As always with a new product to me I am somewhat skeptical. The discussion on whether to cover your RV in the off season invokes all kinds of unsolicited advice. On my Old RV I never paid it much attention.  I used to cover the steel cladded roof in the much dreaded “blue tarp”. My thought was to keep the snow off of the seals and roof vents, so that they did not become compromised. For the 13 years I had the old RV I never once had an issue with this solution.    

Now with the new RV, after much research I am just as confused as ever. Certainly the “blue tarp” was not going to work for 32′ of RV, so I needed to come up with a different solution. All of the advice I read said cover it, but then some of the practical experience I read said leave it out in the open. With Calgary being a snow city as is most of Canada (except maybe the West coast) the worry here was if it is covered, how easy will it be to remove the snow on the roof during heavy snow falls.

After much deliberation, research and cost comparisons I decided it was probably better to cover then leave it exposed to the weather. 

Now the jury is still out on how easy it will be to remove the snow from the roof. We have yet to have a heavy snow fall in the city while the cover has been on.  I will update this page after I have experienced snow removal on the RV first hand.

Happy Trails

The Glampurs

Update: November 28, 2018

We have now had several snow falls since I wrote this article. Some light a couple heavy. I have found so far that the cover definitely protects the roof, vents and seals from the elements. The Polly Pro 3 fabric appears to be very water resistant or waterproof depending on your point of view. Certainly no water or snow has reached under the fabric to touch my roof. During one of our famous Chinooks all of the snow that I had left on the cover melted and in places formed puddles. Now those puddles did not penetrate the cover at all, and I had left them in place for about a week before I got up on a ladder and squeegeed them off the roof.  Removing the heavy snow fall is a bit of a pain as you cannot use the ladder while covered and it is not really possible to go on the roof and walk around as the cover hides the protuberances of the roof vents from sight making a walk on the roof dangerous.  So instead I get out my trusty heavy duty 12 foot step ladder and climb to the top and then use a stiff bristle floor broom to pull the snow off of the cover and on to the ground. If your careful this works very well. I suppose you could in theory leave the snow, ice and water, on the roof till spring, but in my opinion that could end up being to much weight for your roof to handle. Also if your like me and want to get an early start to the seasons maintenance, if you leave all of that snow and ice on the roof you will be stuck until it all melts and evaporates away before you would be able to remove your cover.