Community Forums

biggcrisp · 03-06-2017, 12:29 PM

I use rubber pavers -- made from recycled tires. 16"x16"

bam565 · 03-06-2017, 12:41 PM

Don't do it!! Just forked out $8k for my driveway repair replacement. Damage was caused primarily by a 40ft Revolution but began with a 36' Fleetwood Discovery. There's never a guaranty: 1) How thick the cement actually is, especially around the edges 2) What the condition is of the base below the cement 3) What kind of mix was actually used. Funny story. I parked my 36 footer on a friends asphalt driveway and leveled. A few days after we left, he called and commented that his driveway looked like a lunar lander had landed. There were (4) distinct indentations from my leveling pads. It was scheduled for repaving so no harm. Could've been an expensive visit!

Sandy Swede · 03-06-2017, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meant2shop

We park our 38' Pace Arrow on gravel after traversing our asphalt driveway.
So do most of you routinely put plywood or some other product under the jacks when the MH is sitting for extended periods of time? Even on gravel and snow?

Our MH is parked on a 6" crushed concrete pad. Maybe don't have to, but I place pads underneath the jacks. Never give those babies a chance to sink in or shift.

THenman · 03-06-2017, 01:51 PM

Just a note from having had a couple of building built for industrial use while I owned a manufacturing company.
While spec. may be x in. that may not be what you get unless you supervise the pour. Someone will step in the prepared area and that will cause deep and shallow concrete.
I am thinking we went a full 8in reinforced min. for our buildings since they had to support machines and so we could drive fully loaded semi's into the buildings.

Anyhow do you really want to trust that the contractor who put in a friends drive did the work correctly even if it is supposed to be strong enough?

BTW: When we put in a pool the water truck cracked our drive...

Tom

Redapple · 03-06-2017, 02:05 PM

I have been parking my 32foot Damon in my residential driveway for 10 years with no ill effects.

Cranemec · 03-06-2017, 02:08 PM

I would not park our 47,000 lb coach on anyone's driveway but ours. Then again ours was made to handle the weight.
We live 1/4 to 1/2 mile off of the road so we have a asphalt drive in from the street but once it gets close to the house we have concrete. We recently had the long drive repaved. Our contractor put in 8" of asphalt to interstate specs.

Paul Dobbin · 03-06-2017, 02:23 PM

We have a asphalt driveway 800' long.
Our Airstream DP weighs only about 20K, no problem.
My brother's Wanderlodge weighs 50K, I'll let him stay in a commercial campground.
Bridge restrictions will also keep him away, even though I see those weight limits violated all the time, why ask for risk.

Redapple · 03-06-2017, 02:28 PM

Agree, anything more than 25k would be pushing it.

powercat_ras · 03-06-2017, 04:21 PM

If you have settlement voids under the driveway look out for cracking from heavy loads !

One way to check for voids under the driveway is to drag a sledgehammer head across the concrete and it will make a different sound where there is a settlement void under the slab.

gemert · 03-06-2017, 05:02 PM

I wish you had brought this up 3 years ago! My 42K MH cracked the end where you enter the driveway. It will have to be redone at some point when my 2 year retirement vacation is over. In the mean time I'm not home enough for it to bother me.

bobkathy95 · 03-06-2017, 05:26 PM

As a general rule - residential driveways are advertised at 4" concrete, but in reality usually average closer to 3" thick. Some might have rebar and/or high strength concrete but likely not unless it was specified at pour time. This setup may not crack the first time you drive on it - but parking and/or using jacks is very problematic. Concrete that is poured specifically for RV use is almost always 6" high strength mix and will have some expansion joints. A normal 4" concrete slab should not be expected to support weight over 20,000 lbs.

Mr_D · 03-06-2017, 05:39 PM

Ours started cracking when we had our '98 35' Santana gas rig. And the present 45' 46,000# empty weight MH hasn't helped it any.

Isaac-1 · 03-06-2017, 06:02 PM

Keep in mind it may not only be the drive way that is damaged by concrete failure, a number of years ago I was stuck working late one night being the designated closing manager that day. We had an LTL truck freight delivery due that night and the truck was running several hours late arriving. It turns out the 18 wheeler freight truck had a delivery earlier in the day at a state prison and while driving over a culvert under their concrete drive the concrete collapsed, one of the wheels of the trailer went into the hole, it took 2 tow trucks to get it out, and in the process somewhere the entire frame of the trailer was bent to the point where it would barely fit in our loading dock doorway (think giant parallelagram the the top of the box skewed a couple of feet to the side)

vagaron · 03-06-2017, 10:00 PM

Thanks for all the info, advice, and cautionary tales. I won't be parking in any private driveways unless the owner knows it can handle it. My Pace Arrow is less than half the weight some mentioned for their 40+ft. DPs, but still...