How do you store yours? - Montana Owners Club

bpierce · 05-30-2006, 06:31 AM

I am about to take delivery of my unit and would like to have something to park it in soon after it arrives, just wanting to know what you folks use to park in to protect your investments from the elements when not in use. Sure seems like a big investment to leave unprotected. I have some room in the yard and am considering building a shed/carport for it. 15W X 40L X 14H should be large enough to hold it and be able to slide out the slides, maybe even add hookups for water/electric. What do you think?

jrgwdenner · 05-30-2006, 06:39 AM

Make a shed as big as you can afford to build or have room for because, heaven forbid, if you decide to buy something larger, you'd have room We wish we had room for a shed but decided we'd just hit the road and take the elements as they come.

Parrothead · 05-30-2006, 07:38 AM

Byran
Judy's advice about going a little bigger if you have the room is good. We have a pad with electric and water beside our house. If we have used it as a guest house, we can dump but it is a 60 foot run. We built this when we had our previous unit which was shorter. So to get Monty in there we had to extend the concrete pad which kind of messed up our border around the lawn. So think bigger if you can.
Happy trails..........................

bpierce · 05-30-2006, 08:01 AM

Well, I don't know how much bigger than 40' I could ever need....do they even make 5ers longer than that? That is a great idea about the occasional need for a guest house, the 15' width should let me be able to have everything slid out (assuming I can back in and get it centered!) I am an avid DIY kind of guy, I think I will order some steel today. I will post some pics as I go!

steves · 05-30-2006, 08:04 AM

I would recommend the carport or prefab that has the roof. When I bought my 1st Montana (2003-3670) I couldn't decide which way to go and ended up purchasing a custom cover for it. The cover does fit my current 3400 but it is not easy to put on. A covered building that you could just back it under would be awesome! I wish I had gone that way.

Montana Sky · 05-30-2006, 09:17 AM

Bryan,
If you can swing it, look at building your shop at least 45' deep. The largest of 5th wheels and motor coach run at 45' long. My 3400RL is 39'7" from ladder to kingpin, my 40' garage is just barley long enough to house the coach. Also look into your local fairgrounds or storage places. Many of them charge $2 a foot for winter storage, but during summer they want any income and usually charge $25-30 a month for indoor secure storage. Might be cheaper than building a garage, just a thought....

padredw · 05-30-2006, 09:27 AM

Hi, neighbor, we usually come by way of Paris on our way to Colorado. We pick up US 82 there.

I would agree with all that has been said above. In fact, we are pretty well locked in to the present size RV if we use our present shelter. We have full hook ups here: water, electric, sewer. It works great, but, as you can see, any larger RV would require a larger shelter.

We had our contractor for the garage to add on this shed roof for storing our RV (at the time a Jayco). When we got the Montana, we had to 'raise the roof' which we were able to do by carpentry, but that's about as far as we can go that way:

jrgwdenner · 05-30-2006, 09:29 AM

That's a nice setup, David.

Bear Hunter · 05-30-2006, 11:22 AM

We had a carport built that is 16x40 thats a drive thru. Our 5er is a 3255 so I thought I would have room to spare. Well a 3255 is close to 38 feet long so there is not much extra lenght room. The 14 ft high is good as long as you don't get carried away with the floor. We can have our slide out and have plenty of room to spare. As stated we did have it built as a carport but we will enclose it down the road. Being able to keep it covered sure keep the roof clean and out of the sun. Good luck with what ever you do.

Semper Fi

Mac · 05-30-2006, 12:50 PM

I'd love to park mine under cover but we have it in a storage lot in the elements. I had purchased a cover for it last fall but then read that they can be worse than nothing at all. Apparently they can rub the trailer pretty badly in the wind. So, we have nothing. I would certainly go with a carport if I had the room and the money!

mac

Charlie · 05-30-2006, 02:03 PM

Bryan-
As we usually are not on the road with ours in the hot Texas summertime I have it stored under a shed. I had the shed built it for another trailer that was smaller never thinking that I would need a little more. The dimensions that you give are close as mine is 15'x36'x14'high. The front of the Montana sticks out about a foot as the slab is 24' long and I can not back it in any more. The sides do not extend to the ground, they are 4' shorter than full length of the shed and the shed is not enclosed on the back end, I wanted as much air circulation as possible to avoid the problems that we have here with the high humidity but still protect the sides from the sun.

