# Lean-To For Camper - What Size?



## rubenhank

Just a couple months ago, I found a lakeside lot 9 miles from my home that I am now leasing. There are not too many others on the lake. It is a great spot minutes from home. I will be able to keep my camper out there year round. It is a nice shady spot on a small fishing lake. The problem is that to get the shade, I have some older cottonwoods towering over my camper. These cottonwoods shed branches on windy days. There are some larger branches that need to come down for sure, but I will still be concerned in the future of what may come down on my roof. Therefore, I am wanting to build a lean-to. I want this structure to be able to handle my future growth. I imagine someday we will upgrade from our current trailer to a fifth wheel, Class A, or another TT. I started to draw up plans for a 12x36 and then thought, "how tall?" Then I started to lay out the columns to support the roof and thought, "where will my future slideouts fall?"

Are there any standards that would fit 75% of the trailers, fifth wheels, and motorhomes? What would you do?

Thanks - Chris


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## jasonrebecca

12' high will cover most everything but 5th wheels.
The spacing for your posts would all depend on the size of your posts. It's a structural thing, not a slide spacing thing.
At 12' wide though you would be pretty close to fitting with slides open on both sides.
You could always go 16' wide and not worry about it at all.


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## Bob in Virginia

Looking at keystone-rv.com, looks like most of their 5th wheels are 12'9", so you could go with a 13 foot tall and take care of most anything out there.


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## Up State NY Camper

16 wide is a good idea. If you don't want to do that, you might be able to beef up the lumber (posts and header) so you only have posts at the 4 corners. Might be a little expensive though.


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## jasonrebecca

Talked to my structural engineer and he suggests calling a local pole building guy and see what he says. Wind design load in NE is 90mph.


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## rubenhank

jasonrebecca said:


> Talked to my structural engineer and he suggests calling a local pole building guy and see what he says. Wind design load in NE is 90mph.


I will consult a structural before it is over. I do not plan to have any walls. It will be wide open except for the roof, which can catch some wind! Actually, I am a civil engineer, but have not done much structural since school (which was a while back). I have a friend that can check my work.

Sounds like 13' high for clearance. The column placement is still the question. I think I will go for a larger span in the middle (Corner column - 9' span - column - 18' span - column - 9' span - corner column) for 4 columns. That seems to be where the larger slides are. Then have the smaller spans on the ends.

I do have one trick to pull off the back right corner will have to be cantilevered to allow me to pull into the structure. So the back of the strucutre would have 3 columns. This is due to the trees and the layout of the lot.

Gosh, going 16' would be great. That might allow me to have the full 4 columns on each side... However, going that wide would depend on the roofing material lengths that I can get. Also the snow load will go up significantly. I am planning to use sheets of corregated metal. I had always thought that after the inital construction that I would add a front lower lean-to (draining to the front) for a permanent "awning" and too add a little break from rain blowing in and the sun (I will be facing west). This would go between the front two columns.

Thanks for the advice - Time to sharpen the pencil - Chris


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## Nathan

13' will be enough for a midpro 5'er. If you or the DW have eyes on a full profile, put in 14' and you'll be all set. Acutally, you only need the 14' in the middle so if you have a pitched roof, you could do 12'6 or 13' on the sides and then your AC could clear in the middle....


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