Camper is tucked in for the winter

Not to change the subject from the tires, but about Tucking Baby FF in for the Winter... :|
I thought I had our FF tucked in; I parked her in the driveway (Oops, on asphalt) had the cover on and tire covers on... :)... BUT, while sweeping the roof and putting on the cover, I felt a soft spot and heard cracking in two spots... :confused: I couldn't see anything wrong, but soft and cracking is only okay when rolling bubble-wrap... Sooo, I undressed the old girl (FF that is), buttoned down everything and towed her up to Mike's in Princeton... :cry: Yep, you guessed it, Mike found a couple small tears in the rubber roof and confirmed wood damage... :cry:
He's putting together an estimate and I am hoping for the best, but one sheet of plywood replacement and a new rubber roof is likely to be spendy... $$$ :cry:

A word to the wise...
I did not notice anything wrong when parked for the winter last fall... spring came along and I did not do a great inspection before heading out to AZ the end of Feb this year... It was still cold and some snow and ice on the ground... :rolleyes:

:oops: Maybe, just maybe, if I had taken the time and effort to do a thorough inspection, after pulling the cover last spring, I may have seen damage and could have had things fixed before it became quite spendy ... $1000'sss expected for repair... :cry:
 
Sorry to hear about that John!
But you've given me a mission.
Thursday will be Roof Inspection and Reseal Day....
 
I have room in my driveway to store my trailer, but am concerned about weight load of snow and ice. Plus I'm worried strong winds could whip a cover off in my area and also damage the aerials, a/c, etc. We can get a lot of snow some winters up here in southern Ontario and they are predicting a bad one this year.

A friend has a huge, newer, clean and dry storage barn that I put mine in and he gave me a good price. Haven't taken it in yet as I am still "driveway camping" ! LOL We've had some nice mild weather this fall and some nights I just go out there to sleep...it's so peaceful. No ticking clocks, or fridge motor kicking in and out, or furnace noise....

But alas, it must go away for the winter soon...before the snow flies. < sob >
 
Sorry to hear about that John!
But you've given me a mission.
Thursday will be Roof Inspection and Reseal Day....

The tears in the roof were quite small... maybe 1" long, BUT they were close to edges and were difficult to see. The tears being close to an edge allowed water to channel right into them... :cry:

Mike told me that there are no cross pieces/rafters in my trailer's roof, just the walls for support of 3/4" plywood!! :rolleyes: He needs to remove the roof vent to replace the wood (about 4 feet up front) and when he gets that done, he will add a 3/4" piece of ply full length down the middle and then add a 1/4" layer that tapers to the main roof, then the covering, to form a smooth crown. Mike said he does this to help drain rain and snow melt... :D

When he goes back together, I asked him to go ahead and price an upgrade the roof vent fan with a Vortex or Fantastic... this will give me a quieter fan with multiple speeds and airflow direction control... :D
 
I have room in my driveway to store my trailer, but am concerned about weight load of snow and ice. Plus I'm worried strong winds could whip a cover off in my area and also damage the aerials, a/c, etc. We can get a lot of snow some winters up here in southern Ontario and they are predicting a bad one this year.

A friend has a huge, newer, clean and dry storage barn that I put mine in and he gave me a good price. Haven't taken it in yet as I am still "driveway camping" ! LOL We've had some nice mild weather this fall and some nights I just go out there to sleep...it's so peaceful. No ticking clocks, or fridge motor kicking in and out, or furnace noise....

But alas, it must go away for the winter soon...before the snow flies. < sob >

Hi Dawnie,
I had to laugh when you wrote of "Driveway Camping" and when I told my wife (AKA "The Boss") she said it could save a lot of money... :rolleyes:

The Carport I looked at to put up, probably in the backyard, is on the lines of this one offered by Menards. They offer an array of sizes, but pricing has gone up since I first got a quote. I will look into something like this for next spring/summer install... :):)
 

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Hi Dawnie,
There are several companies that offer kits, but I am guessing that shipping would kill any savings... :rolleyes:

Depending on local suppliers and one's skills, this is really no more than a small pole barn... I have enough skills, including welding, and the tools... I am starting to look for plans that I can turn right over to the city building inspector. If that doesn't work, I'll have to draw something up myself... A lot of work and research of code requirements... :rolleyes:

I'll get that done over the winter; then, I can start a materials list, and determine cost... I have room to go larger; if code will let me, I'll go large enough to eventually enclose, insulate, add storage, and heat... :D
I paneled and insulated my garage, ran my own electric and gas plumbing, and installed a heater... :) I keep it about mid-40's, but can crank it up to T-shirt temps if I want to work inside... :)
 
John- Give the extent of your damage, I'm curious as to what maintenance you did over the years to protect the roof. Was it washed and UV protected annual and/or more frequently? Was it covered or sheltered during the winter? I ask, because if you did all the preventative stuff, and this still happened, than this is probably something everyone should expect after 8-9 years. Also, I surprised that you have no rafters in the roof. Is it because it is a toy hauler? The 2009 FunFinder X brochure indicates that all the travel trailers have aluminum truss rafters, however it does not include toy haulers. Is your's aluminum frame construction?
 
John, I just saw this post for the first time. Sorry to hear about the damage. I hope it won't involve to much $$ for you. But glad you caught it. Our oak trees had a terrible scourge of scale insects this summer. The whole forest was raining drops of something called "honey dew", similar to what ants milk aphids for. Anyway it fell on everything for weeks! Outdoor furniture, cars, roofs, and of course the camper! Then a black sooty mold took over. Everything looked terrible and it didn't wash off easily. Bleach was needed. And the bad thing is that we didn't get up on the FF roof to get it off. We'all have fun in the Spring. Luckily the awning was not out.
 
