Community Forums

gnvrvin · 09-02-2019, 10:51 AM

Hi all we are vacillating on whether or not to utilize a cover for our Class A. We live in the Northwest and were wondering what everyone else does as far as leave it to the elements or place a cover. Not fortunate enough to have a space for covered or indoor parking.

Appreciate any feedback,

greg

Bahamaniac · 09-02-2019, 10:58 AM

We have a brand new cover that we have had for 3 years. Ours is still in the packaging. We haven't used it yet!

FIRE UP · 09-02-2019, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnvrvin

Hi all we are vacillating on whether or not to utilize a cover for our Class A. We live in the Northwest and were wondering what everyone else does as far as leave it to the elements or place a cover. Not fortunate enough to have a space for covered or indoor parking.

Appreciate any feedback,

greg

Greg,
First off, we all pay lots of hard earned coin for our RVs so, protecting them for about 99.9999% of us, is a priority. A "drive under" cover is by far, the best. Be it a totally enclosed garage or, even just a car port type. Second is a material cover of some type. Well, first off, they're quite heavy. Second, heavy AND cumbersome. Third, RVs aren't SHORT, they're quite tall so, handling and installing any form of a material cover, is pretty darn tough to do, even for the "young" at heart.

Fourth, most cover their coaches/RVs to protect from the elements. But, a secondary reason is to try and keep them at least some form of CLEAN. Well, the dirt that would normally get onto an un-covered RV, is now gonna get onto a cover. And, even some of it, is gonna get UNDER that cover.

What this means is, If you don't remove that pain in the petute cover in the exact right manor, as in if you "roll" that cover up as you remove it, guess where that dirt that's on the cover is gonna go? It's gonna be tucked into the roll. Now, if you plan on ROLLING that cover back on, guess where ALL THAT DIRT is gonna be, as you roll that cover on, IT'S ALL GONNA BE BETWEEN THE COVER AND THE RV!!!

But, while it's a serious pain in the …., if you were to fold that cover, completely in half, that is, if you were to have two people, one on the bottom of each corner at one end, and balloon that cover all the way over the RV to the same points on the other end, you'd now have folded it in half. And, by doing it that way, you now trap all the dirt, inside that fold. Now you can roll it up or fold it up in any way you'd like.

Cause, the next time you unfold or un roll it, the dirt is still gonna be on the OUTSIDE of the cover! Can you see what I'm getting at? This, and the fact that, many covers just don't sit tight enough to prevent some sort of wind etching on corners etc., and owners only put them on ONE TIME, and after that, they sit someplace unused, forever.
Scott

tcg · 09-02-2019, 12:36 PM

I used a cover for the the first time last winter in Michigan. I mostly wanted it to be as clean as I put it away when I take it out of storage.

This winter we had some horrible wind storms. The cover survived quite nicely.

It's an Adco middle of the road quality. I paid 300 bucks and change. I figured if it didn't work out is was a cheap lesson and if it did work out and I got a couple years out of it I'd buy a better cover in a couple years.

Couldn't have worked out better, I watched a bunch of videos to figure out how it was gong to work first. When I first got the cover I laid it on the ground and rolled it up keeping it orientated so it would just unroll on the roof and fall over the sides.

I was able to do it myself with my wife standing by. She has 911 on speed dial whenever I'm doing just about anything.

The cover came with a nice bag so I just put it in the bag and hooked a rope to the handle and pulled it up once I was on the roof. Not very heavy at all.

Unrolled it like I planed and dropped the sides. My wife pulled the ladder back so the side could drop and put it back so I could get down.

Once down I just tightened up the cinch straps, connected the under belly straps and off I went. It took less than an hour.

I did rig a small little pole that I could hook to the side panel zipper so I could unzip the panel to get inside without needing a step ladder.

It worked out really well.

When I took the cover off I just unhooked the cinch straps got on the roof, pulled up the sides, tossed it on the ground and then rolled it up. It's in the bag in my garage waiting to go back on.

