Let me first say that the roads were really bad this year in the northern states in April.On our way home from Florida to Ontario Canada along interstate 75 we hit some very bad roads with potholes and cracks in the roads. We hit some potholes because we had no place to go but into and over them due to traffic. We did hit a couple pretty hard and we travel at about 60 mph. Once home we noticed while unloading that we now have a Crack in the side of the RV, running about a foot in front of the axle. The crack starts at the top right corner of our slide in the livingroom.After seeing this we went to look under the RV to see if anything else was damaged. Under the RV we noticed the underbelly had lost a screw and upon looking at it and lowering the belly a little more, that in 2 places on the cross beam the welds had broken loose. Has ANYONE had anything like this happen to them while traveling along I75 or for that matter along any bad roads? Insurance is saying its manufacturers defect and that we would have Tire and rim damage if the roads were bad and we hit potholes. They haven't even looked inside the RV for frame damage yet its manufacturers defect. We have 14ply tires so that shouldn't happen anyway by hitting a pothole.

All the time. The roads have destroyed the front end on my vehicle. Pulled a water tank loose and made it leak. Made shorts and rattled apart lots of wiring. And even bent my truck camper frame mounts.You would think the municipality would have to pay for it. And it does. But it’s just not worth your time to spend fighting them.

Unfortunate. I'm sorry to hear this. Sounds to me like another weak/poorly made Lippert frame. JMO and by NO means am I defending the manufacturers, however, the basic RV suspension does little to reduce the shock transferred to the frame. MorRyde or similar center equalizers may help as well as shocks. Of course, IS would be best. Having quality, stiff 14 ply tires doesn't help either. While they are great to help prevent tire failures they have little flex to help absorb road shock therefore transferring all the impact to the frame through the axles and springs. I really, really realized this when I got my air hitch in the bed of the truck. I would imagine that the slide out crack resulted from the weakened frame allowing the weight of the slide-out to be shifted on its rollers resulting in a stress crack??Sorry to hear about this and I hope you are able to find a good shop to help you with the repair since the insurance does want to help you out. The crack in the fiberglass can be repaired once the frame is repaired. Good luck and again sorry for this misfortune.

seems all the states have spent there money on other things, here in ohio our state,, city,, township roads are not fit to drive on, BUT we can spend billions on football stuff.

midnightsadie wrote:seems all the states have spent there money on other things, here in ohio our state,, city,, township roads are not fit to drive on, BUT we can spend billions on football stuff.Billions on football stuff? Are they building a gold plated stadium or what....heh? There is no doubt governments waste a lot of money. But in my opinion the best thing they could do to improve roadway quality is to stop spending gas tax highway maintenance monies on things like bus routes and bike trails. You know spend it all on road maintenance the way it should be spent. If they want bike trails then tax bikes to pay for it.To the OP just where were these potholes anyway. Can't say I've seen any in the south on Interstates.

agesilaus wrote:midnightsadie wrote:seems all the states have spent there money on other things, here in ohio our state,, city,, township roads are not fit to drive on, BUT we can spend billions on football stuff.Billions on football stuff? Are they building a gold plated stadium or what....heh? There is no doubt governments waste a lot of money. But in my opinion the best thing they could do to improve roadway quality is to stop spending gas tax highway maintenance monies on things like bus routes and bike trails. You know spend it all on road maintenance the way it should be spent. If they want bike trails then tax bikes to pay for it.To the OP just where were these potholes anyway. Can't say I've seen any in the south on Interstates.Clinton tried that with av gas taxes that are earmarked for general aviation use BY LAW. Funds to be used only for municipal and small airport improvements like runway maintenance/rebuilding, new facilities, etc. The GA community wasn't having it and he backed off PDQ! He forgot that the GA community does include people and companies who own =private= planes like G5s, and such. :BLyle

Damaged RV on roads on way home from Florida, anyone else?.

SugarHillCTD
Explorer
Jun 16, 2019
In keeping with this topic, has anyone installed equipment from Roadmaster to handle these crappy roads?

This shock kit

https://roadmasterinc.com/products/travel_trailers/comfort_ride_sa.html

or this slipper spring kit

https://roadmasterinc.com/products/travel_trailers/comfort_ride_ss.html

Of course Roadmaster recommends installing both but that would be $1500 for the parts.

