How much snow is too much.

I don't think there's a definitive answer but I sure feel for you folks. I hope both your RV's and homes hold up to it all.

Best of luck to you,
Scott

Density counts...so does water content. Four feet of snow from one snowfall is a lot lighter than four feet total over a season.

Dunno what "standard" there is if any for Rv's, but typical residential roofs are designed to withstand 30 pounds of load per square foot, which is roughly four feet of fluffy snow, two feet of dense snow, or six inches of water (ice). If you want to know how much weight is on your RV roof right now, just go out there and scoop up a cubic foot of whatever's up there. Weigh that, multiply by the depth, and you'll have the per-square-foot load actually on the roof.

they make a snow scoop out of foam and you may be able to get on a eight ft ladder and take little bites of snow and pull it off. you don't want to get around your AC shroud or your vent tops. they are cold and will break very easy. the foam should not be that bad on them but I wouldn't take the chance. who wants to get up on the roof to change out a vent cover in this weather.

Was listening to one NEWS channel and they was saying someone was using a drone to hover over the top of his roof and was blowing snow away from it. Nifty idea maybe...

Roy Ken

Snow can be heavy if it is a compressed depth of 4'. You should be ok but it is very early in the season so i would clear it off when you get the chance.

I left mine till jan last year and had a visible bow inside from the weight. I cleaned it off best i could and all was well in the spring. That being said i wouldnt want much more weight up there so i will be more diligent this year.

On a side note i have never once seen the units on a dealers lot being cleared of snow.

Thanks for all the replies. Might try the leaf blower to get the fluffy stuff off then plastic shovel to at least get the edges cleared. Cannot get close enough right now as there is a four foot wide by five foot high snow bank between me and the camper on one side and who knows about the other as it faces the neighbors and I can't even make my way over there due to the depth of the snow.
It does have a curved roof so that helps.

ZeeLet50 wrote:
Thanks for all the replies. Might try the leaf blower to get the fluffy stuff off then plastic shovel to at least get the edges cleared. Cannot get close enough right now as there is a four foot wide by five foot high snow bank between me and the camper on one side and who knows about the other as it faces the neighbors and I can't even make my way over there due to the depth of the snow.
It does have a curved roof so that helps.

My opinion is that you will be fine for now. We get over 120" per year here in Syracuse. I never shovel my trailer. You WILL, however have to get some of it off before the predicted rain that's supposed to hit you in a few days. Light lake effect snow and rain are a lethal combo. There is no need to clear it all off. I would try for half of it at least. Good luck & it's nice to see you guys getting it for a change instead of us:p .

It's not the weight of the snow, it's the weight of a 48" sponge saturated with water. You know that this early in the winter that you will get warmer weather, and most likely rain.

I would try and reduce the load evenly over the span of the roof. The compression of the snow is much easier for the roof to support if the load is fairly uniform in compression

Be careful up there, if you fall off, aim for a snowdrift.

1991 we had rain, freezing rain, snow and then more freezing rain. The snow part was about 2 ft. The weight was so high RV roofs collapsed.
But then so did the Alberstons Grocery, the college library, the NAPA auto parts store, car-ports, patios, etc. Several marinas sank (snow load on the boat-houses, and docks).
The year before we had three feet of just snow and nothing (much) was damaged.

So it's weight, not just feet.

Drive by an RV dealer and see how they're handling it. It's quite rare for them to shovel off their roofs but 80" of snow is also quite rare.
Good luck / Skip