RV Pole Barn

[pennrver]

We don't own an RV yet, but plan on purchasing one within the next year. Planning on putting up a pole barn to house it. We will build that before getting the RV. Wanted to see if anyone has any thoughts on it, mistakes you made, etc.

Dimension wise I want to be able to plan accordingly. We have pretty much decided on a class C, but may move on to a fifth wheel down the road. So I want to "future proof" the barn.

A fifth wheel is going to be taller than a class C, so if I plan my barn around that fact it should be able to hold any class C. What is the tallest 5th wheel right now? 13' something? so a 14' door should suffice?

Any thoughts on barn dimensions? I am looking for more of a multi use barn but primarily for the motorhome. But may be storing tractor, car, boat, etc. So looking for two bays.

Should I make it long enough to hold 5th wheel + truck attached? That might stretch it too long. How about room around the camper?

Looking to hear thoughts from anyone who has been down this road! Thanks

[jkwilson]

I built mine 18’x40’ with 16’ walls and a 14’ door. 32’ 5th wheel fits nicely. I can open all the slides and still get past them, and easily walk around when the slides are in.

I have other buildings, so this is dedicated to the RV only.

[DrewE]

16' walls would be a minimum, I'd think, to get clearance if you have an overhead door. You may want to make them tall enough to be able to at least crawl/scoot along the roof of an RV with it in the garage for maintenance, etc. work; as with anything, it's a question of cost vs. convenience. If you ever have need of, say, replacing a rubber or TPO roof, being able to work under cover is a tremendous help.

For septic, I would see if it was possible to install a "clean out" somewhere outside that's somewhat accessible to the RV. If it's a lot of work to tie in the pole barn I would not worry about that unless you're thinking of using the RV as a guest room in the pole barn much. (Note the words "clean out" rather than "dump station" or "RV connection"; the latter often need a lot of environmental board approvals, engineering studies, and so forth, and possibly enlarging the existing septic system, while the latter is simply an addition to make maintaining the system easier. If you aren't dumping your RV tanks on a regular basis it shouldn't tax the capacity of your septic system.)

For water, I would suggest if possible setting up the run from the pressure tank (which I assume is likely in the basement of your house) to the pole barn such that it can be drained by gravity. It requires a bit of planning, and may not be practical due to the terrain, but if you can it makes it a whole lot easier to winterize the connection and obviates the need of operating heat tape through the winter and/or of burying the water line many feet below the surface of the ground, below the frost line.

[pennrver]

wow, a lot of great info here. Thanks to everyone. I'm thinking 40 x 60 with at least one 14x14 door... perhaps make the door to the second bay smaller?

The comments about approach angles and roof work are both good, things I didn't think of before. What wall size should I look for? With a 14 foot door it's going to be around 16' walls?

Also I am on well and septic. I am wondering if it's worth it to add the water and sewer. The water wouldn't be too hard, but the septic tank might be a little more costly. Any thoughts on this? Dump station pretty beneficial?

Thanks again to all.

[Range_Maggot_Bo]

Just remember to make it wide enough to open your slideouts without interfering with your other stuff.

[T18skyguy]

CFerguson wrote:
And don't forget your approach angles for pulling it in. No idea how your land lies.

x2. I had a neighbor that didn't think about the approach angle, and the rig wouldn't fit. If you have a steep driveway going up that's especially important.

[ExxWhy]

Build it as big as you can afford and fits on your property. Never heard anyone say they built a building too small. Good insulation and the ability to heat it is a blessing.

[CFerguson]

And don't forget your approach angles for pulling it in. No idea how your land lies.

[CavemanCharlie]

Your getting good advice on height and size.

I want to add that if you are going to build one spend the extra money and get a good one. At my house there is a Morton Building and it has been there since 1983 and is holding up very well. I have seen people put up "no name brand" buildings and they are just not built as well. For one thing if you are going to be adding any sliding doors the cheap building have doors that are built so flimsy that on a windy day you can not get them open because they flex so much. The quality and gauge of the steel on cheaper building can be bad too. I'm not saying it has to be a Morton building, just don't put up a cheap one.

