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

[Tundra2084]

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.

[Lynnmor]

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.

[ramyankee]

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.

[SugarHillCTD]

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?

[bucky]

The 2 worst roads in our recent retired travels;

I95 southbound in SC southern end of the state.
I10 eastbound from El Paso to the Louisiana border. WB probably just as bad.
I'm thinking of switching over to secondary roads. Our last big trip broke springs.
I pity the soldiers spines if the interstate hwy system is ever used for what it was intended.

[larry_barnhart]

southernsky wrote:
Speaking of bike trails, traveling on I-84 through Washington state they are building a hell of a bike trail along the interstate. Wonder where the money came from for it...

I-84 would be in Oregon.

chevman

[1320Fastback]

bob213 wrote:
Talked to a couple in New Orleans that had their dash fall off their new motorhome due to the violent bouncing coming thru Texas on way to LA. Just did a 6000 mile trip and the roads are terrible to say the least. One blowout on TV and a broken windshield. Who knows whats cracked or compromised underneath... The trailer looked liked a tornado had hit the inside every time we stopped.

We went from San Antonio to New Orleans and I broke a shock on my truck. The bottom of the shock tore free of the A arm from all the bouncing. Must of been one heck of a bounce than completely unloaded the tire.

[Njmurvin]

Coming south on Interstate 5 through California returning from a trip to Oregon, the roads were just awful. After I got home, I noticed some abnormal wear on two of the tires (opposite sides). I ended up taking it to a truck alignment place to have the axes bent back into alignment. And I replaced all 4 tires with GY Endurance.

[laknox]

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

[chuckbear]

We just did a trip from Florida to Maryland and back. I95 is bad in Georgia and terrible in South Carolina. Virginia is hit and miss. At times I wait for the cabinets to be shaken off the walls and everything to fall apart. We just added new Bilstein shocks and it does not seem to matter. In EVERY state the bridge to road transitions are a disaster and the bridge decks are a mess. Unfortunately, we have found this to be the case in most states we have traveled, with Louisiana being the worst and California second. Chuck

[southernsky]

Speaking of bike trails, traveling on I-84 through Washington state they are building a hell of a bike trail along the interstate. Wonder where the money came from for it...

[SidecarFlip]

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.

[bob213]

Talked to a couple in New Orleans that had their dash fall off their new motorhome due to the violent bouncing coming thru Texas on way to LA. Just did a 6000 mile trip and the roads are terrible to say the least. One blowout on TV and a broken windshield. Who knows whats cracked or compromised underneath... The trailer looked liked a tornado had hit the inside every time we stopped.

[RCMAN46]

Several years ago while going from Flagstaff to Albuquerque I had an axle collapse. It was replaced by Lippert but it was due to some very bad chuck holes that I could not miss due to the size of the chuck holes a very heavy truck traffic.

[1320Fastback]

We were at a dog show in Louisville Kentucky earlier this year and our RV neighbor was from Florida and they said they had three blowouts on the way up and then two on the way home. They ended up texting us to tell us that as I helped them change two of their tires and we became acquaintances so they just kept us filled in.

[DReisinger]

Just returned from Ohio, and I-95 in South Carolina is really bad. They have I-77 in Charlotte all messed up with construction of the express lanes. No one was using them and the two lanes for normal use were very crowded