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Light weight front axle

Yahoo Message Number: 2186

Got a question for anyone willing to provide an answer or guess. This week we had an ice storm in Branson, MO, so I moved my coach into the driveway in case we needed the genset due to a power outage. Within a couple days, I had an inch of ice and a couple inches of very wet snow on the coach roof.

This PM, I moved it back into storage. The streets were clear of ice and snow, but when I backed it out of my driveway, I had very little steering control with the front axle. The coach has a very short wheelbase (213.5 inches) and the distance from the rear axle to the back end of the coach is almost the same as from the rear axle to the front of the coach body (back of the cab).

The "weight" of the ice/snow can be assumed to be equaled distributed on the roof. After discounting the front slope, the front roof line would be extending slightly past the cab rear, but would fall short of the front axle vertical plane. My question is, could the added weight of ice and snow, while evenly distributed, still unload the front axle?

Denny

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Re: Light weight front axle

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 2187
Denny,

Well, you can probably assume that the ice between the axles evens
out. So, you just care about the weight after the rear axle. Your
motorhome is about 33ft long. And about 3ft in front of the axle and
18ft between the axles, gives 12ft.

And 8ft wide gives 96 sq ft= 13824 sq inches

You have an inch of ice and a couple of inches of wet snow. A normal
snow gets about 10 inches of snow to an inch of water. Here in the
mountains of New Mexico we can get close to 20 inches of snow for an
inch of water. A wet snow might be 6 inches. It makes a big
difference when shoveling. So, we just add a quarter inch of water.
And I looked up and found water weighs 0.0361 lbs a sq. inch. Ice is
a little lighter so we will just call it 0.036.

13824 * 1.25 * 0.036 = 622 lbs. In back of the rear axle.

A long time ago in college I could figure out how that works out on
your axles but that knowledge has long since left me especially since
I didn't care much for mechanical engineering anyhow.

David

Re: Light weight front axle

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 2188

David,

Thanks for your analysis of the "ice factor." Using your calculations then, I probably had about 1500# of ice/snow on the roof. No wonder the coach felt to almost tip over on the turns... the center of gravity was well above normal. I also wonder with the added weight sitting so high on the rear of the coach if the was a "pendulum effect" to unload the front axle. Kinda like moving the fulcrum away from the leverage.

Denny