I wish I'd gotten a photo of the RV-port that the guy we bought our FF from -- he offered to include it in our deal, but it wouldn't have fit in our tiny driveway adjacent to our tiny home (and our neighbor would've had a conniption). it was really nicely done and kept the UV rays out. Poles held down by concrete block and very heavy duty brown tarp. I don't know how it would work with snow, though. The original owner was from Avila Beach, and then it was up in Ventura and we took it further south to WLA. Maybe the next buyer will be from OC!
 
Hi Twinster,
We bought the trailer in spring of '15, we gook it out a few times here and then in Sept. we towed it to Arizona, San Diego, back through Vagas, up through the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Dakotas, and back to MN (about 6,000 mi.). Then parked it in the back yard in the fall... I washed it, swept the roof, caulked a couple of the roof penetrations that looked like it needed it, and asked a couple trailer places about an annual roof coating and got mixed answers.

Winter of '15 - '16, covered the trailer with a trailer cover, but the trailer was still in the backyard...

Towed the trailer on several trips for about 5,000 miles this year and decided to go ahead and sweep the roof, inspect it, and cover it for the winter... that's when I found the two soft spots... I didn't see the tears in the roof, the trailer place said they found them...

Now, I may be wrong, but I believe a hard cover is crucial for long roof life... The sun out west is brutal on everything and the cold snow here can't be good for the roof... I am still looking for a storage spot and will do my best to build something here to park it under... But, with that said, it may very well spend another winter with just the trailer soft cover...
 
Hi Mich,
My roof had a black powdery stuff on it and after reading your post, it is likely mold...:rolleyes:

Thanks for the post and glad to here you are feeling better... :D
 
John- Yea, sounds like the sun and cold probably did you in. The UV light, especially in the South, can deteriorate (i.e. crack) a roof pretty quickly. I'm curious if you had used a UV protector on the roof after washing. I do that but I'm not sure how much it really helps. Also, you mentioned roof coatings. I use to own a Coleman popup with a ABS plastic top. Over the years the plastic cracked from the UV light, so I coated it with truck bed liner (Grizzly Grip). It solved the problem for the several remaining years we had it. I'm not advocating using it on the Fun Finder, but I wonder if here are other things that can be used, similar to what people use on flat rubber roofs on building. Anyway, good luck with the repairs.
 
I hope the trees don't have that problem next year. This is the first time we've seen it happen. All of the oaks dropped clumps of leaves early. Big mess! We were happy we could park the Jeep in the garage. It's not possible to treat a whole forest for the insects.
Sooty Mold Management Guidelines--UC IPM
 
Hi Twinster,
We bought the trailer in spring of '15, we gook it out a few times here and then in Sept. we towed it to Arizona, San Diego, back through Vagas, up through the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Dakotas, and back to MN (about 6,000 mi.). Then parked it in the back yard in the fall... I washed it, swept the roof, caulked a couple of the roof penetrations that looked like it needed it, and asked a couple trailer places about an annual roof coating and got mixed answers.

Winter of '15 - '16, covered the trailer with a trailer cover, but the trailer was still in the backyard...

Towed the trailer on several trips for about 5,000 miles this year and decided to go ahead and sweep the roof, inspect it, and cover it for the winter... that's when I found the two soft spots... I didn't see the tears in the roof, the trailer place said they found them...

Now, I may be wrong, but I believe a hard cover is crucial for long roof life... The sun out west is brutal on everything and the cold snow here can't be good for the roof... I am still looking for a storage spot and will do my best to build something here to park it under... But, with that said, it may very well spend another winter with just the trailer soft cover...

We have looked at covers, but haven't bought one yet. We are definitely going to need one -- and, as I predicted, our neighbor (who is actually a super good neighbor, nice and friendly, if a little bossy) mentioned to Jim (who told him how we just got earthquake insurance) that his house was more likely to land on the "tall roof" of our FF x139. :)
 
Hi John
Looks like you're in my vicinity of Minnesota. This being our first year with our FF, I have been parked in the driveway (under a Maple) since late October and it has been motivating me to look at the same thing you're doing with a carport of some sort; handmade or otherwise. Keep us up to date on your progress. I'm a builder of sorts (Swimming Pools) and I have thought maybe a few core drill holes in the asphalt driveway for the vertical posts and then a lightweight array of interconnected Rigid PVC Pipes, plumbing tees and 45s and a light Gray tarp to cover it... (if the city lets me). I could put it up or take it down in an hour or two. I would probably just take it down in the spring and put it back up in the fall. And ..The whole thing wouldn't cost me more than $300. Neighbors are fine with it so its up to the inspector if I do it.
Russ
 
Hi John
Looks like you're in my vicinity of Minnesota. This being our first year with our FF, I have been parked in the driveway (under a Maple) since late October and it has been motivating me to look at the same thing you're doing with a carport of some sort; handmade or otherwise. Keep us up to date on your progress. I'm a builder of sorts (Swimming Pools) and I have thought maybe a few core drill holes in the asphalt driveway for the vertical posts and then a lightweight array of interconnected Rigid PVC Pipes, plumbing tees and 45s and a light Gray tarp to cover it... (if the city lets me). I could put it up or take it down in an hour or two. I would probably just take it down in the spring and put it back up in the fall. And ..The whole thing wouldn't cost me more than $300. Neighbors are fine with it so its up to the inspector if I do it.
Russ

Using 2" or even 3" PVC you could concrete some FIPxSlip adapters at ground level. Then using MIP adapters on the uprights would allow a pretty stable assembly and still be easy to remove.
 
poolguy, are you sure you even need a permit and an inspection for that structure? It is very much like those folding shade structures sold in the patio department of hardware stores, which don't require permits because they are not permanent.
 

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