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Old 03-05-2008, 12:59 PM   #1
Waynem
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Campground Tie-Downs

So as to not hijack another thread, I'll start this one.

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quote:Originally posted by Waynem

.....I know that this is a drastic thought, but what would it take for a campground to provide permanent anchors that the trailer could be attached to? Especially in those areas that are subjected to the occasional high winds.
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by skypilot

Question was asked earlier about camp grounds having tie downs -- I asked this very question way back when we first started RV'g and my wife and I both remember being told that there was no way to tie down the 5er -- mobile homes have straps running over their roofs (under the siding and roofing (and have steel/cross beams under their roofs) that provide a tie-down. Nothing like that on our 5er. Guess you could put some heavy duty eye bolts into the frame and tie down that way but nothing is really available that would secure the whole rig down.

The way that structure held up on being flipped over says something for the welded alumninum cage though.

I'm sure that there are some good engineers out there that could come up with a method of security the trailer for high winds.

Here's a thought.

A chain anchored to the tie down point, looped over the axles and back to itself with a hook to link back into the chain. One on each side.
Along with that, a mechanism to take the place of the silly King Pin Stabilizer, that would snap on to the King Pin and be tied to the ground anchors.

The ground anchors could be long pipes, or cement anchors, but pipes driven into the ground with an attachement point for the chain would be cheaper.

Question: How long would the pipes have to be to provide a good anchor? Are pipes a viable solution?

Just some thoughts.

Depending on how many sites a campground has would be the cost contributor. How about this. If it takes a ten foot pipe, and you want your trailer safe from 60 mile an hour winds or less, would you pay for the pipe if they would have some way to get them into the ground? Of course, you would have to buy the two chains also, and the newly developed King Pin think-a-ma-jig.
 
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Old 03-05-2008, 02:03 PM   #2
H. John Kohl
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A HR fifth wheel in the park in Eustis (we left last week so no pictures) had tie down straps to his rear landing jacks and some place up front. I can not remember where.
Maybe MIFI will have some suggestions.
Cheers,
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Old 03-05-2008, 02:03 PM   #3
Parrothead
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I have a better solution. Go somewhere else where you don't have to worry about wind.
Happy trails.....................
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Old 03-05-2008, 02:04 PM   #4
Mrs. CountryGuy
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Waynem

Not sure if you are serious or not???


Question????


How they gonna make this fit all the different size rigs out there??
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Old 03-05-2008, 03:16 PM   #5
OntMont
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I don't think it would be hard to find a place on the trailer to tie down from. The axles or spring hangers should be strong enough. The problem is what to anchor to, some kind of eye ring that would lay flat when not in use, and set into the ground in concrete comes to mind. It really is not much different from mooring a boat. The marine industry has lots of fittings that would work.

On a more short-term practical level, I think that there are a few simple things you can do on the spot if you believe you may be caught out in a bad storm. 1) Drain and rinse your tanks, then fill them (almost) full with water, this will put about a ton of weight down low between the frame members. 2) Pull in any slide outs on the lee side, leave out any on the windward side, obviously you want any awnings to be retracted as well. 3) Hooking up to the truck might also help, but in the worst case scenario, you may need that truck to make a quick exit. 5) Secure or put away all loose objects like lawn chairs.
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Old 03-05-2008, 03:46 PM   #6
Waynem
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Parrothead,
Winds are in the hands of Someone other than us humans. If you are sitting at a nice quiet campground, surrounded in serenity, and a squall starts a brew and you knew about it by weather reports, would you just get up and move on down the road? Would you be able to outrun the winds? Yes, I agree that it would be so nice if when we selected our camp space that it would be the nices place in the world without problems, but I'm a realist.

