Off Road Class C Motorhome and Extended Tray
This is a local builder and their Off Road Class C Motorhome with a rear deck. Common on Caravans rare on Motorhomes, especially Off Road ones.
Forum Discussion
Robert,
Expanding just a bit on your comment above: It's not purely a COG issue. It has to do with the height of the COG along with the distance apart of the support points ("tires") - both longitudinally and laterally - for the COG. The points of support distance apart being of course controlled by how long each axle is (i.e. a vehicle's "track" -> lateral points of support) and how far apart the front and rear axels are from each other (i.e. a vehicle's "wheelbase" -> longitudinal points of support).
Some of those narrow offroad/expedition type vehicles - even with their low height COGs - still look to me like they could stand a bit wider front and rear track ... especially in some of the photos in which they are tipping sideways on sand dunes.
My humble little E450 Itasca Class C has everything heavy (except for the microwave oven and any stuff I load in the it's upper cabinets) way down low close to, or equal to, the height of the E450's frame rails ... so it's COG is very low. However it's rear track is also very wide - wider than the E350's track - and probably right at the U.S. highway legal maximum - the same as the track on big rig trailers.
This wide track of course would not be good for ease of driving in many cities, villages, and on the mud single rear wheel tracks in countries outside the U.S., but ... it sure makes me feel stable when we're on canted roads out in the desert.
A great example of what I'm talking about regarding the geometry of COG versus the distance between it's support points is the U.S. military's HumVee. Notice that it's very wide and very long as compared to it's height. It's of course purpose-engineered for maximum offroad stability .... exactly the way an ultimate offroad RV should be.
Of course for an offroad RV to approach the stability of a HumVee would require the RV to be a "pop-up" or "crank-up" living area design. There are a few U.S. (and Australian?) RV models that are of this type. As a U.S. example, Tiger used to offer a 4X4 pup-up Class C design with it's coach built directly onto the truck frame ... for a very low COG ... definitely an offroad stability improvement over a standard truck camper. Unfortunately this Tiger model's track was only that of a stock U.S. SRW truck.
Expanding just a bit on your comment above: It's not purely a COG issue. It has to do with the height of the COG along with the distance apart of the support points ("tires") - both longitudinally and laterally - for the COG. The points of support distance apart being of course controlled by how long each axle is (i.e. a vehicle's "track" -> lateral points of support) and how far apart the front and rear axels are from each other (i.e. a vehicle's "wheelbase" -> longitudinal points of support).
Some of those narrow offroad/expedition type vehicles - even with their low height COGs - still look to me like they could stand a bit wider front and rear track ... especially in some of the photos in which they are tipping sideways on sand dunes.
My humble little E450 Itasca Class C has everything heavy (except for the microwave oven and any stuff I load in the it's upper cabinets) way down low close to, or equal to, the height of the E450's frame rails ... so it's COG is very low. However it's rear track is also very wide - wider than the E350's track - and probably right at the U.S. highway legal maximum - the same as the track on big rig trailers.
This wide track of course would not be good for ease of driving in many cities, villages, and on the mud single rear wheel tracks in countries outside the U.S., but ... it sure makes me feel stable when we're on canted roads out in the desert.
A great example of what I'm talking about regarding the geometry of COG versus the distance between it's support points is the U.S. military's HumVee. Notice that it's very wide and very long as compared to it's height. It's of course purpose-engineered for maximum offroad stability .... exactly the way an ultimate offroad RV should be.
Of course for an offroad RV to approach the stability of a HumVee would require the RV to be a "pop-up" or "crank-up" living area design. There are a few U.S. (and Australian?) RV models that are of this type. As a U.S. example, Tiger used to offer a 4X4 pup-up Class C design with it's coach built directly onto the truck frame ... for a very low COG ... definitely an offroad stability improvement over a standard truck camper. Unfortunately this Tiger model's track was only that of a stock U.S. SRW truck.
