Hurricane Prep for Motorhome

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Sjordan

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Good morning, My wife and are preparing to leave our home in Wilmington,NC and winter in Tucson, AZ. We were planning to leave 12,September and stop in Memphis for a couple of weeks, then south and west to Tucson. Hurricane Irma may change our plans. My questions are concerning the best location to secure our 40' Winnebago. The motorhome is normally parked on our concrete driveway next to our brick home, slides out, connected to the 50 amp that I installed for the coach. We are debating our next move. The house and I have weathered many storms before, but this is the first with a motorhome in the driveway. Can anyone suggest the best way to secure the coach for a storm, or would you suggest leaving early and heading west away from the hurricane? Problem with that is if our home sustains damage, we would need to return. Any ideas? Thank you in advance.
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SeilerBird said:
The only way to prepare a motor home for a hurricane is to put gas in the tank and head out.
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X2. At the very least in heavy thunderstorms you'd want the slides in and power cord disconnected. But as SeilerBird says, if you actually get hit with a hurricane the only real way to safeguard the RV is move it to safety.
 
Reading your question and responses over a couple of times I understand you problem.    I still agree,  leave the area after prepping your home for the storm.  Yes, you may have to come back but having a place to stay (the motorhome) if your stick and brick home is damage is worth the price you paid for your motorhome.  Stay and if both are damage/destroyed then you are really screwed..

Good luck and stay safe,

Wi1dBi11
 
I agree, more than one plan is the way to go. My wife thinks I overplan. She is a "half full glass" kinda girl. I'm the guy that says, "something/somebody will screw up this plan (read:FUBAR) However, she is the boss, so travel early west it is. We will be loaded, dumped, gassed,  ready to travel at least two days prior to Irma making landfall. We are located in Cape Fear country, the final resting place of all serious tropical weather. Thank you all for the advice folks.
 
Good, safe advice above, but it ignores the practical consideration of the probability of damage.  How to know if a storm will be severe in your particular area?  Or whether or not a tree or whatever will strike your RV? The motorhome is scarcely any more (or less) susceptible top damage than the house or your car. The conundrum is predicting that likelihood. It is quite common in major storms for damage to be severe on one location and quite limited only a few blocks away.

If you didn't have the motorhome, would you leave home or try to ride out the storm there?  If you would leave anyway, then it makes sense to get in the motorhome and go. If not, riding it out with the motorhome in the driveway isn't a bad idea. You have an alternate power supply, a tank full of safe water, and a second place to sleep and bathe if the house is damaged.

Our Rvs have sat in the yard of our Florida home through some major storms, including a few hurricanes. Usually the winds and rain aren't as bad as the gloom & doom forecasts, but one can never be sure until the storm actually hits. A friend of mine once evacuated from his Florida campsite and headed to Georgia, only to have the hurricane alter its path slightly and he ended up smack in the middle of it anyway, while his original location was untouched by high winds.

If you decide to leave the coach in the driveway, I would close the slides but leave it plugged in to keep the batteries charged as long as power is available. Raise the power cord connection above ground level if needed to make sure it doesn't get inundated, and protect it from driving rain. You should have a surge-protection device in any case.
 
If possible, position the motorhome so the back end is facing prevailing winds. Blowing debris would be more likely to strike the rear instead of taking out the windshield. During heavy storms, we'll actually pull the fire engines into the firehouse (instead of backing them in as usual) so if any debris takes out the overhead doors, it will hit the back of the engine and not the windshield.
 
  Put it on US-74/76/I-20 and don't stop until you get to Columbia. There's Barnyard RVP on the other side of Columbia in Lexington. If that looks untenable slide on towards Atlanta. Flooding may be a huge problem so don't wait too long.
 
Living in SW Florida, another area prone to storms, I agree with everything Gary said. My rule of thumb has always been to stay through a Cat 1 or 2 storm and leave for a major 3, 4 or 5. Now that I have a Class A, I have altered that rule to now leave in the coach if a Cat 2 approaches.

