To cover or not to cover, that is my question?!

[Legacy Posts]

Mike, I love to see what you come up with. Is PVC strong? Inexpensive? On that PVC website, the arched green house looks like a good possibility if it could be built high enough to get the trailer under it.

[Legacy Posts]

What to build:

Before I found that site - I'd drawn something fairly similar to the greenhouse (a hoophouse) except it attached to the trailer itself from below the frame. After looking at some of these sites - I'm thinking something more like a scaled up version of the ATV garage might be best. Course that ends up being exactly what Michael (web-master-mike) posted a photo of earlier. :)
I'll have to play around with some of these ideas. I think the key thing I'm gonna have to keep in mind is that my goal isn't really to build a garage - it's to build a frame which will keep a tarp off of the walls of the camper. Course - if it ends up being easiest to build something like the ATV garage - then so-be-it.

DIY Awning:
I picked up a $10 free standing awning from Kmart. Includes a tarp-like top, some fairly cheap poles, lines and tent pegs. I attach one side to the side of the camper (there are eye bolts on my belly band). Two poles are used in the remaining two corners, one in the center and I used the two spare poles along two of the sides.

Something VERY similar could be built using a tarp of any size. For poles, I'd actually suggest getting proper adjustable tent poles. They'll collapse down better. I wonder if PVC could be used to stiffen up the edges of the thing though... You'd have to fold over and sew three or four sides - and store them somewhere inside the camper too...

Mike

[Legacy Posts]

I really like that little bit of concrete in the pole part; keeps the dirt out plus adds the weight.

Oh I was way off on that cover for the trailer, Mike, I was thinking two T's one on each end with poles between. T's atached to trailer tongue and bumper. but I guess that would still touch on the sides.. hummm??

Offset two of the legs on the awning, and push the awning up where it goes over the trailer to prevent rain falling on you going in and out. That's my main grip about not having an attached, rain on my head.

[Legacy Posts]

Like Jean, I also use a tarp; 20' x 20'.
In the wind, it will billow out on the leeward side with plenty of air circulation underneath.

<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3dee933ebbfd1DSC01085b.JPG/>

[Legacy Posts]

One time our son build a temp PVC pipe cover for his boat. He laid 2x2 or 4x4 on the ground as long as he needed for the shelter. After he got his layout he marked spaces to drill holes all the way thru. To anchor them to the ground he drove small rebar thru each end hole and bent over the pieces when he had them close to the boards. The other holes he had drilled got longer pieces of rebar driven thru them but left sticking up about 3 ft. or so above the boards. To assemble he laid out two pieces of pvc end to end and joined with connector. That long piece was form to be an arch and each end was placed over the upright rebar. On down the row he went making more of the same. He stretched a tarp over all this and then anchored the tarp down with bungie cords. Similar to these plans for the arched greenhouse but he left both ends complete open and made his arches tall enough to fit the boat. His way of anchoring made it more wind resistant but for longer use would have needed a better built framework for sure. I know I have not made my instructions clear but by looking at the drawing here of the arched greenhouse and considering " M" to be pieces of rebar sticking up with the arch "C" over it gives you the idea.

[Legacy Posts]

Living in Oregon we have two things to worry about when thinking about storage damage to our trailer: rain (winter) and sun (summer). So we are installing a cement pad and a king canopy (like Michael Sanders has) up in our woods. What I would like to know is this:

How many of you put your trailer on blocks when storing it over the winter?

Nancy

[Legacy Posts]

Nancy, Here's a poll for that one, too!

(Please, ignore that it's Casita specific; it's a poll from the website's early days, before people had gotten into the swing of speaking more generally about our molded fiberglass travel trailers.)

:sunny

[Legacy Posts]

Seems like this poll should be regional?!

In Oklahoma we get 50mph wind gusts without raising an eyebrow.....my son in Oregon welcomes winter cause it means it'll quit raining (for a while)........ Arizona sun, Florida salt air, New England chill.......Oh yeah, hail can do in a canopy, we had some o that last month. :lol

[Legacy Posts]

quote PineConeDon - In Oklahoma we get 50mph wind gusts without raising an eyebrow

that is sure the truth. I put a small canopy up one day to work on the trailer out of the sun. I didn't put it over the trailer just snug up to it. next morning it was down the way. and just rolled itself over a few times. just the way it is around here. :wak if I had staked it, it's would have been on the ground in a clump. Learned that lesson already. this way it just needed turned over and put back.