In the photo below you can see the top four corners have cinch straps that pull it tight and there is a strap that goes around the entire bottom that gets tightened to prevent it from blowing in the wind.

The two red circles are where there was some wear from the wind. The top is at the awning frame and the bottom is where the steps sticks out just a little. Adco makes a very nice repair kit the comes with several squares of self stick repair material. I reinforced those two spots.

The only other thing I'm going to do this year is get some pool cover pillows to put under the rear of the top on the roof. there is a grab rail up there that caused some water to sit up there but... the roof panel is Tyvek so the water never penetrated the top.

It was really nice to drive the RV off the storage lot as clean as I put it away 6 months earlier.

I'm glad I tried it, I ended up being really happy.

NXR · 09-02-2019, 01:27 PM

Depending on where you're parked, you might want to have a nice gap between the ground and the cover and not allow any straps to dangle. Critters have been known to climb up inside the cover for shelter and also seek better shelter by going in the various vents.

Ray

AFelix · 09-02-2019, 05:22 PM

I had a cab over and a fifthwheel, both of which I covered. If you live in an area were it's hot and/or the unit will be exposed to direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day. I would save your money and buy a car port style cover, even if it's a tarp based roof. I had high quality covers and they do not breath enough to vent the heat build up under them. Although it's not uncommon for the wood/fiberglass laminates (can't remember the name of the material) to de-lam, I believe the excessive heat generated under the cover accelerated the process on both my cab-over and fifth wheel. I didn't put it together until it happened on the fifth-wheel

Lowdie24 · 09-02-2019, 06:26 PM

We live on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada ( across from Vancouver, Canada, a couple of hours drive north of Seattle Washington) so we get more than our share of winter rain with a couple of days of snow thrown in each year. We have a small Class C which we cover each winter. We have a cover similar to tcg’s but not an Adco. Ours has access zippers so we can easily enter the unit for monthly check out and generator running; also has multiple under-carriage straps to keep it from billowing or flapping in strong winds.
Cover then gets dried out and stuffed into its supplied storage bag. I am very much in favour of using the cover -and as tcg stated above it is great to uncover the unit in early spring and have it nice a clean - ready for a quick wash and first spring wax job. Wife and I have worked out a method for covering and uncovering the rig that works for us.
Indoor heated storage would be ideal, covered dry storage better but this is a reasonable alternative to not having access to either of the better options.

gnvrvin · 09-03-2019, 07:15 AM

Wow great information people.
Seems if we do go with the cover we should come up with a system to keep the dirt where it belongs on the outside

. Find one that has sufficient strapping to tighten it to lessen wind flapping. And keep those straps tucked so as not to provide critters easier Egress

As far as size goes we have a 40' as I understand we should buy one on the larger size. 40'1" to 43"?
I'll surf for some videos on installing as well

Appreciate all the help,
greg

tcg · 09-03-2019, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnvrvin

As far as size goes we have a 40' as I understand we should buy one on the larger size. 40'1" to 43"?

I'll surf for some videos on installing as well

Appreciate all the help,
greg

Adco actually let's you input your make, model, and year to be sure you get the right size.

gnvrvin · 09-03-2019, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcg

Adco actually let's you input your make, model, and year to be sure you get the right size.

I'll check them out on there website.
Thanks for the tip

530ktm · 09-03-2019, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnvrvin

Wow great information people.
Seems if we do go with the cover we should come up with a system to keep the dirt where it belongs on the outside

. Find one that has sufficient strapping to tighten it to lessen wind flapping. And keep those straps tucked so as not to provide critters easier Egress

As far as size goes we have a 40' as I understand we should buy one on the larger size. 40'1" to 43"?
I'll surf for some videos on installing as well

Appreciate all the help,
greg

I tend to go with what FiredUp has to say regarding covers. I have had a few of them but quit struggling with them a while back. I now am fortunate to have indoor storage but what I did learn way back when was to spend the money and get the best there is. Check this Sunbrella material and supplier as this cover held up for several years in hot SoCal sunshine, etc. - https://calmarkcovers.com/why-sunbrella-frabrics/