Tie Down 5th Wheel for Storage

[Jack Wilkinson]

How do you tie down a 5th Wheel for outside storage in the South West? I'm considering storing my 5th Wheel after the Snowbird Season rather than towing it across country. One park that I contacted required tie down for storage.

Thanks,

[Jack Wilkinson]

How do you tie down a 5th Wheel for outside storage in the South West? I'm considering storing my 5th Wheel after the Snowbird Season rather than towing it across country. One park that I contacted required tie down for storage.

Thanks,

[Hitchhiker]

Jack,

You might consider getting some of those straps that go around the frame of a mobile home and attaching them securely to the fiver's frame. Then attach those to 4 mobile home anchors, the type that will auger in the ground, one at each corner.

For a more secure anchorage, it'll be necessary to support the trailer's frame on blocks so it wouldn't rock on it's springs. If you're just trying to satisfy the campgrounds requirements, I wouldn't worry about the blocks.

Click here for a site telling how to install the tie-downs and the anchors.

[Ray,IN]

A mechanical engineer on one of the RV forums decided to calculate the wind speed required to blow over a fifth wheel. Based on his calculations he stated it takes a wind speed of 85mph to blow one over sideways.

[charliez]

Funny thing about those engineers. Did he figure out too that if a 5'er WAS securely strapped down, so it would't topple in an 85 mph wind that it would be destroyed anyway and all you'd have left would be a frame still strapped down?

So what would be the use? I'd find a diffrent storage lot. Does this lot also store planes? Hence the requirement for everything to be tied down?

[WA4SLC]

Two years ago there was a hurricane aproching Eastern North Carolina and my brother and I were concerned about our travel trailers. He got the idea to screw 4 mobile home anchors in the ground around his TT and put 2 binding straps over the top of his rig and pull them up snug. The idea was to try to keep the wind from tiping the TT over. I went out and did the same thing to mine. The highest wind gust during that storm were in the 90 mph range. We did not have any problems. I can not say for sure if what we did helped, but it made us feel like we had done everything we could to protect our rigs.
During a sever thunderstorm back in the Spring a friend of mine had his TT blow over on it's side. He had it parked out next to the highway trying to sell it. The slide was out, but the stablizers were not down. The wind was 60 to 90 that day and the wind was in just the right direction to tip it over.

Bill