Hi, i'm new to the forum and to trailer tents. Have just bought a 2003 Pennine pathfinder and very excited.
My question is has anyone ever made a hard cover out of plywood or something else to store at home and keep the mice at bay?
Thanks in advance 😊
Thank you for your reply, and the kind welcome to your community. Sorry the question seemed so futile, i was just interested to see if anybody had made anything that could go over the whole of the top part of their trailer tent whilst parked up at home, like a top box i suppose but on a larger scale.
If something like that was a possibility, at least you would see the plywood had been nibbled rather that opening up and finding a large hole where the roof used to be.
There are some incredibly ingenious people out there so i thought i'd ask.
And thank goodness parachuting mice have all but been eradicated, who knows what sort mess we would be in if they hadn't.
Not sure if you've used the search facility, but here are the results from previous posts in the TT/FC section.
------------- XVI yes?
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
the point i was making was that a box covering the whole top would be useless on account of the mice starting on the floor.
they would simply climb up the inside of the FC, through a vent underneath or if they were feeling adventurous, they would climb up the inside of the wood....
We had a big mouse infestation 3 years ago. Cost us £1,800 to put things right. We have stored our camper on the drive outside the house since. Every year once our season is over, we completely empty the camper of all and anything soft, including paper,and remove the cabin canvas,take out the awning and keep it all in our spare room. Our house backs onto open fields and we regularly have mice in our sheds,but not once since emptying our camper have we had anymore trouble. It is a pain, but nothing compared to having to put the mess the mice made of our beloved camper right. Because we remove the cabin canvas,the travel cover droops and fills with pockets of water,when it rains,so we put sheets of wood under it,so with the camper being tilted all water runs off.
I put our roofbox, on two planks, on top of the travel cover, then a winter cover over the whole lot ... the dome made a perfect drain off ... we took all our soft furnishings out, and, more importantly, every vestige of food or smell of (meticulously clean and spray everything) ... seven years ... not a mouse in sight (or out!) ... and we are surrounded by countryside.
Hi Junior Pullan, that must of been an awful discovery 😔
I think we will need to do something similar, we live on three acres of land, next to a river with fields all around us.
Mice can be a problem here so we are now paranoid about having one move in. We have a couple if VW campers and a couple of years ago a mouse decided to use one as his winter home. There was a large gap under the sliding door.
My husband has said he might put a concrete pad down and make something to push the trailer tent into, as long as its gap free it could work, maybe.
Who knows 🤔
Bringing all the soft furnishings and canvas in, might be the only solution then. Thank you, you are all giving me lots to think about. I'm very grateful for the advice 😊
We dont take off the canvas and also leave the settee bases, mattreses and sleeping pods in. We do however make sure the FC is tnroughly cleaned and any soft items such as paper towels and food etc are removed. We also empty everything out of the settee base lockers to ensure there is no where for our rodent friends to make a home. FC is stored in a detached garage over winter and a car porch in summer. When we had our TT the only problem we had with mice is when we left paper towels in the side lockers by mistake. Lots of shredded paper when we opened it in spring but thankfully nothing else was damaged and there wasnt much smell so we got off lightly.
We used to do exactly the same as you pnefan. A good thorough clean, no paper towels, note books,or anything remotely edible left in. They ear we had our infestation, the mice ate the cabin canvas the liner,one curtain and the mattress in the front bedroom. Obviously mice with more expensive taste! Now we leave nothing to chance. The mess they made of our beloved Pathfinder was heartbreaking.
Junior pullman I do wonder what attracts mice to certain things, why would they want to chew through a mattress and canvas. Can only assume they use the stuff to build nests. I do know that our FC is stored in a garage that is constantly used which may put vermin on off. I would be appalled if £1800 had been caused as happened to you
Pnefan, we put it down to the fact that there must have been multiple nests,over the 5 months or so it was in storage. The damage they caused was unbelievable. We even had to fit a new bed board because the urine had soaked right through it, wash the wall that holds the sink numerous times, with numerous products,and varnish it to hold any remaining smell(that worked well by the way) they did a really good job of it. That year the weather was beautiful and we were so looking forward to going away in the Easter,instead we spent the whole of our hols sorting out the mess. I couldn’t bear to go through it again,so that’s why we strip it completely and leave a shell. I keep saying I wish we had a hermatically sealed garage to keep her in. 😊.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Mice
