Ever worry about hanging limbs?

[Jimbee]

Hey All,

Are any of you ever concerned about damaging Ac or other roof components when driving through heavily wooded campgrounds? Made some NYS park reservations for this summer at 2 different campgrounds in the Catskills and then the terrifying thought hit me. What If my 5th wheel is too tall and low hanging branches rip off some roof equipment? Some of these parks are tight and backing out usually isn't an option!

Yikes!

[kennethwooster]

I’m definitely concerned. Hit a limp in Amarillo Tx. And took a new roof. I was very upset with myself. Now I’m watching even closer.

[700g]

I did....all the time. 1st time I pulled our last 5th wheel, I tore the roof on a limb in the campground. I went back to a travel trailer and dont worry so much now.

[NamSniper]

Jimbee wrote:
Hey All,

Are any of you ever concerned about damaging Ac or other roof components when driving through heavily wooded campgrounds? Made some NYS park reservations for this summer at 2 different campgrounds in the Catskills and then the terrifying thought hit me. What If my 5th wheel is too tall and low hanging branches rip off some roof equipment? Some of these parks are tight and backing out usually isn't an option!

Yikes!

I normally watch closely for overhanging branches. It was a branch I didn't see that caught my side mount ladder and trashed it.

[laknox]

SabreCanuck wrote:
I thought of an extra “backup” camera for my system with the intention of installing it on the air conditioner shroud on the roof looking forward. System is capable of switching between multiple cameras. Switch to forward roof view when in campground then rear view when backing in.
The other side of that conversation is maybe you are better of not knowing because you are going to be “that guy” sitting in the middle of the road with a line up behind you.

I've been thinking about that for years! Maybe have a calibrated "overlay" to help judge height, like late-model cars have on the backup cam.

Lyle

[laknox]

rsgs wrote:
Just had my refrigerator vent cap taken off. Not sure how or where. Pulled the rig from my property 3 hours back to my home. Never once encountered low branches. $28 bucks and a couple of day wait and it's been replaced. Dometic refer caps are getting hard to come by. I will consider ordering one for backup.

I have no clue on quality, but the reefer caps with a built-in solar fan always intrigued me.

Lyle

[SabreCanuck]

I thought of an extra “backup” camera for my system with the intention of installing it on the air conditioner shroud on the roof looking forward. System is capable of switching between multiple cameras. Switch to forward roof view when in campground then rear view when backing in.
The other side of that conversation is maybe you are better of not knowing because you are going to be “that guy” sitting in the middle of the road with a line up behind you.

[rsgs]

Just had my refrigerator vent cap taken off. Not sure how or where. Pulled the rig from my property 3 hours back to my home. Never once encountered low branches. $28 bucks and a couple of day wait and it's been replaced. Dometic refer caps are getting hard to come by. I will consider ordering one for backup.

[mr__ed]

Even parking under a menacing looking limb can be worrisome. My trips to Florida often took me to the same RV park near Leesburg (Lake Deaton RV Park). Not a bad place but one year there was only one spot left. With a little apprehension, I decided to take it even though there was a large, heavy limb only a few feet above my fiver.
I must admit, that fact worried me my entire stay there. I envisioned a serious storm coming and knocking that limb onto my fiver, although nothing ever happened.

One day, I drove a friend to my space, who knew something about trimming trees. He inspected the situation and informed me that it seemed safe. That allayed my fears somewhat but I decided in the future the worry caused by that scenario wouldn't be worth it and I would move on to another space or park, if possible.

[memtb]

Yes! In 1993, on our first outing, in our first nice 5 th wheel ( it actually had a 5 ft. diameter satellite dish....pre small dish)we arrived at a National Forest campground after dark. We wiped-out some of the perforated aluminum panels on the dish, and didn’t even know, until we got home.

