Undercover or in the open?

We decided to store undercover in what is really a large car port designed for RV’s which allows plenty if ventilation around the RV stopping it getting damp and mouldy. The added advantage being it was protected from the sun (check your location and best if facing West /East). We had also been very lucky that the facility we first used near Dalla had a power point included in the rental so you can use a battery minder to keep the battery topped up.

Having now seen many RV’s/trailers etc that have been stored outside and under trees we certainly made the right decision!

I left our RV up on jacks for 6 months in storage as we live in Europe and could not check it. Two reasons – one if the tyre pressure went down it could damage a tyre with the subsequent cost. Cost of one tyre is the cost of the jacks! Secondly unsure about this “flat spotting” people go on about with all the weight on the tyres (vehicle is kept fully loaded as we have no home to unload to here). Good to hear someone has said it is an “old wives tale”  on the GoodSam blog as I have never seen this a problem on cars.
What I did was jack the vehicle up so tyres are just touching the ground (see photos below), but have no weight on them. It does not risk it “falling off” the jacks and moving then. Jack stands are expensive/heavy and huge and we would need to move them to any new storage location with us. The solution I used was buying 5 hydraulic bottle lift jacks, using 1 for lifting and then placing a jack underneath just with its screw up to the correct height, which required placing wood under it. You must NOT leave it with the hydraulic ram extended as in time it will go back down due to normal small leakage past seals. Then I removed the extra jack and used it again for the next location. All 5 jacks store very nicely under my front left bench seat. Also then available for a tire change!

The left hand picture below shows a 8 ton jack that was used for all jacking areas and a 12T (overkill!) jack left. The front was on 2 x 8T jacks.

1. In each position check with the manufacture for correct jacking position!

2. Using the 8 ton jack in the correct position the RV was jacked up.

3. Then the 12T jack was placed with it’s screw raised under wood to the correct height with a small clearance above it.  Ensure you use good quality wood!

4. The 8T jack then had the hydraulic pressure released slowly and allowed the RV to settle back down on the 12T jack.