What is the maximum diagonal height difference that the suspension will accommodate without twisting the frame?Found a great boon-docking site, but the "jeep trail" road was off-camber and rose about 1.5 feet higher on one side than the other. When departing, noticed considerable creaking sounds from the wood frame motor-home "box". Repeated twisting like this would likely loosen fasteners and develop squeaks and rattles(?) This could also occur leaving a high steep parking lot, etc at an angle.Earth-roamer and Bengal Tiger have 3-point mounting systems to allow frame to flex independently from box. What's a safe off-camber diagonal height for a normal C?

I tend to balk at off-camber roads. I think my Tiger can probably take more of them than I can. I have not driven anything as much as 1.5 feet off-camber.I've driven my Tiger about 55K miles, many of them on dirt roads or rough roads. Have gotten lots of "desert pinstripes" on the outside. No frame damage, no alignment problems. Had to retighten a few screws. I think that any RV owner should add a thorough screw check to the regular maintenance list.

nomad 289 wrote:What is the maximum diagonal height difference that the suspension will accommodate without twisting the frame?...What's a safe off-camber diagonal height for a normal C?Spent most of my life in Africa and South America so I would not consider a half metre to be "seriously off camber" but rather a decent road.That said:-- The diagonal twist supported will depend on the vehicle in question. I tend to favor extended wheel travel.-- Frame stiffness varies from vehicle to vehicle. Unimogs are notoriously flexible; Chevrolet pickups less so. Just depends.-- Do pivot frames help? They can, if well done. But they are also tremendous stress raisers and can lead to a broken frame if poorly executed or overloaded. As a friend just found out, they can also fail, annoying when you are on the road in Siberia.-- In my experience, vibration, as from washboard and pot holed asphalt, is a much greater danger than the odd twist, especially as the washboard goes on forever and you generally get over a bank a low speed.-- Most Third World trucks tend to have fairly rigid body to frame mounts, intended to spread, rather than concentrate, the weight. The Australians, who have a lot of washboard, tend to favor conventional frame mounting with "pull apart" mounts that allow flex when required.-- EVERY camper that has screw on doors (as opposed to bolt on) will see them fail with long dirt/bad road use. How much are you willing to spend?So the bottom lines is, there is no fixed answer to your question. Unless you spend so much time in the dirt that you are literally pulling your camper apart, I wouldn't worry about it.And, if you are, then you need to be looking at Tigers, Earthroamers, GVX, Unicat, et al. And you will be spending two to three times what you pay for a conventional Class "C" and you will still have things break. ;)Safe travels!

I was up at monument vally with my PU and 10 ft slide in camper. Roads we like you describe, 1 way in/out. Anyhow thought I had broken a spring due to the twisiting, but there were lots of rental class c's going up down the trail. Not a good idea as you noted. The frames are not set up for that kind of twist action, neither are the bodies.

Just as some FWIW comments:Your Lazy Daze Class C is on an E450 chassis. One aspect of this chassis versus the E350 chassis is that the steel in E450 frames is thicker than that in the E350 frames (per Ford's specs). This will of course provide a more rigid platform for the box to sit on, thus not transferring as much torsion into the box structure as a lesser strength frame would. Supposedly this is one of the design differences that Ford built into the E450 over the E350 so as to handle the heavier loads. Of course for offroad travel - regardless of all other offroad design considerations - it's always best to use the heaviest duty frame possible under the lightest weight coach possible.A couple of downsides to your setup in canted surface road situations is the sheer weight of your rig versus, say, a 23-24 foot Lazy Daze on the E450 frame ... plus your rig's internal wood framing within the walls.A strength of your rig might be it's aluminum skin - if Lazy Daze does indeed use aircraft aluminum outer walls to go along with it's aluminum roof. Riveted aluminum outer walls would provide tremendous shear strength against twisting forces transmitted from the E450's frame due to canted road surfaces.When we offroad in our 24 foot E450 Class C we go VERY SLOW (7-10 MPH) on washboard roads (we have aluminum framed walls) - so coach damage is a non-issue - we just need a lot of patience! We also travel on canted offroad surfaces VERY SLOW ... picking our track very carefully so as to absolutely minimize the front being twisted one direction (i.e. counter clockwise) simultaneous with the rear being twisted the other direction (i.e. clockwise). We absolutely CAN NOT "barrel along" offroads in our Class C like the bare/non-TC pickup trucks can do ... but we're retired so we have plenty of time.However ... it sure is great to enjoy all the comforts of a small Class C out in the middle of nowhere where one would normally find only tent campers or truck campers!