Since then, we’ve been very careful! But last spring, on a Parish Road (Louisiana), we “brushed” a limb (or 2). We never thought that on a maintained (?) road to a campground, we would experience this. We got lucky.....minimal damage!

[Happytraveler]

My husband was backing into an RV spot in Palm Desert and hit a tree branch. The limb damaged the right side of the roof. He thought he could repair it when we got home, but the damage was too big.

A few months ago we were in Lone Pine sitting back with our friends drinking wine. We heard this crash a crossed from us. It was a fifth-wheel pulling into a space and he hit a tree limb. A few minutes later we saw his electric awning laying on the ground.

[JAC1982]

We scraped the side of our camper on the first trip out with it, trying to pull out of the pull through space. There was a tree that wasn't in the way when it was parked but we couldn't swing out wide enough to get out of the spot without scraping the tree. We now keep tree trimmers in the camper for those scenarios. My husband also really prefers to scout out campgrounds and the roads to get there beforehand so we can avoid that situation again.

[laknox]

garyp4951 wrote:
I got a nice long scratch down the side at Home Depot from the trees in the island, due to not paying attention to the size on the tree canopy.
I also have a tree on my street that I have to pick the right spot for my ac to miss limbs.

Check your city code and see if they have a 13'6" clearance code. If they =do= report it and have the homeowner trim it, which is likely cheaper than if the city does and adds it to his utility bill. I know our city got shirty with my dad for having small branches hanging over the =alley=, like that's going to hurt a garbage truck...

Lyle

[laknox]

handsome51 wrote:

laknox wrote:

Jimbee wrote:
Hey All,

Are any of you ever concerned about damaging Ac or other roof components when driving through heavily wooded campgrounds? Made some NYS park reservations for this summer at 2 different campgrounds in the Catskills and then the terrifying thought hit me. What If my 5th wheel is too tall and low hanging branches rip off some roof equipment? Some of these parks are tight and backing out usually isn't an option!

Yikes!

I'm 18" taller than my old FW, so I'm a bit paranoid about it and learning what my limits are. I did manage to drag a branch across my roof at my dad's house when I =thought= I had clearance. Managed to scrape off an attic vent and dent the forward vent hatch. Couple small scrapes on the roof that I taped over. At our annual boondocker, I changed spots due to overhanging branches that I didn't want to deal with (along with the steepness of the spot), and I'm glad I did.

There were 2 people around the corner from my house that had branches hanging over the street, well below the city code of 13'6", and literally met in the middle of the street. I wouldn't even take my old 11' Komfort that route. When I got my new KZ, at ~12'6", I called the city to have them check; =I'd= measured about 11'6", myself. It only took 4 months, and about 4 calls, to Code Enforcement, before they got it taken care of...mostly. Still a couple "streamer" branches hanging down, but not enough to worry about.


I keep the tree limbs on my street trimmed myself with a battery chain saw trimmer. I keep a old style tree trimmer in my storage compartment of the RV for the few times a tree limb is hanging to low at my campsite. It is a lot faster to to this then as you found out getting the city to get it done. And sometimes if it is a lot of limbs at the RV site I will get the campground to cut them . But if it is just one , it is quicker for me to do it and then get set up and take it easy.
Lyle

I'm lucky in that there are a couple different ways to get to my house, but this is the most convenient. As it is, it's still a code enforcement issue and they admit that they dropped the ball when I first reported it. Frankly, I have little to no need for a long trimmer of any sort, so I didn't feel I should have to spend the money to buy one to fix someone =else's= problem, or get hassled for doing those homeowners' jobs for them if I just started trimming their trees. Same goes for a campground. They want to put me in a site with overhanging trees, then they need to have it trimmed up and not expect me to do it...IMO. It's part of what I'm paying them for, right?

Lyle

[garyp4951]

I got a nice long scratch down the side at Home Depot from the trees in the island, due to not paying attention to the size on the tree canopy.
I also have a tree on my street that I have to pick the right spot for my ac to miss limbs.