I was informed by the local RV service center that a few days of 20 to 30 degree weather would not freeze up the holding tanks and unless I were hooked up to shore power tank heaters would drain my batteries in a day.
Lloyd made me aware of the potential issue of snow loading and we were expecting three or four days of snow in Yosemite. Ultimately we did receive about 2 and a half feet of fresh powder, so I am glad I listened. My thoughts were:
"My Hi-Lo is a 2207T and the roof measures 8 feet by 18 feet or 144 square feet.
Let's see how do I figure this out ... there are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot of water - so at 8.34 pounds per gallon a cubic foot of water weighs about 62.4 pounds; or 5.2 pounds for every inch of water per square foot of surface it covers.
Meteorologist figure there is nominally one inch of water in every foot of powdery new snow, wet snow can contain much more. Builders in Minnesota are required to design rooftops to sustain 30 pounds per square foot of snow loading ... that would be approximately six feet of fresh snow.
For my 22 foot Hi-Lo, one foot of new snow is over 777 pounds for each foot of the powder, much more for accumulated condensed snow or ice. Figuring Minnesota's building requirements as worst case that means there could be as much as 4,320 pounds of additional load on the cables."
That is why I took Lloyd's heads up to heart and cut some 2X3 studs to length so they would fit between the upper and lower sections at the five support points to keep the cables from being stretched or broken.
I am in the process of fabricating screw jacks from 1 inch EMT and 5/8 inch bolts to use while winter camping. When I finish I will post a description and photos of the completed jacks.
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