Itasca Class C Overhang Movement

Ron,

????

We've went miles and miles out in the desert at 7-10 MPH on extreme washboarded roads - plus slowly along some just plain ugly tipped and rutted desert road surfaces. For instance and including traveling on the "Not Recommended for RVs" road leading down to the valley floor of Monument Valley right alongside the special jitneys driven by Native American workers taking tourists down there.

Our overhead cab bottom cannot move relative to the cutout cab roof it's rigidly attached to without ripping or distorting something in that area. In fact, the cab-roof/cabover-bottom interface logically should be designed such that the steel cab roof structure helps to rigidly support the overhead structure so that it can't flex up or down on it's own. From what I can see the two are designed to be joined together and remain together as one structure. In our Itasca Class C there is no distortion or deformation in that area after after 12 years of ownership on and off smooth roadway surfaces.

In a Class C the proper marriage of the coach structure to the chassis frame - relative to the proper marriage of the cab structure to the chassis frame - is a whole different situation from the relationship between the two separate structures that exists when a slide-in truck camper is held down by 4 to 6 tie-downs while riding in the wiggling bed of a pickup truck.

Of course, we don't store hundreds of pounds of stuff in our Class C's cabover bed when traveling either - as the bed has to be handy to be used every night for sleeping - but the person (me) sleeping in it does weight over 220 lbs.. :)

Anyone who says their front over-hang does not move is either in denial, or has never hit a pothole or equivalent road imperfection with one of their front tires. Heck, even the cab and hood flexes hitting something serious. Things move, most especially your front over-hang. If you don't experience it yet, give it time. The perfect storm of road imperfections will come your way.

pnichols wrote:
I'm still :h as to how a Class C overhang can "droop" or otherwise move in relation to the cab???????

My Class C overhang is attached to, and part of, the roof of the cab - not sticking out above the cab with an air space in between the overhang and the cab roof like is the case with a truck camper. Furthermore, the cab is rigidly mounted to the van chassis and the coach is rigidly mounted to the van chassis and the van chassis is a strong horizontal piece of steel that can't move up and down along it's length.

Someone pleaseeeeee explain. :S

Your MH is built a little better than this older Coachmen, but you can see once everything rotted up there there was absolutely no structural strength in that metal frame work. Those front lower corner pieces were the new replacement radius pieces. That cabover would have been bouncing all over the place driving down the road. It was rebuilt with a lot more aluminum added to give it some strength.




You will notice there is a board holding up the front of the cabover. This was put there to hold it in the right position before the additional sidewall framing was added.



This particular MH also had both transition walls (the walls behind the cab that go out to the house sides) rotted out.

After driving the motorhome some more yesterday the movement is noticeable at the very end of the cabover. It flexes up and down slightly depending on the condition of the road

I'm still :h as to how a Class C overhang can "droop" or otherwise move in relation to the cab???????

My Class C overhang is attached to, and part of, the roof of the cab - not sticking out above the cab with an air space in between the overhang and the cab roof like is the case with a truck camper. Furthermore, the cab is rigidly mounted to the van chassis and the coach is rigidly mounted to the van chassis and the van chassis is strong horizontal pieces of steel that can't move up and down along their length.

Someone pleaseeeeee explain. :S

It think it might be important to not rush out to buy another rv, because there is some movement. I have no recollection of ever hearing about an overhang that broke/collapsed/fell while underway. There has been the odd mention of serious rot allowing the overhang to actually droop.

It is easy to get into that mind-set...oh no, I have to buy another or fix this..or whatever. By all means, get an RV shop to look..or go looking yourself...but try to not let all the key-board warriors spend your money.


Gary Haupt

We've had,
1988 Mallard
2003 Itasca Spirit 24'
2015 Itasca Spirit 27'

I have not notice any movement in any of these.
I wood start looking for water damage in yours.


Dusty

pnichols wrote:
Looking into the OP's issue a little further, it looks like Winnebago didn't have their Super Structure framing design back in year 2000 Itasca Class C motorhomes.

Downloading and comparing both the 2000 and 2005 Spirit brochures using this link, one can see what the Super Structure design did for our 2005 Itasca Class C such that the overhang cannot ever move up/down in relation to the cab due to the metal wall framing that extends all the way out to the ends of the overhang walls. The Spirit brochure for the 2000 Itasca Class C makes no mention of a Super Structure design being used for either the main coach area or the overhang area:
https://winnebagoind.com/product-resources/product-information

I'd be very surprised if the 2000 Itasca is very much different from a new Spirit as far as the cabover construction. That superstructure design you mentioned, is probably highlighted in the guide (detailing their "superior manufacturing process") they referenced in the last page of the 2000 brochure.

A few years back I bought a 2001 Itasca Sundancer (to fix and sell) and the cabover construction was identical to my 2014 Itasca Spirit.

Looking into the OP's issue a little further, it looks like Winnebago didn't have their Super Structure framing design back in year 2000 Itasca Class C motorhomes.

Downloading and comparing both the 2000 and 2005 Spirit brochures using this link, one can see what the Super Structure design did for our 2005 Itasca Class C such that the overhang cannot ever move up/down in relation to the cab due to the metal wall framing that extends all the way out to the ends of the overhang walls. The Spirit brochure for the 2000 Itasca Class C makes no mention of a Super Structure design being used for either the main coach area or the overhang area:
https://winnebagoind.com/product-resources/product-information

With very rare exception, over-hangs will flop around. Bigger over-hangs will flop more. How much depends on the engineering, design, and quality of construction. Generally, the more rough-road driving you do, the more wear and tear occurs, increasing the amount of movement.

When shopping for a class-C, I recommend either a B+ which are seamless and with no over-hang, or a seamless class C cab-over design. A class-C compromise is a partial bucket design. It's a matter wear and tear plus age before caulked seam work will breach and water will find it's way inside staining your ceiling at first, then getting worse if neglected. Fortunately our highway system is better maintained than years ago. A stiff suspension makes for a rougher ride which will work against you.