After clearing the snow off the roof on our new van this morning, the was between 6 to 8 inches of snow this had me wondering how much weight was pressing down on the roof, surely this would if not cleared would put tension on the joints and possibly over time cause water ingress or damp. l went onto a website on how to calculate the weight of snow per cubic foot depending on the density and fluffiness of snow and the weight range was 7 to 9 kilograms. So l did a rough calculation and the weight on my van roof was approx. 750 Kgs.
Any thoughts on this topic folks
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Was threads on this last year.Yes i agree take it off if you can because of the weight but,i wonder what they do in the delivery yard when they have 100s of caravans.do they take off ?
I don't think that there are any long term problems with the snow. Although it is a scary amount of weight, the way it is distributed across the roof likely means no damage is being done. Saying that, I share your concern that over a long thaw period you have water pooling on the top of your van under the snow. Again this is probably not a major worry, but I always store the van either nose up or down to help water run off as quickly as possible.
I would guess my caravan has been kept outside ever since the first delighted owner collected in in 1985 & it still don't leak, so one can conclude from that snow on the roof is unlikely to harm it.
We keep our caravan stored with the nose high and tail low so the water drains faster off the roof rather than pooling on top.
My father always stored his caravan level, but I think that was more to make sure the 'van looked pleasing to the eye ( being level rather than looking a bit like it had been put into storage by two drunks in the dark )
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Topic: Weight of snow on caravan roof
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