Not your average RV Storage Question.

[Parks]

So, like many, the ,ain things losing is back from making our first purchase of an RV is the issue of storage when not in use. When my wife and I got married 16 years ago her thought of ever owning an RV of any type was no in the rhelm of possibility. So when we bought our home shortly after words we didn't look for a property that would accommodate such a vehicle. We live in Orang County, CA in the typical suburban neighborhood. Now, she is diehard in wanting a TT and has even done financial spreadsheets on our ability to afford one. She's fully on board now.

RV storage space is at a premium and when you do find one the prices are $300+ per month for a place that is decent at best. I could but I don't want to afford that kind of money.

My question: For those that don't have the space at your home/property for storage, what unique things have you done to secure a cheap spot for storage? Have you bartered for your monthly fees? Have you negotiated with a local business owner for space in the back of his business? What are some of the "out of the box thinking" things you have done to get cheap and secure storage for your RV? I have been brainstorming for a coup,e months and keep coming up dry. What say you? Thanks

[Mr_D]

Wow, and I thought $100 or so here was bad! Luckily we do have room beside the stick house to store ours.

[1bigmess]

I like to remember that for many things, the terms are negotiable.

Know someone with a barn? Could you pay them to park you rig there instead of someone you don't know that has no real interest in the safety of your rig? Know someone with a big fenced in lot or parking area? How about relatives? Do you know anyone that just needs a place to live for a couple of months? Get creative, see what happens.

[Arch Hoagland]

Hmmm. Perhaps you should start looking into building an RV storage lot.

I had my motorhome in a storage lot before we built our house with full hookups.

It got broken into so my advice, if you do use a storage yard, is don't leave anything valuable in it, especially a good TV and sound system.

Thieves broke out the glass on the entry door to get into ours.

The guy next to me had a $2,000 alarm system installed a month before this happened. Fat lot of good it did...I had to have the police call him when I discovered the breakin on mine.

So much for alarm systems.

[IC2]

Check with your dealer. A couple in our area will let you store your TT in their lot. The nearest one is free as long as he sells it to you and have at least some of your service done there. Another way - a seasonal site with easy in and out. We 'store and stay' all summer in one but do pull out regularly to travel. If we were to leave our 5er there over the winter, ~Columbus Day - mid-May, it would be another few bucks. Luckily, we have a pad just for ours at our home which is on an ~acre lot and luckily, no HOA to tell us we can't.

[Boostable]

We are fortunate that we found another local business that we barter our storage fee with. Electric hookup in a "secure lot". I say that as no lot is secure beyond the criminals intent. If they want it they will get it, weither you like it or not..

In this same lot just a couple of weeks ago, all caught on camera.. . Someone drove their flat bed dually dodge through the gate, backed up to a nice enclosed trailer and pulled away with it. On the way out the trailer snagged the fence (10' high mind you" and dragged 60' of fence about an 1/4 mile down the road.

In your area it sounds like storage fee's are certanily at a premium. A couple of suggestions would be to try and find a business to barter with, or perhaps find an RV park within a resonable distance that you like, that offers dry storage or storage with electric. You could always use this RV park as your "home base" rather then your house, just requires a little more careful packing when you head out form the house to the TT.

We do something similar to that during college football season. We leave our RV about two hours away at an RV park with full hookups. As we only go up on the weekends, the RV Park charges us a discounted rate of $150 a month for those three months. But on the flip side of that coin if we want to just get away for a night or two, the RV is there and ready to go for us to come and just relax at the park, for an additional small fee of course..

Enjoy...

[tomakat]

There has been a big jump in storage fees in Orange County since the largest rv storage lot (over 2000 spots) that is on the former El Toro Marine base is closing its doors in January. As a result, those RV owners had to make a mad scramble to find a new location. When the other RV storage locations found out, they started hiking up their rates. I was on 3 waiting lists to find a place for my 40ft Newmar. Luckily, I found a place that is within 5 minutes from my house. That being said, I am paying $290 now when I was previously paying $160.

I would love to avoid paying that $290 a month and I would love to store it on my own property in an RV garage. Since I don't have the room for it in my current location, I'm looking at potentially moving to a 1 acre or more lot even though I love where I live.

[Todd157k]

Our lots around town are a bit pricey too so I store mine close to work where it's more "out of town". $85/mo. It's also nice to go to the motorhome for lunch sometimes.. fire up the gen, TV, have lunch.. take a nap.. hahahaha

[deSanford]

Boeing rents space along side the Long Beach Airport. I pay for 11 months and get the 12th one FREE. Sanford ...... I'm currently paying $189.00, but with the 12th month FREE it is less.

[450Donn]

300 dollars a month? No way would I consider owning an RV I had to pay 300 dollars a month to store. Maybe you should look at tent trailers, Aliners, or tear drops? Something you can put in the garage to store. Save the 300 dollars a month toward retireing sooner and getting out of the mad house known as southern California.

[dagmandt]

For California $300 a month doesn't sound too bad. I pay just shy of $200 a month for covered storage here in Washington. I have an acre of land and plenty of room to store it at my house but I don't like having a beacon of "I'm gone camping please burglarize my home while I'm away". Any burglar worth their salt cases a joint before they break in. When the RV/Trailer is gone it is a pretty good guarantee of free pickings. That is worth the $200 to me for now. I may change my mind later but for now it works for us.

Do you have friends with property that wouldn't mind an extra $100 a month to store it for you?

[Loraura]

I've noticed some RV's being stored at the back of church parking lots here in Texas. I guess if you have a great relationship with the church staff you can work out some kind of deal to park it there. I don't know if they pay any amount or not.

I pay 100 bucks a mont for dry covered storage about 30 minutes from my house.

Prior to that, I paid 125 a month for covered storage with electric 10 minutes from the house, but when we got a bigger trailer, we couldn't fit it in our old spot, and they had a long wait list for the longer spots. Also, it was a PITA to back in around a chicane so I'm thrilled with my new storage location that has LOTS of room to maneuver into our spot. They are new, and plan to add electric. I said I'd happily pay extra for electric as soon as it becomes available.

[Boostable]

One other suggest I forgot to mention, back in the day I use to rent a hanger with a couple of other guys to work on our classic cars, storage, etc. It was to much for one guy, but reasonable for a couple to split. Might want to check at some of the smaller airports around you and see if they offer something like that.

Nice part about the airport is that is pretty secure.... Just food for thought.

[sikorge]

We have a neighbor that when her husband was alive they had a 31ft Class C. She lets us park our MH in that spot for $1 a day ($30/mo). We like to give her the $30 and a bottle of wine every now and then.