RV FEATURE
Sit around a campfire or any happy hour
discussion and ask about what constitutes
an offroad-capable caravan, and watch the
fireworks. Some people will tell you that
a true offroad caravan does not exist and
others will tell you they can take just about
any caravan offroad if they want to.
If you're wanting to assess whether or not your
caravan is capable of going offroad, or you're
considering purchasing one, you could be left
more confused than when you started out.
This month, we continue our series on offroad
caravanning by looking into what makes
a caravan capable of traversing offroad
conditions. What design features do you need
and what preparations are necessary before
you take that turn off the blacktop?
2
If you want to give your caravan every
chance of surviving long trips on
corrugated tracks, you're going to need
good suspension with shock absorbers.
In my opinion, leaf-spring suspension
in any form without shock absorbers is,
frankly, archaic.
As their name suggests, shock absorbers
adsorb shock and, without them, the
constant vibrational forces created by
driving on corrugations eventually leads
to damaged furniture, failed bearings,
broken axles and dislodged fittings.
SELECTING AN OFFROADER
Remember, as per last issue, we are qualifying
our definition of ‘offroad' as driving more than
50km along remote dirt roads on a regular
or semi-regular basis. That said, some of
the features described here could allow your
caravan to traverse much more difficult terrain.
1
A strong chassis is an absolute must
when it comes to your caravan's
survivability when traversing rough
roads. The chassis is the foundation on
which the caravan is built and many are
designed to tackle no more challenging
conditions than what you would expect
on an asphalt road.
Keep in mind that strong doesn't
necessarily mean heavy. Although a
good offroad chassis is usually made
from thick steel box-section in a ladder
frame configuration with lots of cross
bracing, some specialised offroad
caravan manufacturers have built strong
chassis out of much lighter materials.
Talk to the manufacturer if you're in doubt
about the capabilities of the chassis on
your caravan.
Good suspension with shock
absorbers are a must.
/ 29