The slab is 12' wide and off center of the shed on purpose. I designed it so the slides would open with a few inches clearance on the driver side, but yet enough walk space on the curb side to access the trailer. I was trying to save a few dollars on concrete that would not be used behind the wheels.

The slab is 4" thick and this makes the overhead clearance very close. I made some critical measurements on the shed before I made the decision to buy the Montana. I feel that protecting the rubber roof from the summer heat it well worth the cost of the shed. I recommend covering a trailer when not in use.

I did not install W/S hookups as it is for storage only, however I did run a 30A electric supply and it stays plugged in.

If you want more details or a photo send me a PM.

bpierce · 05-30-2006, 08:52 PM

Thanks for the input everyone, and David...wow your setup is great, very nice looking. Unfortunately I don't have an opportunity to attach mine to any preexisting structure. I drew up some plans and bought some steel and sheet metal yesterday afternoon, it went up really quick, now I will need to install the sheet metal!! I went with the 15W x 40L x 14H dimensions because of the room I had and the slope I have to deal with. Any suggestions on a retaining wall?

[Please reduce the size of the picture to comply with MOC policy. Thank You... RVWheels/Admin MOC http://i2.tinypic.com/118q4k5.jpg[/IMG]

bpierce · 05-30-2006, 08:54 PM

Not really sure what happened to the bottom 3/4 of the picture, but you can see what it will look like anyway....

Driftwoodgal · 05-31-2006, 03:18 AM

David,

What a nice set up. Do you pull the Monty through or do you back it in?

Colleen

padredw · 05-31-2006, 03:57 AM

Bryan, that looks like a great start. I think your plans will turn out to be a good solution.

We do appreciate the responses about our "shed", so I will add a few comments.

1> We pull through the RV port. We have a country home so we have plenty of space, therefore we have a road that allows us to drive right through and then drive straight out when we leave on a trip.

2> The open side is just right for entry. We did have to remove one set of the "cross beams" on the rear section since we have the rear door on the Montana 2955RL. The 'shed' was built for a Jayco with a mid door, but the structure is still stable. We have room for slides out, and we could use as a "guest house" if needed.

3> Speaking of structure: the corner posts are deep into the ground in concrete to provide stability. We had "beams" across the ceiling which had to be modified to fit the height of the Montana, but, again, we seem to have adequate stability.

4> We were fortunate in that our construction was all planned as part of the garage, so our utility connections did not present any problems.

5> Once more, I agree with all those who have suggested that you not build 'just for the present.' On the other hand, it would be extravagent to build for every future possibility.

I won't repost the photo, but here is the link if you want another look:
http://dwilliamson.com/shed.jpg

315RLS · 05-31-2006, 03:59 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by bpierce

I am about to take delivery of my unit and would like to have something to park it in soon after it arrives, just wanting to know what you folks use to park in to protect your investments from the elements when not in use. Sure seems like a big investment to leave unprotected. I have some room in the yard and am considering building a shed/carport for it. 15W X 40L X 14H should be large enough to hold it and be able to slide out the slides, maybe even add hookups for water/electric. What do you think?

We park ours in the driveway and clean it twice a year. Seems to hold up fine....

CountryGuy · 05-31-2006, 04:11 AM

We park ours in the driveway too, no cover, but we live in Michigan. Have to say after spending some time in Texas that if we lived there year round, we might be sorely tempted to add something like Dave or bpierce are talking about. Let me say, if we lived any where south of the Mason-Dixon line.

bpierce · 05-31-2006, 04:57 AM

I hope to have the sheet metal on this afternoon!

padredw · 05-31-2006, 05:52 AM

OK, Bryan, let us see a photo of the finished product when completed. Surely has been quick work so far.

VanMan · 05-31-2006, 06:18 AM

bpierce, Yours is looking GOOD !! Why do you need a retaining wall? How high? I built some flower beds using the Windsor stones which were pretty simple (just a lot of work!).

Here's how we do it ! This is our one site RV Park (Dillo Villa). We have electric, water, sewer, telephone, DishNet, fire ring, picnic table, BBQ grill, firewood rack, an upright storage cabinet, a glider swinging from the trees, lawn chairs - all the amenities of home. The cover is 20' X 50' and is a pull thru. Right now I park the wheels on 2 X 12 X 10s lying flat where I want the wheels. The "pad" is just cedar mulch for now but may become roadbase or concrete at a later time.

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