Carol,
Yes, I'm serious. All you campers in the RGV know what the winds can be like. Tell me that at times you were not a little worried about the winds. I lost an awning on may way to Corpus back in December. I stayed at the NAS Shields and the wind gusts got up to 38 mph on a couple days. I would have loved to have peace of mind. At that time I was only worried about the toppers tearing. Now another considerations has to be taken seriously. Different size rigs would not be a problem. The problem would be the right lenght of chain to go from one anchor to another. But, tow chains can be linked together with their own hook and are not that expensive. They will add to your weight by a few hundred pounds.

John,
That is what I was thinking. Maybe a pipe driven into the ground with a hardened ring on the end, or a cement anchor with a ring or indented hardened rod to hook a chain through.

What about an 8ft piece of re-bar driven in at an angle. Re-bar is cheap and can be carried or picked up at any hardware store easily. Re-bar would be the least desirable because you may not get it out of the ground when you leave and you would have to bury it so now one would get hurt. Of course you would have to carry a sledge hammer along with you and stand in the TV to get it started into the ground. What happens when you hit a boulder. Permanent tie downs installed by the campground would suffice for all types of length trailers.
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Old 03-06-2008, 12:28 AM   #7
Mrs. CountryGuy
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OK, seriously.

Personally, I would have to give a lot of serious thought to the decision to tote another couple of hundred pounds of chain. Many of us are pretty dang close on those weight numbers now. 200 pounds could represent a lot of other gear, books, food, lawn chairs, etc etc etc.

As you can tell, it is in the weeeeeee hours of the night, and my mind, well, is producing some interesting (?) visions, like what my reaction might be if a camper pulls into the campsite next to me at, ohhhhh, 10 PM, and proceeds to get out that sledge hammer, the rebar and chains and starts pounding. Hmmmm, is 10 PM after quiet hour??? Well, you can take it from there!

Not sure you are gonna convince the campground owners to spend the $$ for this improvement. As we all know, some of them won't spend the $$ to keep their electric up to snuff, forget the expense of installing 50 AMP. How many of us have pulled into campgrounds where the 30 AMP boxes on the pole are burnt up, wired wrong, breakers so weak that a light bulb turned on blows em, and ohhhh, the breakers are all in a locked building and the dude with the key is 2 counties away at the local hamburg joint??

This is however, an interesting discussion, as all discussions concerning Mother Nature and her brats seem to be.

Yes, we are concerned about winds, the constant kind, like we get here in the RGV are annoying, and yep, the awnings do make a racket, and ya might rock a little on a particularly good/strong gust. By the way, the winds here over the weekend and on Monday were gusts of over 45 MPH, rather noisy!

What gives me the willies are tornados and stuff like OntMont posted with that Montana on its roof. When it is like that, I am watching every telie station I can flip to, weather bug, weather anything on many computer URLS. I also prepare to evacuate, grab dogs, laptop, purse and leave. I have spent a few hours in campground block buidings, aka, bathhouses, with all our camping friends waiting for storm warnings to end.

Al and I have also been hit broadside by hail and winds that nearly did blow us over and had NO safe haven to go to, this particular campground did not even HAVE a bath house and we were on top of a hill, the VERY top of the hill. We had $5000.00 worth of hail damage to the entire door side of that rig. The storm was so violent and sudden that I could not close both doors, got one closed and the hail was hitting me so hard and fast that I thought I would be cut by it, and refused to go out to close the other door. The rain was blowing sideways, and I stood in the open door way with several towels trying to block the water from coming in, kinda a feeble silly thing to do, but, the rain was blowing in the screen door and all the way to the other side of the RV, and at the time for some reason, I thought it was a good idea to not let my new computer get wet??? Shows how silly our thoughts can be at the time.

I guess I pray a lot, I have been in an airplane (4 seater) that got caught in a violent thunderstorm, the up drafts and down drafts put us under about 4 or 5 G's, and sent us out in a spin; been in a boat when a tornado went across the Detroit River; been in several storms that flooded our basements with the sheets of rain; been in a pop up camper when a tornado went through the campground and pierced the kids tent with a huge limb; been in any other number of campgrounds and different rigs when storms hit. I am NO fan of storms, believe me. After this, I can imagine a lot of you will never want to be in a campground with me! HA HA

However, so far, I have not let the fear of storms and wind keep me home. I enjoy the camping/Rving life too much to stay in a stick built the rest of my life. Not sure Al and I are ready to tie Tana or any other rig down with rebar either.

