Temporary Storage

[nmDutchstar]

We are anticipating leaving northern Michigan for the winter. But,not untill January. im wondering if anyone has taken their rv south and stored untill they are ready to use it. Im really not looking forward to driving this 33,000 lb. rv on the wintery Michigan highways. Any recomendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Mark71]

We store 100% of the time and travel TO our RV for trips. We live in a high rise condo in Chicago, and after driving route 66 and then I-70 back and forth and back again we decided to store permanently out West.

We store in the SW (Rancho Cucamonga or PHoenix or Vegas) in cold months; and NW (Portland) or North Central (Salt Lake City) in warm months. Our location criterion is to be an Uber ride away from an airport with direct SW Air flights from Chicago

We prefer indoor storage and have put a lot of hours in (and been very lucky) finding premium indoor storage facilities. That includes electric, and usually some form of mini-valet services such as washing on each trip and making sure the tires have the right inflation. Or even retrieving an avocado we forgot and left in a kitchen drawer!

If you want to store indoors in a pretty good facility it may cost you $10-12 per linear foot. Outdoors covered and uncovered will be less of course.

NIRVC have a good reputation in Atlanta and DFW; with new construction in Phoenix and Vegas soon to be online.

[WoodyS]

I'll second the indoor storage suggestion.

When I recently bought our 2008 KSDP, I couldn't find a decent storage place. We live in a HOA community and they don't permit RV's -- and ours wouldn't fit anyway.

All I could find was a storage spot at a rundown country RV park 11 miles from home -- up on a hill, in the weeds with the ants and mice and lizards and snakes -- or a super fancy and expensive indoor spot 13 miles from home.

After dealing with mice and ants in our 5th wheel trailer which is permanently parked in a nice RV Park on gravel -- but in the mountains with ants and mice -- and after catching THREE mice in my traps there recently, I decided to try the fancy indoor storage place for a couple of months. It was too expensive for long-term storage, but I was desperate.

Incidentally, when I asked the owners of our RV park where we keep the 5th wheel trailer where they keep their RV, it turned out to be the exact same indoor facility -- which they highly recommended.

And now that I've been there four months, I don't think I'll ever go back to anything else. The expense is well worth it.

1) Indoors, so no Sun or UV damage to the roof, plastics on the roof, or nice exterior paint job.
2) Indoors, so no dust and dirt.
3) Indoors on concrete so no ants or mice or spiders.
4) Every time I bring the coach back, they give it a really good hand-wash -- including wiping down all the windows, mirrors and chrome. They also dress the tires and wheels. This wash is better than any $300 wash I've ever gotten! And they do it very time I come back.
5) When I need the coach, I Email them and tell them when I want to pick it up. When I arrive, it's outside in their staging lot -- with the refrigerator on and cold -- and the air tanks up to full pressure.
6) While in storage, they run the engine and generator twice a month. And they plug it into power once a month to further keep all the batteries fully charged.
7) They have a self-serve dump station with fresh drinking water connection. Or you can pay them a fee and they'll dump your tanks for you -- and fill your fresh water tank.
8) they have a self-serve tire filling station.
9) They have agreements with several mobile RV service companies to come and service your RV while it's in storage.
10) For an additional fee they'll do a complete interior detail job, including cleaning all the carpets and upholstery.
11) They have a propane filling station and for a fee will fill your propane tank.
12) My coach is among "friends." There must be at least 20 Newmars in this facility.
13) I have 24/7 access 365 days a year to the staging area. So I can bring the coach back any time I like -- even in the middle of the night. And if I call ahead, they'll leave the coach in the staging area for me to pickup any time of the night.
14) Security is amazing. We're across the street from a huge U.S. Border Patrol station.

Bottom line -- it's expensive, but probably the best way to store a RV.

[Vake]

We too are in northern MI, and head south for the winters. On a couple of occasions we wanted to stay up north later, but get the coach out before having to winterize. When only a couple of additional weeks was needed we went south about 5 hours and rented a campground space for a couple of weeks. We plugged it in, explained to the park what we were doing, and went back up north for a couple of weeks.

In an other year when we wanted to spend Christmas up north we took the coach down to TX and were fortunate enough to have friends with plenty of room where we could park it. We plugged it in to their 110 outlet just so we could run the furnace in case of a cold spell, and everything worked out fine!

Good luck, and I agree, it's great to avoid the winter driving!

[Norm Mac]

When we were working, we would bring our coach to Florida in October and leave it there until May.
We would fly down and take it out for a few days to a week, then fly home. Repeat this 4 times a winter and it really makes the snow season more tolerable.
We stored ours outdoor at Park, Bark and Fly in Orlando. Biggest benefit... they pick you up at the airport terminal and drop you right at the coach. Monthly fees were very reasonable.