Pole Shed

[Mellow Yellow-SUN]

We're thinking of building an open pole shed with metal roof for the Sunline. Any comments good or bad on building one like in picture below? We'd use crushed rock over our good gravel soil instead of concrete. (We do know they make such carports, but we like the look of the wooden poles/posts.)

 

[EMD_Driver]

Looks great and will do wonders for your Sunny!

We could have gone that route, but our county will tax anything that is permanently attached to the ground.... That's why we got the carport!

 

[Mellow Yellow-SUN]

Looks great and will do wonders for your Sunny!

We could have gone that route, but our county will tax anything that is permanently attached to the ground.... That's why we got the carport!

Good point Gary. We thought of that and we're trying to figure out if we can get around that somehow.

 

[Jay-SUN]

I think that looks good! I wish I had the room for one at my house.

 

[Sunline Fan]

Personally, I'd consider some sort of sides for it. Unless you plan to put it in a shady area, the sun it blocks will do wonders to keep the trailer that much nicer.

 

[JohnGB]

Hi Debbie,

Anything you can do to get undercover is a good thing. Adding aides in the peaks and partial side walls help even more. And then in time, the entire side and ends. Having stored one of our campers inside since new and now this one outside, I can say the camper stored inside was a lot less work to keep it looking pristine. The best defense against black streaks is inside storage....

You mentioned stones or soil gravel for the floor. If you go this route I would say to add a 2 x 12 x 8 foot long for the tires to set on up off the ground. Storing trailer tires on dirt is not a good long term thing.

See my parking bay until I can get my pole barn up. There are 2, 2 x 12's there with the ends beveled to get up on them easier.

You can sort of make them out on this pic. Since I have to back into this spot, I use the boards as a marker. If the TT is lined up with the edge of the board I placed in the right spot, then I can aim the camper to it.

Hope this helps

John

 

[Mellow Yellow-SUN]

Thanks Jon, we are considering sides, but it is fairly shady there - if you look at John's nice building, our garage is in that spot and the Sunline and shed would be 20 ft. or so on the north side of that building. We may add sides but want some circulation.

John B., Tom made some of those wooden things for leveling at campgrounds, and we have used them! I will suggest he park the Sunline on them at home. I think he is talking landscape cloth with the stones over it. Not sure if the concrete would be taxed and that is why he is not making a cement pad.

 

[mainah-SUN]

I don't know about campers but in farming you can figure 20% of the value of your equipment for a building to break even. $14,000 tractor gets a $2,800 building.

 

[MOKID]

We bought our camper in Jan 09 and in May 09 I built this. I was worried about tree sap and snow on the rubber roof. I have no complaints with it and it isn't being taxed here in MO.

JohnB Do you think it needs to be parked on boards. It is on about 8" of white rock.

 

[Mellow Yellow-SUN]

Jim and Mary Jane. NICE !! Can you give me the approx. dimensions? We're trying to decide how high the opening should be.

 

[MOKID]

Tom and Debbie

I put the post 12' apart so the pole shed is 12' x 24' with a 2' overhang. The exterior height of our camper is 9'10" including the A/C so the height from the bottom of the rafters to the ground is 11'. Counting the white chat, lumber, sheating, shingles and lap siding I have around $900 in it and I did all of the labor. Hope this helps.

 

[JohnGB]

JohnB Do you think it needs to be parked on boards. It is on about 8" of white rock.

Hi Jim,

Long term parking on dirt/gravel allows water/mud etc to set in on the tires. The long periods of wet is the problem I know of.

In my case I added the 2 x 12's over the top of 3 to 4" of stone. This allowed me to not create ruts in the stone right where I parked all the time. It also lifted the TT up off long periods of sitting on top of stones. My ST trailers tires had a lot of stone cuts and is indicative of the rubber used in the ST tire. Do not know for sure it had anything to do with my driveway as they were round stone and most of our CG's have stones too but mostly crushed stone which is sharper. My truck LT tires riding over the same stones did not have this problems by my ST's did.

If your stones have a lot of moisture under them, then your back to the moisture part and if they are crushed stone then the sharp corners are there.

