Boards under tires

wowens79 wrote:

DSDP Don wrote:
"Dutchmen Sport".....You keep saying the same thing, which is wrong. "Effy" gave the correct answer. The oil and constant movement of passenger car tires is what keeps them from having the same issues motor home tires have. If you were paying attention, when oil went up years ago, so did the price of tires....dramatically. There is a LOT of oil used in the production of tires.

With all that said, park your coach on whatever you want. It's amazing sometimes how lazy or cheap some will be when it comes to protecting their investment. When RV tires are parked long term, you want to try and prevent the fluids from being leeched out by the surface they're sitting on. Some surfaces won't damage tires but others will.

Concrete will leech fluids from your tires. Take a gallon of water and make a puddle on a solid surface, your driveway or sidewalk. Place a cinder block in the middle of the pudlle and return about ten minutes later. The cinder block will have absorbed some of the water and you'll see a discoloration in the block. The same thing is happening when you park on conrete. Is it happening everytime you go to a campground, probably not. But if you park your coach for several months without using it or over the winter, you probaby should put something under the tires.

Before the argument comes up that you park your car in the garage on concrete....read the above statement again. The constant movement of your car tires keeps the oil moving around in the rubber. Your garage is also finished differently than outside slabs. They use a smooth, more sealed surface than a broomed or brush outside surface.

I bought cheap rubber mudflaps from a truck store. I just leave them laying on the ground where I park the coach. They're marked in case they move, so I can place them in the same spot and park the coach in the same spot every time.

If the argument is that concrete absorbs the oils in the tires, wouldn't wood do the same thing? I know you said you used rubber mats, but most people have mentioned would.

I park in grass/dirt, I wonder the effect it has on tires.

I'm thinking it is probably more getting deformed not rolling that has the biggest effect on tires. Very interesting reading all the opinions.

That wasn't my point. Concrete and Asphalt usually contain caustic chemicals and materials that are harmful to the tires and can exacerbate the decay process. From a water perspective I would think concrete is fine. It actually wicks away water, it's the materials in concrete and asphalt that are the issue. Frankly at the end of the day it probably doesn't make a lot of difference. I'd be curious to see a study of tires placed on different media; grass, asphalt, concrete, stone and see what-if any - difference one made over the other. Time, sitting still, and sun are the biggest killers of tires. I think the material you park on is icing on the cake. As far as boards, I wonder if any consideration is made to pressure treated vs raw lumber. The stuff they put in PT is pretty acidic, I know some codes won't allow you to put metal footings on PT lumber as it makes them rust. Can't be good for your tires.