When I was a kid I remember my grandpa stored his Avion trailer on a vacant concrete slab at a nearby farm. My grandparents lived with us for about 5 months over the summer and would spend the colder part of the year traveling the country in their trailer.
Since Avions have an aluminum exterior they hold up a bit better in the sun than trailers with a fiberglass outside.
If you’ve owned a fiberglass trailer or boat, you know that sun damage can quickly make the outside look milky due to a process called oxidation.
One way to protect your rig is to store it out of direct sunlight. Outdoor RV storage ports are great for keeping sun damage to a minimum.
Outdoor RV Shelters Have One Big Problem
Storing your camper or trailer inside a shelter will go a long way toward protecting it from the elements. But you’re not the only one after a safe and secure location to protect your valuables.
Birds just love to nest in alcoves and on the beams of your RV storage port.
Fortunately, there’s a way to stop birds from making a real mess of your RV when it’s in storage.
Jeff from Jeff-Z.com has a 2012 Trail Sport 24BH and a couple of other trailers parked in an outdoor storage garage.
Parking an RV or trailer inside a shelter can protect it from the elements – but watch out for birds.
He quickly noticed that birds seemed to nest everywhere inside his storage garage.
There’s a few ways to discourage birds from nesting in places you don’t want them to. You could install bird spikes on the nesting surfaces or place an owl to scare off the birds.
TIP: Many people complain about plastic bird spikes. It’s probably a better idea to buy stainless steel bird spikes if you want to go this route. They’re more durable and can’t be pushed aside by aggressive birds like the plastic ones.
Jeff found another solution though.
He cut plastic rain gutter screening (sometimes called hardware cloth) into six inch wide strips and used it to totally block the birds from the surfaces of the structural beams.
Plastic gutter screening installed on beams inside an outdoor RV storage unit.
This screening is bendable and won’t tear up your hands when you work with it.
All you have to do is gently bend the plastic screening and insert it with the open side facing into the structure.
Insert the gutter screening into all the interior alcoves and any other areas you think birds could get to. The friction and tension of the folded plastic screening should keep it in place all by itself.
You may need to tack the folded over screening onto free standing surfaces prior to using canned expansion foam to fix it in place.
One thing Jeff noticed is that some birds are quite aggressive and may pry open the screening or dig their way behind it. Canned expansion foam will seal up the ends and tack the gutter screening to the surface of your RV port.
Canned expansion foam will prevent birds from dislodging your netting.
The expansion foam will dry in about 5 minutes and totally harden in about 30 minutes.
For just a few dollars you’ll have made a bird-proofed outdoor storage unit!
Thanks to Jeff from Jeff-Z.com for the photos and idea.
