Trailer Storage? - Montana Owners Club

dannyl · 11-21-2006, 03:05 AM

We live in a small town in Texas and only have a single car driveway and no way to park in the back yard.
We parked the Mounty at a friends house on his side yard but he got a notice from the planning commission that the trailer had to be on a hard-surface slab. We moved it to a friend who has about 7 acreas just out of town.

I know many towns have rules about parking.

What do you guys do if you can't park at home?

BillE · 11-21-2006, 05:37 AM

Dannyl,

Here in this small town, we are able to park over at(and inside)the county fairgrounds. Cost $15/month. That's from Oct till April. Only problem is that ya can't get to it till spring. They really pack us in there. But it is inside and out of the weather and wind.

Might want to give your local fair folks a call and see if that is a possible.

Good luck on the search.

Bill

Fordzilla · 11-21-2006, 06:17 AM

We are looking into that issue as well as we are looking at lots to build a new house and storing the Monty close to home is a priority for us. We do a lot of weekend camping and like being able to load the trailer up the night before and just hook up and go on Friday morning. I agree with Bill above about long term winter storage. Our Fairgrounds has 1 large building dedicated to nothing but RV's and has been sealed up pretty good. So, not much chance for rodents.

richfaa · 11-21-2006, 06:26 AM

Many cities have "regulations" as to parking campers/Boats, Etc . We can park or store ours along side the house as long as the front of the camper is behind the leading edge of the house.Fortunately we can do than. Local fairgrounds usually provide storage and are reasonable. Next choice would be a local storage facility. Don't know about Texas but up here in the frozen northland there are many of them.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 11-21-2006, 06:38 AM

This is a problem, has been for years and years, many RV groups have fought cities/towns/townships/ etc. and tried to get this changed so that we can keep our rigs at home, as in Rich's situation.

We lived in a city that was discussing a move to bann RV's. We said, and meant it, that if that happened we would sell and move. Rather drastic, but that was how important it was to us. Surely not a choice everyone wants to make or follow through on .

Not sure how that played out, cause 11.5 years ago, we went on a camping trip and 4 days later bought a house 2 counties away from where we lived. 5 acres, no rules or regulations, Tana sits where ever we want her to sit on those 5 acres.

Suggestions of county fair grounds, storage lots, etc. are good ones.

Think we have been reading about this regulation thing for ohhhhh, more than 20 years.

bsmeaton · 11-21-2006, 06:46 AM

Can't put ours anywhere near the house, they even frown if I pull up to load. We have ours in a storage lot, and last month obtained covered storage. Expeeeeensive - but it does have a security gate, cameras, nightwatchman, etc. Never had any theft or vandalism problems, and they do provide electric.

It is awkward at best, and takes a little planning. Some day, I'll have a barn I can but it in.

Montana Sky · 11-21-2006, 09:33 AM

You should also check with your local industrial park. Many of the building's owners rent out unused space during the winter months. Around this neck of the woods, they are now selling storage buildings. You buy your storage unit, comes with water and electric in the unit. Depending on size, there is also room to park the tow vehicle as well. For those developments that dont allow dually trucks to park in the driveway.

Cat320 · 11-21-2006, 11:54 AM

We can't leave ours at the house permanently due to the convenants...we just load/unload here. However, I found, by accident, a company that just purchased a business that came with several huge unused buildings. So we are now in covered/locked storage in a secure area, for $75 a month. It's worth the cost to keep the rig out of the weather...both winter and summer.

rickfox · 11-21-2006, 03:57 PM

We live in Richardson, TX where it is illegal to park any RV's, unless they are totally shielded from view. This includes boats, any type of trailer, motorhome etc. We park our Monty in a self storage facility in the adjoining town of Garland.

It is also illegal to park any vehicle that has more than 4 wheels on the ground on a residential street - no duallys. This is one major reason we own a 3/4 ton HD rather than a 1 ton.

traveljunkie · 11-21-2006, 04:24 PM

We just bought a 344RET Mountaineer. Can't park it in the driveway - we live on a hill and there is really no level ground. We are planning on keeping it at a storage facility nearby for around $60 per month, same place we park our boat - fairly secure, but outside. We are in Northern Illinois and there are lots of storage facilities around here.

