Temporary RV Shelters

[Pam]

We are in central Massachusetts and need to work on restoring one of two trailers over the winter. They are currently parked behind the old chicken coop and we need to create a protected area to work in. We are considering those quansett hut looking structures with arched frames and plastic covering. The problem is that we had heard of them collapsing with the weight of snow. Anyone have experience with this and a recommended manufacturer?

We could build something ourselves too. Trying to keep costs down but make a space to work in that is dry and heated.

We will be working on a 24' Tradewind.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[balrgn]

We "had" a "Cover It" over our Case tractor last winter. (in the mountains) It worked great. Well not really great, The snow up there and melting due to a huge rain and ice storm, caused it to collapse. If you can keep the heavy snow off, which we could not because it was 100 miles away, one should do you fine!

http://www.balrgn.com/Camp/sitework/DSC02086.jpg

[Pam]

Thanks, I will check out the company. I did find one that indicated closer rib spacing to carry the snow weight. Since it would be in the back yard we could monitor it. The problem is that it is on the north side and may get more snow and less sun.

I was looking at www.portablesheltershops.com and found a couple that might work. Maybe reinforce them with some 2x4's. Someone in the club had their trailer stored under a shelter and it collapsed with the snow and then the metal ribs caused dents in the roof.

(I should have bitten the bullet and had a barn built over the summer! We had neither the time or money!)

[Uberlanders]

Costco had some nice ones for awhile here in WA, too. You might take a look at them. If they have them I'm sure you could find them in their on-line catalogue as well.

At our last rally there was a SOB with one. They used it for getting out of the weather, it was also equipped with a 4 burner propane heater. I guess camping isn't about the outdoors anymore.

[malconium]

I am also wrestling with what to do for a cover. I would eventually like to build a large enough permanet garage/workshop. In the meantime while looking around at alternative canopies I ran across the following website. They supply various fittings that can be used with locally aquired tubing to make your own framework in a dimension of your chosing.

http://www.tentcoinc.com/

I have not purchased anything from these folks so I do not have direct experience with them but their products look like they might be pretty usefull.

Malcolm

[05ModPod]

Hi Pam;

We live in NorthEast Ontario - don't get as much snow as Northern Ontario but we do get our fair share.

We purchased one of those Livestock shelters - galvinized poles with heavy duty green tarp. for a 24X20 we paid about $1500 Canadian. (unfortunately that company we bought it from no longer is around - but I can get a number for the person who started up their own business from that one.

Anyway long story short - we have never had a problem with the snow - when it gets to a certain weight it always seems to slide off. The key to these tarp shelters is to get your tarp as tight as possible. - if you get sags then that will cause you a problem with the snow staying in pockets.

Here is a picture of ours from the front - we are using it as a garage and workshop. It is a temp structure until we get all our variances cleared so that we can build our permanent structure. In the interim we framed in the front and back - and will probably give it some siding - just to make it look a little more than a "sheep shelter". We anchored it on 6X6 timbers and rebar rods into the ground. - We have a large double garage door with door opener and have not had any problems - this will be it's 4 winter.

The only problem we had was the tarp started to deteriorate on us the second year and leaked - so we had it replaced via warranty. We kept the first one on so that we now have a double layer tarp - which is a little warmer. We also put ridgid foam insulation along the walls behind the frame -to prevent anything going through the walls by mistake.

I will try and find the new contact and post it sometime this week - I am sure they deliver to the States.

Taken last December.

PS if we did not put a door on it we can easily fit our Globe Trotter in there - and if you need the extra hieght you just have to build a small knee wall and then anchor the structure on top of the wall. Have even seen people build posts and mount on top of posts - then fill in the bottom with boards.

[john hd]

you may find what you need here http://www.kingcanopy.com/

they have rv sizes, some are rated for snow.

john

[Pam]

Thank you for the input.

I am researching the companies and links you have all provided. All the input is much appreciated. I have migrated over to companies that supply the farming industry. There seem to be more "heavy duty" solutions there. The snow is an issue with collapsing, so I want to be careful.

[Bob Thompson]

We've had a ClearSpan from Farmtech and found it to be very good: http://www.farmtek.com/webapp/wcs/st...vision=FarmTek