Skirting the Issue

Promised a while back to publish the photos of my done-it-myself RV skirt that I purchased from EZ-Snap company of Canada. I finally took some pictures this weekend before it snowed.  I put this skirt on in the fall of 2011. So far since then I have not had one freeze-up. The prior winter of 2010-11 I had something like 10 days of freeze-ups. Temperatures that winter got down to 26 below. The winter temperatures this year and last have not fallen that far as far as I know. According to Accuweather the low so far this year has been 12 below zero. I think it was similar for last winter. However before putting the skirt on my plumbing would freeze up at about the 11 below zero point. It hasn't done that and we definitely hit below that.this winter and last.

This fall I doubled the original number of snaps I put on because of the tremendous winds that we have here on the open prairie. It is not uncommon for the winds to kick up to 90+ mph. Also this fall I went ahead and fastened the base of the skirt to a PVC pipe system as recommended by EZ-Snap on their website EZ-Snap RV Skirt Web Page. You can see a video of how to construct this simple system there. EZ-Snap RV Skirt Video . I used the 3M adhesive studs since I am mechanically challenged and was afraid of putting holes into my RV. They worked well even in the high winds once I doubled the number of snaps. I think when I placed the first set on I allowed about 11 inches between each snap and that was not enough snaps to hold the skirt on without ripping the snaps off. Just too much stress per snap with 90 mph winds flapping the fabric. So this last fall I placed extra snaps on so that there is about a 5" space between the snaps. Held on much, much better.

The first winter I didn't have the fabric affixed to the little PVC pipe system recommended by EZ-Snap. This last fall I engineered the PVC pipe base. It was very simple to do. I then placed small paving blocks inside each corner to stabilize the PVC pipe foundation. We have had lots of wind as usual but the skirt has stayed down this winter. Last winter I'd just used 4x4's to hold the fabric down and that did not work at all in the high winds. I had the skirt loose and flapping to the point you could see clear under the RV and beyond as the wind tore under the RV.  I used the EZ-Snap pipe clamps at the every 4 ft. interval. However the next time I order some replacement snaps I will order another bunch of the pipe clamps to place clamps at the every 2 ft. interval. It just makes the fabric stay around the pipe that much better as I had a couple of places where it began to unroll a bit off the pipe. Not a serious problem but I'd prefer it not do that.