Also, consider adding a side door. Or, if you have the space a door on the other end so that you can move things though. If you only have a door on one end you have built a cave. Then anything that gets stuck in the back on the shed (even a small item ) can not be removed unless you pull out everything that is on front of it. Sometimes it's nice to be able to slide open a side door to access smaller things you have stuck in the back of the shed. A lawnmower, or small trailer, for example.

[Tom_Barb]

40X60 gives you 2 twenty foot bays, with a pretty nice work space in the rear, you will very seldom see a coach 60' long.

[wa8yxm]

Minimum header height (The opening you enter) 14" Minimum width No slide outs 15 feet.. With slides 20 feet.

Make the barn long enough to hold a 40 Footer cause... You may wish to upgrade. I'd suggest at least 60-70 feet long (Room for car as well)

[fred42]

I built a 20'x40' one end open, no door. One thing to consider is location of the utilities. I was in the fifth wheel when I designed it. Now that I am into motorized, the power, sewer and water are on the wrong side. I refuse to back the class A in as it is more difficult and the sun would then shine on the dash so I use extensions.

[Dutch_12078]

I highly recommend building tall enough that roof maintenance can be done without pulling the coach outside. At least room enough to walk hunched over...

[ford_truck_guy]

pennrver wrote:
Thanks for all the great info on here. Sounds like 14x14 doors is the way to go? Or at least definitely 14' height and 12' wide?

As far as depth... I've researched everything from 40 to 60 feet.

Width, how far out do the slides usually come? 3 feet or so? so want to be able to walk around with the slides out? So lets say you have a 14' wide door, with a 8.5' wide coach + 3' + 3' for slides on both sides, your at about 14-15' which is basically the width of the door. So for room on the side, you want your door about 10 feet or so from the side of the barn?

So hypothetically lets say you want a symmetrical barn with 2 identical bays... how much room in between the doors? 15'?

In my example above it would be 10' + 14' (door) + 15' (in between doors) + 14' (door) + 10' = 63'

63' wide seems big, doesn't it? So where do you reduce? In between, on the sides?

My truck and fiver combo is just under 55' hooked up.. whatever you do, plan on enough extra room for me to park mine in there as well.... :B

seriously, I would go 60' deep and perhaps 40' wide . NO SMALLER.... the slide will extend out about 36".. the awning ( when open) about 8'...

[K_and_I]

So many options, so much cost.:) We built our barn to hold both the camper and some farm equipment. I went with 12' high sidewalls and wish I would have gone higher. We are locked out of 5th wheels at this point. Remember, if you want an overhead type door, you will need room for it, so a 14' high ceiling will not allow a 14' door. We used full height sliders so we wouldn't lose any more headroom. I don't mind getting out and opening the doors, but some might. We went 40' wide by 64' long. I hadn't intended to go so long, but the salesman showed me how little additional cost there was to adding 2 more 8' bays, and I'm glad I did. At 64' deep, I can leave the truck hooked up to the camper and close the doors with plenty of room to get around it for last minute packing, and it's all hooked up and ready to go in the morning. With the 40' width, I have 2 10' sliding doors, so 20' of opening to hit when I park it. It is nice to have some extra width to be able to work on the camper without running into what ever is parked next to it. You may find, as I did, that going a little bigger does not add as much cost as your first might think.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

There *might* be a slight saving in going wider? Fewer vertical posts? I agree with the 16' walls and 14' door height (ours are 12' wide which is more than plenty)

You might add a door or two on the sides, to get things like tractors/trailers in or out without moving the RV

And if you can incorporate a dump pipe into the plan - you'd love it. When we had our pole barn built, the plumber added an extra "clean out" at the front of the building so we could dump the tanks.