Regarding Irma, we just got back from a three week vacation and still have the coach sitting in the driveway, ready to be cleaned today and put back in storage on Tuesday. However, I will let the path of Irma decide for me whether the coach goes back in storage or stays in the driveway a few extra days, just in case we need to repack and leave again.
 
HappyWanderer said:
If possible, position the motorhome so the back end is facing prevailing winds. Blowing debris would be more likely to strike the rear instead of taking out the windshield. During heavy storms, we'll actually pull the fire engines into the firehouse (instead of backing them in as usual) so if any debris takes out the overhead doors, it will hit the back of the engine and not the windshield.
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  Yeah, but if the hurricane hits close enough to you the winds will change direction for the second half of the storm.
 
Thank you all for the advice. Looking at the numbers, I believe the "pack it, gas it, load up our animals, and go west" folks win. So we are going to do the "wait and see and hope and pray"thing, and head out west if the Weather Channel begins predicting landfall for Irma near our home. Thank you all.
 
My in-laws were at our place in N Fla parked in their 5W when Wilma went across the state west to east in 2005. Their place in S Fla sustained damage to the roof and supporting wall on the south side. When they went back down south a couple of days after the storm they just continued to stay in the fiver while the house was being repaired.  Had they stayed for the storm, there's a good chance the camper would have also been damaged since it is parked on the side of the house that was damaged.
 
Sjordan said:
I believe the "pack it, gas it, load up our animals, and go west" folks win.
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? Much better to say, "We could have stayed" than "I wish we had gone".
 
If you definitely want to leave it, and your concrete driveway is narrow enough, use "hurricane tie downs"
That is what all the people who leave theirs in the Rv parks in the Florida Keys for the winter use.
In or park it is mandatory for motorhomes, trailers and boats on trailers

Jack L
 
Well the best place is. of course "Somewhere else" that is take the motor home with you.. I mean why pay for hotel rooms when you have that lovely mobile one?

Pull in the slides.. Tie Downs.. I'm not so sure of but pull in slides and awnings and make it as small and dense as possible.. Tie downs . Well if you can tie down the FRAME that's good but from what I've read the straps that go over the top often do more damage than good.

But I'd take it with me.. I mean ... Why not?
 
I heard somewhere that many campgrounds inland are giving hurricane evacuees from Texas discounts or even free sites for a while. Saving them the cost of a motel room and freeing them up for people who don't have RVs.
 
John From Detroit said:
Well the best place is. of course "Somewhere else" that is take the motor home with you.. I mean why pay for hotel rooms when you have that lovely mobile one?

Pull in the slides.. Tie Downs.. I'm not so sure of but pull in slides and awnings and make it as small and dense as possible.. Tie downs . Well if you can tie down the FRAME that's good but from what I've read the straps that go over the top often do more damage than good.

But I'd take it with me.. I mean ... Why not?
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The OP has a motor home not a trailer.
I agree that over the top tie downs ruin a trailer roof since they are made so flimsy. That is why I have mine going to the frame,  but a good set (maybe three on each side) with the anchors four feet in the ground going over the top of a motor home will keep the MH rock solid while the sticks and bricks house comes apart.

Jack L
 
JackL said:
The OP has a motor home not a trailer.
I agree that over the top tie downs ruin a trailer roof since they are made so flimsy. That is why I have mine going to the frame,  but a good set (maybe three on each side) with the anchors four feet in the ground going over the top of a motor home will keep the MH rock solid while the sticks and bricks house comes apart.
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The real problem is flooding and flying debris. Tieing down the motorhome does not solve either problem.
 
SeilerBird said:
The real problem is flooding and flying debris. Tieing down the motorhome does not solve either problem.
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I remember way back in my high school years... some semi-famous guy was arguing that hurricane winds were not dangerous. To prove his point he set up a live feed camera and strapped himself to a fence pole with the intent of riding out the hurricane in the open.

He was doing fine...    until a chunk of something came along a couple feet off the ground and... splat!
 
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