I have a RV buddy who is a retired tire engineer. I will send him a note on this if well drained stones (round or crushed) by themselves for RV storage creates a problem and why. I'll report back what I hear.

 

[Mellow Yellow-SUN]

We are back to square one on this. We spent most of the week-end envisioning the pole building so close to the existing large garage and decided it would not look right. Being as tall as it would have to be it would be really awkward looking. We have lots of land, but a steep bank behind house and garage makes most of the land inaccessible for the camper (it is 3 ac. of lawn and Christmas trees.. not a way to get the Sunny down there unfortunately).
So.. what is the scoop on the carport type of structures? I think one of those would blend in a bit better. Cost? And did you get someone to install? Buy at Home Depot? Any advice on those who have them much appreciated.

 

[awellis3]

Funny you should mention that. As I am reading your last post, I noticed an ad for "pole barns" in the upper right corner above the posts lists. How do it know?

Teach

 

[Mellow Yellow-SUN]

Funny you should mention that. As I am reading your last post, I noticed an ad for "pole barns" in the upper right corner above the posts lists. How do it know?

Teach

Creepy, isn't it? I have ads for Amazon cotton sleeping pads (thinking of that for the Sunline dinette bed as it is so uncomfortable) and baby stuff as I have searched for both recently.

 

[justatourist]

Ain't tracking cookies wonderful?

 

[luvrque]

Tom and Debbie,
What I did may not work for you, but if you want to see how it was built go to my profile and look at my albums (many more photos).

I had this built by a guy that had a saw mill. All the wood is 1" or 2" rough-sawn, which cost much less than lumber yard wood. The base is 4"x6" Pressure treated. The total cost to have it built was $5,600. (I leveled the land first). I am sure in Vt. you have some saw mills. It is 20'L x 14'W x 14 1/2'H, with a 3/4" gravel base. It is open under the overhangs (with screening to keep the birds & animals out) plus end vents, to give it good ventilation. I know yours has to be much larger.
To me it was the best investment I could have made. Now 6yrs. later my Que looks the same as when I bought it. (I only use it 4 or 5 wks. a year).

I think it would be much better to add sides to what ever you get, if at all possible.

 

[Mellow Yellow-SUN]

Tom and Debbie,
What I did may not work for you, but if you want to see how it was built go to my profile and look at my albums (many more photos).

I had this built by a guy that had a saw mill. All the wood is 1" or 2" rough-sawn, which cost much less than lumber yard wood. The base is 4"x6" Pressure treated. The total cost to have it built was $5,600. (I leveled the land first). I am sure in Vt. you have some saw mills. It is 20'L x 14'W x 14 1/2'H, with a 3/4" gravel base. It is open under the overhangs (with screening to keep the birds & animals out) plus end vents, to give it good ventilation. I know yours has to be much larger.
To me it was the best investment I could have made. Now 6yrs. later my Que looks the same as when I bought it. (I only use it 4 or 5 wks. a year).

I think it would be much better to add sides to what ever you get, if at all possible.

Joe and Donna,

What a dandy building!! Yes, we have a sawmill run by a friend just up the road, not 1/2 mile away. Very tempting to build something like that. It's just that we have a huge garage (yet no room for the Sunline in it ). That would be a lot of buildings on our front property. If we could access the back part of our land, we'd build something nice like that for sure.

 

[poppyandnana]

Joe and Donna,
It's just that we have a huge garage (yet no room for the Sunline in it ). That would be a lot of buildings on our front property. If we could access the back part of our land, we'd build something nice like that for sure.

Welcome to my world! We have the same issue, our garage is huge, we fit 3 vehicles (2 pick ups and my small suv); Leo has a heated tool room in the main garage and then we have a 26' x 15' addition on the rear where we store our wood and snowmobiles! The garage sits close to the property line and we actually cross onto the neighboring property to get to the rear of our property ~ luckily it is owned by us and in our kids names! Soooooo we could not build anything in the rear because we legally cannot access it! We purchased our home in 88 as a 2nd home and we really didn't give much thought of living here full time, until life in NYC surburbia just got the bet of us!......So we "suffer" living in the Adirondacks with some of the inconvenience of a large garage not being large enough and a home built in he late 1800's with small rooms and no closets!