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Old 11-18-2018, 08:48 AM   #3
Bill
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
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Dave is right. It depends, at least partly, on whether you live in snow country. On this forum, we have had several reports of TMs whose roofs were bent by heavy snow load. The front shell is especially vulnerable because it is already carrying the weight of the air conditioner. A bent roof is difficult (though not impossible) to fix. Check out posts by Bruce Perens, among others.

To repeat Dave's reasoning, we find in New England that the worst situation is a storm that dumps a couple feet of snow - and then it begins to rain. The snow soaks up water like a sponge, and holds it without letting it drain off. A warm rain would tend to melt the snow, but cold rain - likely as part of a snow-turning-to-rain scenario - will not. I'm sure you've seen pictures of commercial buildings with collapsed roofs, which is often the result of a snowstorm followed by rain.

In snow country, you can get away with outside storage if you buy and use a snow rake to clear off the TM roof, without fail, no matter how inconvenient at the moment.

Finally, the TM owner's manual suggests that you should not let even dry snow accumulate to more than 6 inches.

Of course, if you don't live in snow country, you have a different question.

Bill
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