[Legacy Posts]

We tarped the RV for the winters we could not find indoor parking. Made sure we had moisture control gadgets. And for odor control and to keep the little creatures away, we put fabric softner sheets in the closets, fridge (open of course) and in every nook and cranny. It works. The Trillium fits in our hangar and that is where it will "live" in the winter. If wse turn it so the tongue faces the side wall, the door will be accessible and we will be able to enjoy it and dream of being on the road. The is sufficient room to tail or nose the plane in and sit in the egg to eat, snooze or just dream.
I've included a picture of where she sits now, in the hangar, while we are tearing it apart and sprucing her up. It is facing the bifold door while we work on it and have to tail it in to fit. That is tougher when the plane is on skis and why we are thinking of facing it to the wall. The paint will last longer and it will already be in a dry place if we want to add a mod... Gives a hole new meaning to "camping under wing"... JD<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3edccf885c08cUnder wing.jpg/>

[Legacy Posts]

What a tow vehicle you have there, JD. talk about flying high.
Trailer On The Wing. la laa la :dance

[Legacy Posts]

Hi,
I use a tarp garage for my Bigfoot 17. It's manufactured by Inland Plastics of Drumheller, Alberta. It cost about CDN$1200. We have severe weather in Alberta and I just couldn't bear to have the trailer sit out all the time. It's not only snow and wind you have to worry about. there is also UV radiation from the sun, pitch from trees and industrial/urban fallout. My tarp garage is 24' long, 14' wide and about 11' tall at the tiop of the peak. If I park the trailer right in the middle, I can walk around it, and enter it while it's inside. My neighbours are good about putting up with my 'Grey Elephant ' in the back yard. I say that with the high cost of these RV's, I have a right and an obligation to protect it's value to the best of my ability.
-Ron.

1999 Bigfoot 17'
1996 Explorer XLT AWD V8

[Legacy Posts]

I've been using 3 Cover-It's for the last 5 years for some of my cars and I just set one up for my car trailer.

The Casita has been kept in a garage most of its life.

Check out http://www.cover-it.com

[Legacy Posts]

Great link, Glen. I've looked at these for three years, but don't think I've found this site. . yet. but I have now. :dance Thanks

[Tinkerbelle]

Legacy Posts - did the grey tarp cover work for your Scamp?

[Steve Carlson]

I think "legacy posts" are from people who are no longer members here, probably from several forum iterations ago... not surprising since this thread is from 2003. Point being, I don't think they'll answer. But maybe someone else will chime in...

[Jon in AZ]

They’re posts recovered from before the Great Hack of 2006(?) that crashed the forum server. Quite a bit was recovered in the clean-up, but not the identities of the posters.

It’s possible the original poster might still be active and respond to your query, but it’s a long shot.

[thrifty bill]

If I was going cheap, I'd pick up a Harbor Freight carport. Some modification will be necessary, but not that much. My neighbor has one for his Sprinter van, its been up at least two years, and is still doing fine.

The next step up IMHO is one of those permanent "erect a carport on your lot" company. I have one from them. I bought mine from Carolina Carport. Depending on size, you are talking $850 and up.

The best is a garage, which of course is going to cost quite a bit. Carolina Carport actually makes a garage (I have one of those two). Its basically an enclosed carport. Depending on size, what you want, the price goes up from there. Figure $4000 to $8000. In my case, the concrete floor cost as much as the garage, and I got a lot of options on my garage including vertical roof, insulated, two windows, two powered doors, a third manual door, heavier gauge steel tubing, etc.

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by thrifty bill

If I was going cheap, I'd pick up a Harbor Freight carport. Some modification will be necessary, but not that much. My neighbor has one for his Sprinter van, its been up at least two years, and is still doing fine. .....

Unless you get snow or high winds and leave it up. It wont work so well in many areas, but it sure has worked well for me...

I bought one of those in the spring of 2015 with the intention of it being temporary. It was $99 and I put about another $45 into it with better rope, better anchors (at all six posts), and some hardware to keep the tube sections of the roof section together. I also tie rope from the front and back roof peaks to the frame of the Scamp, or to ground anchors.

I do take the cover off for the 2-3 months of real winter in North Carolina so that the snow and ice do not destroy it. I moved it to a new house this spring and took the cover off for a few days when the remnants of a hurricane came through the area. Its been in some fairly high winds at other times (gusts to 40-45 MPH I would estimate) and its still in use right now (December 2019).

I figure I can replace the temporary carport more than 20 times for the cost of a real carport, and since this one has lasted over four years in almost daily use, then (with some effort on my part) its cheaper than a real carport for the first 100 years. If I lived in the north it would be different but here I am leaning heavily to abandoning my plan to get a real carport. My only concern is if winds tear it apart and not only rip the canvas roof but also cause the metal poles to break and they damage the camper.

[thrifty bill]

FWIW I live in the mountains of NC myself. I have been surprised how durable my neighbors HF model has been. He added tie downs and used self tapping screws to hold the poles together. I would have guessed it would have lasted a season. We definitely get snow here, its snowing today. But it’s not like up north. Still we lost 8 trees to wet heavy snow last spring. They are renters so erecting a permanent carport is not practical.