I'd say go even as slowly as 5 mph. I'm retired, have time, hate going that slowly, but do it anyway. My Tiger is on a Chevy 2500HD. Don't know what people might try with newer Tigers on 3500HD or the 3-point type on even heavier chassis.

"off-roading" - frame twisting in a C | Good Sam Community

pnichols
Explorer II
May 31, 2013
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pnichols
Explorer II
May 31, 2013
Good old fashioned classic link tire chains (NOT those with cables) work about the best one can expect in mud when used on both the driving wheels and the steering wheels. I believe hunters use fully chained up 4x4 pickups a lot for going where they want to go on really bad roads.

I once went hunting with a friend in a fully chained Ford 4X4 pickup up into Utah's Uinta mountains. By the time we got up to the higher altitudes where we hunted, the snow was so deep that it was plowing up over the hood as we moved forward uphill. It made a believer out of me on what a fully chain 4X4 pickup was capable of on foul roads ... wow!

FWIW, in that YouTube video link I gave above I can't quite tell if that Class C rig is chained up or not. It's hard to believe that rig could have done what it did without them. If it wasn't chained, then it must have been pure weight (probably 2000 lbs or more on each rear tire), plus maybe mud tires on the rear, that squeaked out just enough traction to make it on that muddy Nevada desert road. Also in the video I couldn't be sure ... but it didn't look like that Class C was modified into a 6X6. I didn't look like there was a differential in the front, but it was difficult to see clearly in that low resolution video.
DiploStrat
Explorer
May 31, 2013
Tiger4x4RV wrote:
I've been driving small 4x4 Class C's for 22 years now.

That being, of course, the reason that I subscribe to all of your posts! ;)
Tiger4x4RV
Nomad
May 30, 2013
DiploStrat wrote:
... And I'm not sure that anything really works in mud. ;-(

Agreed, and I've been driving small 4x4 Class C's for 22 years now.
DiploStrat
Explorer
May 29, 2013
kitesurfer wrote:
I had my Itasca Cambria 26a lifted with larger tires,

Nice looking truck! Decent shocks, limited/locking rear diff, and careful driving and you are good for everything except deep mud. And I'm not sure that anything really works in mud. ;-(
garyhaupt
Explorer
May 29, 2013
kitesurfer wrote:
I had my Itasca Cambria 26a lifted with larger tires, not looking to get stuck in some mud, but I just wanted some ground clearance to make it easier to get into some of my favorite spots in Baja

Nice Aluminess bumper....that front bumper cries out for a winch, ya know. The guys at the Aluminess shop in San Diego would help you with that.

Gary Haupt
DiploStrat
Explorer
May 29, 2013
With luck, the camper actually mounts this week or next.

Then you can all start to laugh at the choices I made! ;-)
Handbasket
Explorer
May 29, 2013
DiploStrat wrote:
....
Our truck is currently under construction at Tiger Adventure Vehicles. http://www.tigervehicles.com I have never owned a Class B or C and, after a lifetime of living next as opposed to inside, a vehicle, we are looking forward to it. Especially indoor plumbing and a kitchen out of the rain/cold!....

'Strat, _Great_ to see your new Tiger is finally a'building! I know you've been researching it for years. I hope you'll be a happy with it as I have been & still am with my CX.

Jim, "If I ever go missing, put my photo on beer bottles, not milk cartons. That way my friends will know to look for me."
kitesurfer
Explorer
May 29, 2013
I had my Itasca Cambria 26a lifted with larger tires, not looking to get stuck in some mud, but I just wanted some ground clearance to make it easier to get into some of my favorite spots in Baja
pnichols
Explorer II
May 29, 2013
Thanks Gary for the great movie of your 6X6 Class C in action! That's what boondock camping is all about. Nice bumper on the front too.

Here's a watery mini-adventure still shot of our 4X6 Class C - a much less exciting situation than what you were in, however: