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Old 02-14-2018, 03:44 PM   #17
Chance
Senior Member
 
Brand: Still Looking
State: Texas
Posts: 6,187
THOR #2121
"Occasionally" in this context means nothing. You can't design and engineer things of inferior strength just because you plan to use them occasionally rather than daily. A driveway could fail/crack the very first time you drive the RV on it, or it may not crack after 1,000 cycles. And the only way I know to find out is to actually do it; while being ready to replace or fix it if it cracks.

The problem with concrete is that it's relatively strong in compression, but weak in tension. For that reason if the load on the driveway tries to bend any part of it, it will likely crack on the tension side. And it doesn't take much at all. Rebar will help immensely on tension side, but minor cracks in concrete form anyway as rebar stretches some as it takes most of the tension load. As mentioned numerous times by many, the base under the concrete is key. If base is prepared well, then it won't yield significantly under pressure from concrete above and everything will be fine. And do you know details of what's under driveway -- probably not.

In an area like my driveway where concrete was placed essentially over clay, any real change in ground moisture alone can cause clay to expand and contract, which then tries to bend the driveway. And this leads to many cracks. Another factor in my area are tree roots that get under driveway and lift it; also causing cracks.

Pure downward compression from parking an RV isn't much of a load in itself -- roughly 100 PSI from RV tires is nothing for 4,000 PSI concrete. I managed design and construction of a few warehouses where pallet racks for heavy products placed more load on each rack baseplate than many RVs weigh, and the concrete didn't crack. If done right the driveway won't crack, if done poorly it surely will. Beyond that it's speculation because we can't know for sure.
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