Reading about Elliot got me thinking about my place. I live in the country on some acreage and have a gravel driveway entry/exit that slopes down and then up in both directions, and is off camber. My driveway is a left turn in, right turn out. It never occurred to me that a class A could not do this without damage, and maybe Elliot's was a fluke, but it spawned some questions.
Questions
1- Do people take these in off camber roads, ie, forest roads, dirt/gravel driveways, parks, etc?
2- Is there any damage when this occurs, ie, frame bends, panels coming off or de-laminating, etc?
3- How common are broken windshields?
4- How do you drive/operate the DP/HWH to handle this? Would I manually raise all bags to high and slowly drive through it?
I cannot imagine that these or other class As are pavement only rigs, surely people take these to some of the places I mentioned in Q1 and they can handle various angles?
Think Elliot may have taken his where he should not have taken it.
My '95 U-240 is 14 going on 15 years with me going in/out on 1.5miles oil top road in bad shape, then into my drive up hill with sharp left on road base and a 12" culvert, sharp right on sand hill with pine tree roots, across 100 yards of mowed grass, up 3-4 foot jump into the barn. My U-240 does not have air bags, mine to torsion bars, it rocks and rolls all the way, the connection between the windshield and dash squeeches as it moves. No problems at all, for sure none that you list. Think about the stress getting level in some of these RV parks?
Pat, Happy camper
And we are totally happy with our John Deere designed (off road agricultural equipment) chassis, Oshkosh Truck built chassis (military off road equipment) and Foretravel used all this for a Grand Villa.
Built like a tank but rides and drives very nicely, thank you.
Yes, discussion on use in severe road conditions is very dependent on what chassis you have.
Most of the discussions are on the Foretravel 8 outboard air bag suspension.
The U225 and U240 on their Torsilastic suspension are a LOT more forgiving. I know I have had our U240 on some pretty outrageous roads in Mexico and poorly maintained dirt/gravel roads where Dianne and I did some archeology work.
As are, I suspect the Oshkosh (ORED) 4 inboard air bags with frame rails.
And then there are ORED's on leaf spring suspension with frame rails.
Kind of apples, oranges and pineapples and plums. So comments on one chassis type are unlikely to provide insight to another.
Raising will help to clear approach and departure angle issues and if your having clearance issues in the center, but when fully raised it also has limited articulation generally needed. Not to mention driveline angle although it shouldn't be a problem at these speeds. With articulation limited this is when more stress can be applied to the chassis. During normal operation the HWH is active and the ride height circuit is powered keeping the rear axle square with the coach driving the front axle to comply with all articulation needs of the coach. Once either side of the front axle has reached its articulation limit then the chassis is in a mechanical locked up situation ( similar to raised position) and stress can be induced. This is for 8 outboard airbag systems
Scott
No, we take ours down river washes to the beach, drive on sand, lots of dirt/gravel roads to campsites, etc. While we have not had a real problem, I don't glue the windshield as it moves around a lot and I have to use a suction cup to move it an inch or so back into place. No suspension problems. I do take transitions at very slow speeds. I've had it lean way over but never try and level it with the HWH. Going through the forest in the Sierras on soft ground, I've had to use the HWH to keep the top from leaning into trees. Have not scratched the bottom yet. Some campsites do require a lot of the HWH to level the coach.
Our driveway gains almost 90 feet elevation in the first 300 feet with a 120 degree banked turn to the right. I have to back over a quarter mile of asphalt, gravel, concrete with only a couple of inches clearance past some trees to get it up to it's pad. Lots of leaning, creaking and popping sounds but in 13 years, no problems. I will have to post a YouTube video on the driveway.
I've even put a chain on the front and pulled another 30 foot RV back up over the edge of an embankment and onto the road. If I could not do go these places, I would never have purchased it.
No matter how much you raise the coach, the driveline angle will never be a problem. As long as the output shaft on the transmission and the rear end input are the same plane, it does not make any difference what the driveshaft angle is. Up to a point but a Foretravel can't raise or lower enough to cause any problem.
Seems to me that all problems could have been avoided by spacing each air bag mount another inch apart. Anytime a tire can contact the bag mount at normal ride height with the steering turned at a certain angle, there is a fault in the engineering/design.
Pierce
My new rule is that if my Jetta can't do it, my coach can't do it. Maybe too conservative but my guess is that insurance isn't going to pick up a 5-digit bill twice.
We had successfully navigated the kind of stuff I think you're talking about a number of times before that incident. Looking back on it, I think it was the S shape in the road the got me. Navigating either one of those bumps on it's own might have been ok. It was the fact that I was trying to navigate two (one in front and one in back) at the same time that got me.
Also, keep in mind that our rigs (referring to unicoaches like my 01) are simply different so don't let the fact that a bunch of big rigs went before you lull you into a false sense of security. And don't do it at the end of a long day when the sun is about to go down. Painful lessons to learn.
It turns out WHERE you're doing it is also important. I was headed into a tight area with very little room to maneuver and on a considerable incline to boot. This meant we couldn't get a tow truck in there and were left in a position that we couldn't safely do any work on the coach (like putting smaller tires on to be able to turn the wheels). This led to a $6k recovery bill and having to hack off bits of the airbag mounting plates. If it had happened in a big open space close to the highway, it would be been less of a mess.
Thanks for the replies. It sounds like the GVs are not an issue.
Specifically, I am wondering about the late 90s/early 00's with airbags. What do you do to the HWH to handle this? Do you leave it on travel/automatic and let it do it's thing? Or do you put it on manual and raise it as high as you can? Ensuring tires are a the correct PSI is important.
I'm still worried
I asked this question last year and the general consensus I walked away with was you can drive with the bags fully extended for short periods of time at speeds no more than 5mph. I have done that to get over little bumps or berms I don't want to catch the front cap or generator exhaust accumulator on (or whatever that thing is in the middle of the genny exhaust) but then I immediately return to travel mode once I'm over the obstacle.
It goes without saying that you should take any off-roading advice I give with a grain of salt.
I have become a freeway flyer, don't need to go off roading, have a Jeep for that. I guess I Have became a sissy, all I think about are my new windshields. $$$$
I don't even like pulling off onto dirt along the side of the road, gets my engine dirty when the fans kick dust.
I bought a FT for the nice ride and comfort for my wife with MS. Don't care to twist it all around. Use to do that with out Ford Class 'C'.
I guess I treat it more like my restored muscle cars. Not afraid to drive them, just treat them with big respect.
Chris
Chris makes a good point about dirt from the back wheels and engine fans. This is a problem with any rear engine vehicle going off road or winter driving on a treated highway. In this respect, a class C or any front engined RV has a big advantage. Plus, any front engined RV does not need the maintenance and power robbing fan system to stay cool. Lot to be said for the big Freightliner RVs. Now, if they only made cab over models like we used to see.
We take ours off road with the toad as the campsites may be several miles from pavement. In summer with the big crowds this year, the campgrounds down dirt/gravel roads never seem to fill.
Pierce