Dustytuu · 11-23-2006, 11:16 AM

We park our Monty anywhere on our 5 acres. This is a rural area and it did have a covenant years ago. The HOA got too out of control and no one would pay or join it. After they told a lady she could not park her car in her barn because it was a barn and not a garage. They were taking her to court until everyone stood up to the HOA and she won!! This is 12 miles out in the country! The HOA was two families that lived next door to each other... would have meetings without telling anyone and pass new covenant laws without anyones approval. We are very happy we don't have that HOA now. Have not had a HOA for 15 years. This area is 5 acre is minimum you can own here, so some people have more land than 5 acres.

Bill DeMeulle · 11-24-2006, 06:32 AM

We lost our storage area which was six blocks away to a condo developer, it is now 3 miles away (and happy to get it) at $175 per month. You need to be thankful where you are it could be worse.

Bill

Parrothead · 11-24-2006, 08:16 AM

Eleven years ago we actually sold a very nice home and bought this one just so we could have an RV pad beside the house. What we won't do for our RV's!
Happy trails..............................

Montana Sky · 11-24-2006, 03:46 PM

Sue,
Dont forget those that sell the house and move into the rv fulltime, just to keep an rv.... =)

Montana_5701 · 11-25-2006, 03:35 AM

I now live in rural Arkansas and depending on the city you live will determine where you must park your camper. Up until 2004, I lived in Little Rock and rented a completely enclosed site for $80 per mo. but I imagine now it runs about $130. Since moving out of the city on 3 acres, I built my own pad and enclosed with one of those tubular framed buildings. The pad was build 24 x 35' with 10' of the 24' housing a shop and the rest of the 14' left went to housing the RV. Last RV was 32' but then bought the 06 3400 and being 37' it overlaps the slab a bit in the rear. Also had to modify the tubular frames a bit so I can open the camper to get full use of it when not on the road. Building and slab costs about $6500.

emurray · 11-25-2006, 03:46 PM

We have two homes, one is in a small city and the other is in a very small town in a neighboring state. We keep our Mountaineer 344RET at the second home since we have plenty of land there and there are no restrictions (this is both good and bad). I have installed the appropriate hook-ups so that we can keep it ready to travel all year. At the the other home (in the city) we have the room behind the house and there are no restrictions to prevent us from parking it back there. We even have a fairly large paved parking area next to the detached garage. The problem is that the street is not wide enough to make the turn when trying to back it into the driveway, without running up on the curb across the street. Also, there are usually cars parked along the street that, annoyingly, get in the way.

I've checked out storage in that location, and it is available at costs ranging from $30 a month for a fenced area outside to $70 for covered storage. There is always a waiting list for the covered storage, so for now we'll just keep the Mountaineer at the other house and start and end all of our trips from there. It just adds another factor to the planning process. It's better than staying in one place all of the time......

dannyl · 11-27-2006, 07:40 AM

I guess I'm lucky to have friends who have a place for me to park the RV.
Thursday is our first real freeze day if the forecast is currect. I'm winterize the mounty today or tomorrow to make sure it doesn't freeze.

How many use the compressed air method for blowing out the water?

dannyl · 12-13-2006, 08:02 AM

I'm glad I have a place to park. Really feel for you guys that pay so much for storage.

I parked the Mounty in the driveway after coming in from last campout. I plugged it in to keep the frig etc running and got a Code violation notice from the city that said "I could park the 5er in the driveway but could not plug it in.

I unplugged from the house but left the cord plugged into the Mounty. I got another Code violation notice when they thought it was still plugged in. I went in and explained what I was doing and they are okay with it now. I guess they want to prevent people from using the RV as a second home etc.

I will move it to my friend's house next few days. No charge and 15 amp service if I need it.

Lucky me

SAndreasen · 12-13-2006, 05:02 PM

We have a 20x40 ft pole building to store our unit in. Works great for us! We have electric and can put all the slides out at the same time. The only problem is we can get at it anytime but can't go camping all the time:

Art · 12-16-2006, 09:18 AM

We had that as a first priority in buying our present house. This town allows parking next to the house but many do not. It has it's own pad and 30 amp., underground electric. I will probably die in this house just so I don't have this problem!

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