Greener pastures - how soft are they?

If you can drive on it, you can park on it.  If you "could drive on it" and it rains, you may no longer be able to park or drive on it.
I can't imagine any kind of plywood being of any value for anything unless you have made up a very thick sandwich and if so, you would be better off with some lumber.

I found a chunk of 4X12 scrap lumber at Home Depot. I cut it into 12" pieces and attached some handles to them. They make great blocks for leveling.

In the Navigation Rules, Which I must live by is a rule that will serve you well. "If in doubt whether a risk of collision exists, you shall consider such risk does exist and take action"

So, Turn this around to your question and If you think there is a chance of getting stuck, even a remote one. Consider that you will be calling coach-net and find another spot.

There really is no answer except to use a lot of caution. Firm ground can turn soft with rain. There may be hidden caverns (sink holes), septic tanks and leach fields, old water wells, or soft underfill (like a buried tree trunk rotting away). Sand is always tricky - it can be nice and firm until you turn the steering wheels and it instantly plows a deep furrow. Grass can be incredibly slippery when wet, even just morning dew.

Your rear duals are carrying 4000-5000 lbs each. Front tires may be as much as 8000 lbs each on big DP's. That's a huge weight on a patch that measures around 100 sq inches.

Once in a great while I'll need to drag out my home-made plywood "pyramid" pads (looks like an upside down wedding cake) for those situations where the ground is soft and very off level.  When there is a very out of level situation, there will be a considerable force on one or two jacks.  (We have buried the jacks on more than one occasion.  : )

Where the ground is soft but fairly level, we use traditional plastic pads, ours are unbreakable and I don't remember the manufacturer of them, but they will not break.

I went through this last Thursday in Alvin Texas after staying at a friends house for five days.  My 16,000+ pound 5th wheel settled just enough into the grass to prevent me from getting it out with my truck.  This is a perfect example of "why" you need a good road service plan, we use CoachNet.  Instead of having to stress out about how much it was going to cost me to get pulled out, I just sat back waited for the tow truck to show up and winch me forward about twenty feet.

One of the things about boondocking  is that you really need to get out and walk the site BEFORE you pull/back in.  In the case mentioned above I did exactly that but sometimes you just can't predict everything.  We got just a little rain a day or two before we were supposed to pull out and it was just enough to soften the ground enough to present a problem.  Especially when trying to drag the rig out with a truck that has proven in the past that it doesn't have the best tires for traction on wet grass, mud, snow or anything other than dry pavement, but the tires are nice and quiet going down the road.

We love to boondock and do so as often as possible when were in states that actually have public land.  There have been numerous occasions when we've unloaded the bike out of the rig so we could recon the area if it was too far to walk in.  On more than one occasion this has saved out bacon or at least prevented us from having to back out a half mile or so when things didn't turn out the way we would have liked.

Have fun boondocking, you're going to learn a lot about your rig and how to have fun and conserve your resources at the same time.

In 1990 a co worker camped near lake n Utah with his van. When he was talking about it later I asked about softness of area. No problem. We took our 89 34 ft Pace Arrow up there. Ground looked ok. Co worker said it was k. My mistake was not walking the area first. I drove in & buried the MH up to the axles in loose sand. No shovel. No cell phone. About 50 miles from town & nobody aound. I found a piece of board, used my green outside carpet, hydraulic jack & blocks I carry. 10 hours later we were back on hard ground. If you hoone dock carry a shovel, some outside carpet, blocks, & jack. I learned a lot from that experience. Walk the area first. Look for loose soil or wet soft soil conditions. Like a drivers training nsructor once told me. Don't be lazy. If in doubt get out and look. Only takes a few minues and may save a lot of money i.e. time.

4DogsRV said:

So my wife and I are planning on eventually doing a lot of boondocking. One of my concerns is what to do about the quality of the ground we are going to be parking on. I have large, square pieces of plywood that I was thinking of putting under the wheels to spread the load a little. I have already purchased "spreaders" for the hydraulic legs. My question is, what do you experienced types out there use, and how do you go about deciding if the ground is hard enough for your rig?

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With pastures you have to be extremely careful as in most soil types there will be at least some sinking overnight, more with rain, more still if you stay for an extended period. 

I farmed for a while and hauled grain and hay in and out of pastures with, among other things, a twin screw truck.  As in other situations where traction is paramount, tires make the difference, and if you're serious about doing this you should see if you can get some off-road type truck tires for your rig.  They will be loud, they will not last as long, but they will save your bacon if you're playing in the mud.  Ask for the kinds of tires that the dump truck guys hauling for construction would use.

Some awareness of seasonal soil moisture patterns and the general soil moisture situation around you will help as it would a farmer doing fieldwork.  If you are out west where they irrigate maybe not so much of a problem, around here in the spring there are places where grass grows but you can sink in the mud in the middle of June even if it hasn't rained for two weeks.

You will find that a 3/4" piece of plywood will bow and sink in soft ground.  Round works better than square because the stress is the same all around.  I have ends of plywood cable spools I use under the stabilizers and tongue jack but they will not support the entire weight of the trailer on soft ground and will certainly not hold up your class A.

Now I know this sounds like a dumb question, but I was in the recovery business for a while and I have seen some crazy stuff. I just don't want to park up somewhere and have my rig sink down in the ground overnight...... :-\

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Know the weather forecast, walk the site before driving it, and have a recovery plan of some kind in mind.

captsteve said:

If you think there is a chance of getting stuck, even a remote one. Consider that you will be calling coach-net and find another spot.

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It is my understanding that coach-net does not cover recovery of RVs stuck off road.

I unwittingly drove our class C onto a wet field at a church function in Lancaster MA two summer's ago. Being stuck was not half as bad as having the large audience watching the two hour ordeal of being towed out by three of the local's pickup trucks. That evening at the vespers hour I did place a larger than usual donation in the offering plate. It only takes once to learn that lesson. I now know to stay on hard ground or get out and give it a thorough check.  :

Had to pull out over eighty rigs at the Winnebago Rally in Forest City Iowa one year.  Had a bucket filling rain and the minute people started turning their wheels it broke the turf and down they went.  Those that drove strait and did not turn until they were on solid ground did not have a problem.

Other than that always have a good time.

Don G. WIT 70041

1998 was a unforgettable year for me - I won the forum HPOHOF award for getting stuck no less than three times in a 10 week period.  Once on loose gravel over a hard surface (like walking on marbles!) and twice on wet grass. Didn't actually sink in (I knew not to turn the wheels sharply), but still couldn't move and required a tow.