I have the GT XL 352QS, gross weight 24,000# max load at #30,000. Bought it new with no modification when I left the dealer in Dallas almost a year ago. It is a nice coach but the drive was not as fun as I thought before I bought the coach. This is my first ever of any type of RV/coach. The biggest that I have ever owned and still have it is the full-size custom van which sometimes got kick around a little on the freeway when passing any 18 wheelers due to the large side panel of the van.
The white knuckle driving to me is caused by the length of the coach's overhang behind the rear axle, as well as the large and almost perfectly square wall, and last but not least, the ground clearance of the coach is quite high, which results in a higher center gravity. On top of all of this, the weight distribution of the coach put most of the weight toward the rear axle that would make the front end lighter and this would make the coach harder to control if we are driving against the wind or if the wind came from anywhere between 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock.
When you add the tow to the rear of the coach, the wind load on your toad would also add the additional swing to the rear hitch which in turn would add more swing to the rear of the coach. At this time, using the rear axle as the pivot point, it would multiply the swing toward the front axle which in turn, you would have more difficult to control the coach.
That said, I had spent few thousand bucks extra for the following:
1 - Blu Ox True Center Steering Stabilizer
2 - Change out the factory front Sway Bar to Blu Ox heavier sway bar
3 - Add the Road Master rear sway bar to the rear axle and still keep the factory rear sway bar in place (Blu Ox does not have the appropriate sway bar mounting kit for my coach).
4 - Adding the Blu Ox towing system for my toad.
5 - Blu Ox Patriot II newest model for my toad braking.
Combined all of the above cost me around +/- $6,000.
With a good set of towing apparatus and an additional rear sway bar like what I did mentioned above, the coach seems to behave much better under toad.
Even with all of that, during the windy days, at 60-65 mph, I still have to fight with the wind. The nice thing about the Blu Ox True Center Steering Stabilizer is I could push a button, it would instantly realign my steering support so I have less than white knuckle, but it nowhere near fun driving on the windy days.
However, without or low-speed wind, the coach ran really great, tracked perfectly. On some section of the highway, flat, with the toad, I did accidentally rev the coach to as much as 75 mph before realized it because it ran so smooth. I felt like driving my small car. Of course, I slow back down to my normal speed at 60-65mph as soon as realize it.
The bottom line is, I could not imagine what my driving would be if I have not upgraded the coach. It did not only add more pleasure to the driving for the most part except the on the very windy days, it also adds more safety to me and everyone who rode with me.
Before did the upgrade, I normally drove about 6 hours or 300 miles per day max. After the upgrade, I just did a 4000 miles trip over 2 months, and there were three days that I did over 12 hours of driving and over 600 miles for each of that day, and I did not even feel tired. I did so because the coach behaved so well and makes me feel like keep driving. I stop because I did not want to drive in the dark, otherwise, I could keep driving.
Hope that experience would help you to decide on your upgrade.
Have fun.
John & Susan, Olivia the dachshund
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