Concrete driveway thickness??

[supercub]

I would like to park my motor home on a driveway that I believe is about 3 inches thick of concrete. I have a diesel pusher that weighs about 29,000. The greatest single tire bearing weight is 5500 lbs. Obviously I don't want to cause any damage in the way of cracks or other damage. To be on the safe side I think it would be best to keep my jacks up too. What do you think, would it be safe?

[atsrmf]

Always go with the 6 sack mix for a driveway

[Mike134]

Add to that closer the pressure is the the edge of the concrete more likely to crack off.

[rgatijnet1]

OK, let's review. You have a DP and you would like to park it in your driveway. You can pay a lot of money NOW and dig the driveway up and repour it to what they think will work OR, and this is what I would recommend, use the driveway and if it fails, then redo the driveway to suit your needs. I agree about not using your jacks UNLESS you use wood cribbing to spread out the load. For all you know the driveway may be 3" thick at one edge and 6" thick in the middle. Who knows for sure.

[tropical36]

supercub wrote:
I would like to park my motor home on a driveway that I believe is about 3 inches thick of concrete. I have a diesel pusher that weighs about 29,000. The greatest single tire bearing weight is 5500 lbs. Obviously I don't want to cause any damage in the way of cracks or other damage. To be on the safe side I think it would be best to keep my jacks up too. What do you think, would it be safe?

We destroyed ours after getting this 16 ton model.
Doing it over, I'd pour 6" thick with reinforcement.
As for cracks forming here and there, if you can prevent that from happening, then you'll find yourself rich, by just being a consultant to the industry.

[bjbear]

Dick_B is correct. A typical driveway should be 4-inches. However, just as important is the strength of the concrete used AND how the base supporting it was built and compacted. The fact that whoever built the driveway skimped by only using 3 inches, might make one suspicious that they could have gone cheap in both the concrete (lower strength) and the base. Personally, I would not park a DP on it unless I got the opinion of a professional engineer first.

[Ed_C]

It's not a permanent fix but a 4 x 4' piece of 3/4" plywood under each wheel set would distribute the weight.

[Dick_B]

This is from Concrete.org: As for thickness, non-reinforced pavement four inches thick is standard for passenger car driveways. For heavier vehicles, a thickness of five inches is recommended. To eliminate standing water, the driveway should be sloped towards the street a minimum of one percent, or 1/8 inch per foot, for proper drainage.

[ppine]

Concrete highways are normally 4 inches thick to stand up to truck traffic. Call some contractors and ask them. You might be right on the margin of safety.