Going off road

[zulu52]

Being a new guy to the TC world, I have a few questions.

I have been looking through the camper pictures and see a lot of you off road.

Are you ever afraid of turning over with all that weight on top?
I don't yet know how much my rig can safely slant.

How about going on the beach? I have four wheel drive but weigh about 10,000 lbs. Ever been bad stuck?

Anybody ever been on Padre Island in Texas?

Thanks for the help.
Michael

[Bubtoofat]

SALTYDOG5435S-TEX wrote:
And now my rant about the trash on the beach. I donot know how many post I have read about the trash on the beach. It comes from the ocean. PINS is at a curve in the shore line and what happens to your cell phone when you take a sharp curve? That is why the garbage collects there.

I would guess that only about 50% of the trash at best was from the ocean. These were clean beer bottles and cardboard boxes that you could still read. Piles of bottles don't usually wash up on shore in groups. But I'm still glad we went. It is awesome just driving down the beach with NOTHING around except a few hardy souls. We did wake up one morning and the tide was past our campsite. That was freaky. We had to round up our orange garbage bags.:S

[Arktikos]

jimh425 wrote:
I have been offroad, but it depends on your definition of offroad. I've been all over National Forest roads in WA. Mostly, they don't have a lot of variation side to side. I'd say not more than a foot in most cases. It hasn't been a problem for me because I really wouldn't want my dishes etc to be tossed about. I just go slower. More commonly, it's about crossing a deep run that is perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the road in this part of the country. Besides that, there are severely washboarded roads at times.

In WA, people get stuck on the beaches with all kinds of vehicles. I haven't been stuck yet but I've also seen Class As and Fifth wheels in the same areas. Lose sand is not your friend but packed sand isn't so bad.

Several of my uncles are farmers and most have bent their frames hauling hay on canted hills. I think you should try to avoid that unless you have one of the lightest popups like a shell of a Four Wheel Camper or similar.

Just got back from your state and had fun on the eastern side of the Cascades on the backcountry. Beautiful! Yeah beach sand scares me a little to drive on. Part of the reason is our 20 foot tide here which is a major problem if you get stuck on a low tide. This happened to my step son with his new Jeep and before he could find help it was completely submerged and thankfully the insurance totaled it and he got his money back. Lessons of youth!

[jimh406]

I have been offroad, but it depends on your definition of offroad. I've been all over National Forest roads in WA. Mostly, they don't have a lot of variation side to side. I'd say not more than a foot in most cases. It hasn't been a problem for me because I really wouldn't want my dishes etc to be tossed about. I just go slower. More commonly, it's about crossing a deep run that is perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the road in this part of the country. Besides that, there are severely washboarded roads at times.

In WA, people get stuck on the beaches with all kinds of vehicles. I haven't been stuck yet but I've also seen Class As and Fifth wheels in the same areas. Lose sand is not your friend but packed sand isn't so bad.

Several of my uncles are farmers and most have bent their frames hauling hay on canted hills. I think you should try to avoid that unless you have one of the lightest popups like a shell of a Four Wheel Camper or similar.

[ghostrider421]

profdant139 wrote:
So sad to hear about the trash on Padre Island. We used to go to South Padre in the early 60s -- absolutely pristine beaches, great surf fishing, clear water, no people.

Not anymore - on the return trip from Fla, we stopped in SPI - whatta disaster - more high rise condos and hotels than anything else.

[ghostrider421]

We're at 4000kg loaded on the Unimog. We use the widest tires we can find (Michellin 445's) to offset shifty ground - like sand. The truck has front and rear winches, 3kw generator, extra fuel and LP tanks - basically everything you need for remote living.

[The_Mad_Norsky]

Outstanding video c.traveler2!!!!!!!

I've seen several others from yours and Jefe's trips into the wild. This was a new one for me, and much enjoyed!

Thank you!

[profdant139]

So sad to hear about the trash on Padre Island. We used to go to South Padre in the early 60s -- absolutely pristine beaches, great surf fishing, clear water, no people.

[bka0721]

zulu52 wrote:

anutami wrote:

zulu52 wrote:
How did you lose the camper?
What kind of tiedown system did it have?

Click Here

Wow!
That was a learning experience!
Glad no one was hurt.
Michael

See, Zulu52, there is a wealth of information found here from many of the new posters and especially from those that have been around a long time. Glad you brought the topic up, Zulu52. Again, welcome to the group. A lot of great people here, and at least one grump.

b

[kohldad]

Even this has the CoG very high, IMHO. Unless jefe loaded the camper with very heavy items in the upper cabinets (unlikely), the orange and blue lines should probably intersect below the roof line of the truck cab, showing he's not even close to the tipping point.

I agree, but there are so many factors involved, I wanted to leave plenty of a safety margin for the inexperienced. The way I described it will have most folk puckering without much chance of going over. I have had mine over a lot more too but probably not nearly as far as Jefe. It is one of those things one learns to do but takes a good sense of balance and not being swayed by the surroundings. Serious off-roaders like Jefe and myself learned with our jeeps. And have been there when jeeps have gone too far which adds greatly to the learning curve.

[zulu52]

anutami wrote:

zulu52 wrote:
How did you lose the camper?
What kind of tiedown system did it have?

Click Here

Wow!
That was a learning experience!
Glad no one was hurt.
Michael

[anutami]

zulu52 wrote:
How did you lose the camper?
What kind of tiedown system did it have?

Click Here

[zulu52]

How did you lose the camper?
What kind of tiedown system did it have?

[Bedlam]

The truck stayed on its wheels - He didn't roll the truck.

[ajcal225]

I feel somewhat certain that at least partially counts as rolling it..