WINTER HILO COVER INFO PLEASE

[jawjaw]

HI ALL ITS ME AGAIN.

As you may have realized by now i am new to Romahomeing and have an old type hilo. It lives on the drive out in all weathers and i was thinking about getting a cover for the winter and was wondering if any of you out there have any ideas. What is the best way to prepare for winter. do you cover yours up, if so what with. how often do you take it for a run to keep the engine and works O.K. Do you use any method to control damp or rust. All suggestions would be very help full.

thanks John

[Graham]

Hi John

Nice to see you on here again, the question of covering vans up has cropped up on here before and it seems it is not a good idea, look at this previous thread.

smallmotorhome.proboards105.com/index.cgi?board=ant&action=display&thread=2015

We normally give our van a run every week or so in winter just to get it mobile again, we do try to have a few camping weekends in it too when the weather isn't too inclement, other than that it stays on our drive in all weathers.

Graham

[barry5933]

I know the general advice is NOT to cover a van, for all the reasons stated.

Sometimes however other factors come into play.

We park our HyLo in our side garden under the pear and plum trees. We are also surrounded by other trees. During the first autumn, fruit coloured bird droppings, followed by rotting windfall fruit, followed by falling leaves stained both the paintwork and the white fibreglass badly. Normal washing did not remove the stains and a lot of cleaning/polishing was necessary.

We decided that a cover was needed and ordered a Pro-Tec cover tailored to fit the van. This was eventually delivered, returned to install the door flap and aerial pocket that they forgot to incorporate and was finally fitted in spring this year. Falling blossom had by this time already started to affect the paint/fibreglass, but since having the cover, the van has stayed clean. The cover however is covered in sticky tree resin, demonstrating how much the van has been spared.

The cover is allegedly "breathable", but we normally leave the side windows open on the ventilator position to prevent condensation forming inside the van. We also do NOT secure the bottom of the cover with the straps, so that air can circulate under the van chassis etc. Wind is not too much of a problem so no abrasion damage due to flapping canvas has yet occurred.

Normally I would agree that not covering is the best advice, but ... if circumstances dictate, its your call.

[Graham]

Good post Barry, it just goes to show that you can't give generalised advise on something like that, as you say it depends on the individual circumstances.

Graham