Cover for Your Toy Hauler

sportsman 500 wrote:
I am looking at getting a cover for my Raptor. I possibly found a great deal on a Premiere cover. Just looking for info and opinions. How many here have/use a cover? Are they worth the expense? The good the bad?

Personally I think they're worth the expense. Just like a boat, haulers that have been covered and not faded bring more money at resale. Plus I feel it cuts back on the degradation of the sealers, vinyls and slows the discoloration of some external plastics. The covers can be a pain to put on and storing the cover while it's not on the trailer is a challenge. But if it were easy everyone would do it and I'd have no advantage over the majority when I sell mine down the road :C

Personal opinion where we live the only cover worth having is a carport or shed type. It is very windy here & a cover lasts about one winter. One wind two years ago I really was concerned the carport cover was going to go over. So no we do not cover with a material type cover.

I don't cover my toy hauler but my neighbor does and it's wore off his sides from rubbing back and forth on it. Now he doesn't cover it.

We have the 361LEV Raptor, 2010. The first cover, TYVEK, lasted 2 years and developed like 10 different rips.

The company made good on getting us a replacement. Now I use foam and duct tape to round off the corners and the edges of the slides.

It takes the wife on the ground and Me on the top of trailer about one good hour to put the cover on.

We first spread it out. I tie a rope to the front part and begin to pull it up by the open garage ramp. Once is dragged, carefully, to the front cab, the wife pulls the rope and we begin the spreading process. After securing all the strap buckles, I close all the zippers carefully.

We also remove the side ladder to give it a better fit and less area for the wind to get under it and rip it.

I would really like to cover mine. Our old 5th wheel, after only 1.5 years, showed signs of fading. The problem is that we use ours during the winter. It's our second residence when visitors come so it would be a pain to cover/uncover all the time. I am considering building an awning/carport over ours but I don't know if the neighbors would like it. They already complain that my trailer is too big.

I don't think they make one big enough for mine.

Sportsman

I cover mine every winter. Yes, it is a pain to put it on. (This year I even put it on inside-out, then had to take it off to correct my mistake!) The other down-side is that the rig is not ready to "hook up and go".
I do like that the fact that it protects the paint from fading and it does shed a lot of the water off of the sides.

I think that if you can afford it and are not afraid to get up on your roof to put it on, then you should do it.

Good luck

Bill

I don't have any info, but I do have opinions. :)

I like the idea of keeping my toyhauler covered, but I feel the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. There is getting the darn thing up there and put in place, which looks to be no fun. But the thing that worries me the most is the motion of the cover at the edges of the roof. I just wonder if the roof rubber will stand up to the rubbing of the cover.

That's my opinion. :)

We use ours mostly during the off-season (Dec-Jan-Feb) as we are out too often otherwise to go through the effort each time. It's pretty windy in our neck of the woods and we had to purchase another cover after the fourth year due to tearing. We don't use our cover during the Spring as the winds really crank up which causes the cover to rub/wear the exterior finish.