Any thoughts folks?
ramyankee
Explorer
Jun 16, 2019
Last year heading towards 395 from 299 in Northeast California road construction took out our overhead lighting above the dinette. It was incredibly rough. The surface before the construction started was bad enough but wow.
I had to slow to a crawl through the construction zone and one clown honked at us and passed us...
Our trip through there in April was SMOOTH.
Lynnmor
Explorer
Jun 16, 2019
I made my own mounts and installed shocks, it was some help in ride and handling. No matter what you do, you can't make potholes go away. Adding shocks will actually cause the tire to absorb more of the energy when hitting a sharp bump/hole, there is just a trade-off of where that energy goes and none of it is good.
cummins2014
Explorer
Jun 16, 2019
SidecarFlip wrote:
Preaching to the choir. I live in Michigan, home of the worst roads in the country. I've never had a blowout or anything fail because I don't drive fast on bad roads and there is always the berm to avoid those big whoppers.

What I find amazing is, I live on a bad road (potholes) and people insist on driving fast. I listen to them go by, suspensions clanging, springs protesting but they keep right on hauling butt, have to get somewhere important like home to a cold beer.

I rarely drive over 55 with my RV and always allow enough room in front of me to avoid the holes. It's vacation, not the Indy 500. In a hurry, go around. I'm in the slow lane for a reason. Besides the minimum allowable speed on any Interstate in the US is 45 mph.

Lucky you. I am 71 , 56 years of driving , and had my first tire failure or flat out on the highway this past winter. IMO due to the chuckholes on a Arizona road. I invite you to come on out ,and see if you can avoid all of them, and the traffic, and no berm to bail out on. 55 you say, good luck here not getting run over.
cummins2014
Explorer
Jun 16, 2019
laknox wrote:
I remember reading a post on here several years ago, about a guy who would take I-5 with his FW and run at the posted 55 for trailers in the left lane because the right lane(s) were so bad. He figured that he could argue that it was a safety issue due to the lousy conditions of the road surface and it was =safer= than running 45-50 in the right lanes. :B AFAIK, he never got a ticket.

Lyle

Have done the same thing on I-10 and parts of 93,95 in Arizona. Some stretches it does not matter, going to get beat up .
ChuckV1
Explorer
Jun 16, 2019
We were on the Indiana toll road last year, the road was a mess an I told the toll gate operator I would be ashamed to work for a company that charged for such a bad road ... The back roads in Ohio an Indiana even thought they are two lane highways in most case's are far better than the interstates an that were we travel most of the time ...

Out west here the interstates for the most part are ok till you get near the big cities an then they get pretty bad ... You can tell what counties spend money on road maintenance for sure an which spend money on paying their own wage's at the top level ...

If you really want to get mad, think about every semi you see driving down the road, they pay fuel tax an tax on every mile that truck runs across an all the tolls if they drive on the toll roads ... When I sold my semi I was paying forty two cents a mile for every mile that truck ran empty or loaded plus road tax in every state which was different, so add that up along with the tax on gas you pay at the pump along with fuel/diesel tax you pay, talk about a cash cow Ugh !!!
agesilaus
Explorer III
Jun 16, 2019
When you buy diesel for your truck you are paying that road tax.
ivbinconned
Explorer II
Jun 20, 2019
I’ve written here about this too. If there is one thing that would stop us from dragging our FW south it’s the lousy highways. But that’s exactly what the greeny left wants.
Coming up through California to Seattle I pulled in centre lane at 70 mph.
Not going to hold anyone back or get in the way of merging traffic
ivbinconned
Explorer II
Jun 20, 2019
One thing that our Canadian/Saskatchewan Auto Association does every year is run a contest to nominate the worst road in the province. In an effort to raise awareness and embarrass government.
laknox
Nomad
Jun 20, 2019
ivbinconned wrote:
One thing that our Canadian/Saskatchewan Auto Association does every year is run a contest to nominate the worst road in the province. In an effort to raise awareness and embarrass government.

Maybe there should be a nationwide organization here to do the same, state-by-state. THEN publicize the hell out of it with recommendations to NOT drive those roads unless absolutely necessary. Maybe the economic impact will help (embarrass) these states into doing some actual repairs. Huh? What? Oh, sorry I was napping and having a dream...

Lyle

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Damaged RV on roads on way home from Florida, anyone else?.

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