Off road ??

I had a friend that bought a new 24 ft travel trailer in the 80's. They loaded it up and went to their favorite lake which included driving over 20 miles of rough roads. When they got to where they were going to camp they opened the door and found some of the cabinets and contents all over the floor. They closed the door and drove back home to their dealer. it was fixed under warranty but they upgraded to a better rig. It can happen.

The big thing with some class A coaches is you can pop a windshield from to much flexing going over rough roads and into rough campsites.

DrewE wrote:
Has anybody actually had cabinets come off the wall from rough roads?.......stuff falling out of cabinets ..........will lead to more squeaks and maintenance than glassy smooth roads.

None of the above with our 40' motorhome. We did it a lot as we enjoy boondocking on public lands.

It probably depends on how the RV is built and how strong the cabinet/drawer latches are. You can install stronger ones if you have a problem.

I wouldn't subject my own Rv to it, but that's me. Not saying it can't be done but I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself wondering if I was doing any damage to my rig. I have a cheap Rv but it still cost what I consider a lot of money. But it may actually do nothing to it at all. I will say I don't think they are built to withstand that kind of continued vibration/terrain.

Sure it is possible with either one but I'm not inclined to do it with my own rig. I drove from Fairbanks, AK to just above the Arctic Circle in a class "C" rental unit(permission granted by rental firm w/ conditions on speed) without any problem. Most of the way was graded and half of that was freshly graded so not much washboard.

Things will loosen up a lot if you do it frequently no matter if "A" or "C". I found that out long time ago with our VW Type 2.

Has anybody actually had cabinets come off the wall from rough roads?

It seems to me that you would have stuff falling out of cabinets and getting broken/cracked long before the cabinetry itself would fail. I know I've had a few times where stuff has come out of cabinets, though not so much due to washboards as due to sharp corners or uneven pavement at intersections causing leaning side to side.

Naturally, rough conditions are harder on the structure and will lead to more squeaks and maintenance than glassy smooth roads.

We did about two miles in Florida on a sandy washboard road. Went really slow but I still thought all the cabinets would come off the wall. They're not made for it.

Speed is the key, slow slow slow. May take you a lot longer to travel the 15 miles but you'll most likely be fine.

If you are going to buy a 30 ft MH I am assuming that the A or C will be on gas chassis, if that is the case in general the A will have better GC and a more HD suspension.

We drove our 40' motorhome on good gravel roads all the time. If it's washboard you'll just be driving very slow. Just make sure you'll do no boulder hopping! Sometimes if we weren't sure we'd disconnect the Jeep and drive it to find our boondocking spot. Then we knew what's ahead. We did have a side radiator.

All the answers you've received so far are good and accurate. Unless specifically built by a specialty company for "Out back" exploring and camping, on any coach, Class A, B, or C, you'll eventually start seeing loose cabinets, loose dash parts, many, many more squeaks and rattles and more. These type of structures are barely built good enough to handle Americas "really nice" (just a bit of sarcasm there) roads. Will any of them work, sure. It's just a matter of time, depending on your distance of travel off road, the speed at which you do it, tire pressure, type of suspension (air or spring) and frequency of travel in the outback.

A diesel may be able to actually take the wash board better due to the type of suspension most have but, they have their own issues to deal with. Many, especially the rear radiator types, will dust themselves to death in an off road situation, due to the fan back there and, the amount of throttle the driver is using, even at a slow pace.

We've done it for years but, again, it's not without potential issues. Even with our present coach, an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT, I'm really hesitant to go off roading with it due to limited ground clearance and just the fact that, that kind of terrain is hard on cabinets, mounting systems for a zillion items and a whole lot more. It's just a matter of if one accepts the POTENTIAL issues that may, or may not crop up. Good luck.
Scott