OKKK, what other ideas do we have, as I have said many times before, I am open for suggestions. That is what MOC is all about.
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Old 03-06-2008, 12:48 AM   #8
nailbender
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Driving rebar or other metal into the ground at a campsite is not a good ides. You would not have any idea of the location of underground utilities, water, sewer and electric.
Instead of trying to anchor the RV to the ground, how about slide out stabilizers similar to the type used on crane trucks.
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Old 03-06-2008, 01:31 AM   #9
jsmitfl
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Well to be honest I would get the awnings and the rooms in and make sure the stabilizers are down. Use a king pin stabilizer to help with the sway and let'er blow. Our fiver has been thru 3 major hurricanes up to and over 110 mph, all direct hits within 10 miles. I've watched it sit there and bounce and shake and I have no problems with it standing up to high winds. Now pulling it down the road would be a diffrent story.
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Old 03-06-2008, 03:22 AM   #10
Waynem
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Don,
The stabilizers are a good idea. Might be that Keystone could put some on their similar to the rear stabilizers. It would not be that much of a added cost.

Carol,
Ok! Do away with the chains. Get some straps like those used on 18 wheeler flat beds to hold the load down. Two straps may weigh 30#.

I have that picture of you standing in th doorway with towels, shooing the rain and hail away!!!
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Old 03-06-2008, 05:40 AM   #11
skypilot
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The other issue to to what degree of wind do you protect against -- the old 80/20 rule is sure to apply. However, as noted in the other post, this was a 'micro-downburst' and those can have winds exceeding several hundred mph... Does pose some interesting questions???????
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Old 03-06-2008, 07:54 AM   #12
H. John Kohl
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The Eustis, Fl camp ground where the HR was tied down used screw in auger type anchors. I am guessing about 2 to 3 feet long. Like the ones we used to guy military antennas. The used mental strap about two inches wide. If I was staying there for for to six months I think I would do it too. They have tornado warnings and one touched down about five blocks from the camp grounds last year. You never know when rough winds will show up.
Good luck,
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Old 03-06-2008, 11:33 AM   #13
TLightning
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There is no way CGs are going to provide some type of permanent tie down system. Why you ask...follow the money...too much expense for perceived value by the camper. In other words, how many would be willing to pay extra for permanent tie downs on the chance there might be a need for them.
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Old 03-06-2008, 11:57 AM   #14
slewis
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[[There is no way CGs are going to provide some type of permanent tie down system. Why you ask...follow the money...too much expense for perceived value by the camper. In other words, how many would be willing to pay extra for permanent tie downs on the chance there might be a need for them.]]

I'm thinking that the folks in that Montana that blew over on its head would be one to consider the extra cost. I wonder if I would even want to get back in a fifth wheel if I had been involved in that ride. Wonder if they will. They were so very fortunate not to be injured more seriously. Think of all the things that are not anchored down in your Montana.
Sandy
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Old 03-06-2008, 12:12 PM   #15
Waynem
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Tom,
The discussion is not if the camp grounds would do it, but to determine a method of safety that could be beneficial to all of us. My item on re-bar was rather ridiculous but it started the brain matter moving in other to come up with other ideas. If you were staying at a campground and you knew that there was a "possibility" of high winds "occasionally," how much would you be willing to spend to insure your safety for a long term stay of 3 months or more? One Hundred, two, five, a thousand.

John, as you, I am familiar with the auger type anchors. Do you think 3 feet of 4 anchors would be enough anchor to hold down the distributed weight of a Monty?
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Old 03-07-2008, 04:36 AM   #16
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I think 3 on a side would be more than sufficient -- equally spaced to spread out the load.
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