponent was about the weights. Even if there is significant undermeath storage is there enough capacity in the ccc to accomodate stuff in that storage space?