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Old 05-15-2022, 11:21 PM   #1
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Angry Bad Roads

My DW and I are on a 90 day trip through many of the states east of the Mississippi River. Arriving at a campground a couple of weeks ago we discovered the bouncing and jarring road conditions had knocked a large day/night shade off its mounts in the bedroom and deposited it on the floor. No time for a real repair, so we strung up a towel for privacy. We were happy to get off those Miss. roads and headed into Alabama. We've been driving mostly on interstates and found AL highways to be just as bad as old Miss's. But at least the first few days in AL kept all accessories in place. Then today, driving from Huntsville, AL to Nashville, TN my 5er seemed to spend more time flying than rolling. When we got to the KOA in Nashville we discovered a bigger day/night shade half on the floor. While worrying about that we extended our living room slide, until the kind of sound you never want to hear emanated from the side of the slide that covers the pantry when retracted. The shaking had apparently shook open the pantry door, which the slide wall noisily ripped off its hinges while being extended. It was a job getting that door and the stuff formerly in the pantry out of the narrow space alongside the slide, but at least we stopped the extension before there was damage to the slide room itself. So, we'll be spending the day tomorrow fixing our pantry door rather than touring music city. Oh, a cabinet in the bedroom had also opened and started to jam the wardrobe slide, but I managed to stop that before any damage was done.

Lesson learned, even after 10 years of RVing...carefully examine for obstructions the path your slides will travel EVERY TIME you extend or retract them.
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Old 05-15-2022, 11:33 PM   #2
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I hear you! And my slide has openings on the sides when it is retracted. So I've had the stray item get under the slide during travel and then when extending the slide, the foreign object gets trapped between the exterior wall of the trailer and the "skirt" around the slide room and pops the front piece of the "skirt" right off.
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Old 05-22-2022, 11:26 PM   #3
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Best advice for you is to stay on the pavement.
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Old 05-23-2022, 08:03 AM   #4
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While I haven't experienced roads QUITE that bad, I just returned from a trip to the Grand Canyon, and US 40 out of Williams,AZ, was a nightmare. I swear the trailer at times was airborne. The road was so bad that it was dangerous to drive the speed limit. I finally concluded that the AZ Dept of Highways consisted of one man with a bucket of asphalt and a trowel.
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Old 05-23-2022, 08:41 AM   #5
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Going across I 70 last week in Indiana I had one of my shades end up on the floor in my Class C. I Dia a has some work to do also.
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Old 05-23-2022, 10:40 AM   #6
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Try a slower speed.
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Old 05-23-2022, 10:46 AM   #7
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Can't go much slower u less you want to get run over.
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Old 05-23-2022, 10:57 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Sunseeker16 View Post
Can't go much slower u less you want to get run over.
When I tow on roads that are so rough my trailer is likely to disintegrate, I drive at a slower speed (often running flashers) and I’ve never been run over.
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Old 08-14-2022, 08:48 AM   #9
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Can't go much slower u less you want to get run over.
On rough roads your options are:

1) Go fast, and pay for the expensive repairs (in terms of time, money or both) on anything that shakes loose from your obsessive and dangerous need to be in a hurry.

2) Go at a moderate speed to keep from shaking your RV apart, and let the tailgating twit in a hurry behind you absorb the costs when he tags your back bumper.

You decide. I know what cost-benefit analysis works for me.
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Old 08-14-2022, 09:52 AM   #10
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Observation:
The truck can handle the all too common rough roads without damage, but the RV sometimes cannot.

Conclusion:
The RV is not adequately engineered and built to serve it’s intended purpose: traveling on modern highways.
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Old 08-14-2022, 11:02 AM   #11
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Yes, the roads are terrible and getting worse. Our city streets are nearly impassable and no relief on the horizon. The roads are repaired by using the gas tax. The internal combustion engine is more efficient and we are collecting less taxes. The political climate makes it impossible to raise additional taxes so we are stuck with the bad roads. Can you imagine the uproar if we were all asked to contribute an additional $20.00 a year to repair the roads? Instead we pay thousands to repair our vehicles and brag about our low taxes.
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Old 08-14-2022, 11:33 AM   #12
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It will take more than $20 per year to make a difference. The roads and infrastructure in the US are some of the worse in the world, except for perhaps those in 3rd world countries.

Just look at the age of the roads and the age of those folks in Washington who are making the decisions. Some have been there 40 or 50+ years. It will take billions of dollars and many years to make a small impact on the infrastructure of roads and bridges here in the US.

In the meantime, slow down and enjoy the view. Add an extra day for your travels, just to dodge the potholes.

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Old 08-14-2022, 12:40 PM   #13
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It amazes me that some states are offering tax rebates of a few hundred bucks. A few hundred bucks isn't really a lot of financial help. It seems more political. I wish they would just take that money and fix a road a bridge or something.
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Old 08-14-2022, 03:22 PM   #14
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It amazes me that some states are offering tax rebates of a few hundred bucks. A few hundred bucks isn't really a lot of financial help. It seems more political. I wish they would just take that money and fix a road a bridge or something.
Agreed or pass legislation to reduce certain rising costs that actually don't do anything but make things more momey. Or spend the salary for 87k new government employees and put them into roads, reducing costs.to your citizens or putting money into our own safety instead of others before us.... But that gets political [emoji38]

Our last 5th wheel was totalled due to the rough roads in VA. Caused the frame and walls to separate from each other.
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Old 08-14-2022, 05:30 PM   #15
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Where I live, our roads take a beating from the harsh winters. Pavement cracks and frost heaves. Then comes break-up and the roads fall apart. Our state fuel tax is around 14¢, and we have no state income tax, not mention that most of Alaska has no sales tax. I give a lot of credit to AKDOT. They do herculean work to put our roads back together. A few years ago we had a significant earthquake here in Anchorage. It collapsed railroad beds and opened up fissures that actually swallowed vehicles. AKDOT managed to put everything back together in about 40 days. Our State speed limit is 55 MPH, with some areas that allow 60 MPH, but that doesn't mean you can drive that fast, especially towing an RV. In the summer both the Parks Hwy and the Richardson Hwy are littered with those shiny wheel covers most often seen on motor homes. At high speeds the stress of the road contours will send them flying. So, you can either slow down and resign yourself to not trying to reduce the distance between two points with speed, or you can use up your rig.
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Old 08-14-2022, 09:30 PM   #16
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We travel from the Chicago to Gulf Shores each winter.

Every time I arrive, I think I should start selling t-shirts that read, "I Survived Interstate 65 Through Birmingham".

But the couple of times I have gone to Quartzsite by way of I-40, it has given I-65 a run for the money around Oklahoma City and Flagstaff.
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Old 08-16-2022, 05:45 PM   #17
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We just finished a trip which included 30 states. The worst roads we found were NY and PA. Sure, there were plenty of other areas where there were some bad sections, it’s just that NY and PA were for sure the worst overall.
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