Shelter Logic makes a good product. Pricey but very solid (but stay away from the 2 car wide ones in heavy snow country)

heres one

heres another

and another

It would depend on the kind of Snow, Wet, Dry whether or not rain or freezing rain preceded the snow. I've seen a few collaspe. I would have to see one in person first, thats alot of money for temporary shelter.

Shelter Logic would be the one I recommend. Thats the kind I am currently using, and it held up very well last winter. Mine is sitting on grass, so I have it anchored down at I believe 6 spots. The anchors are included. Here are a couple pics of mine. It is 12x24, and TALLLLLL....

Thanks Dodges3.... I was hoping you'd say what kind yours was... I know you hung your roof from it during the chop, so I figured it was pretty strong.

I actually found out I have a 9'x16' garage-sized shed on the property. I thought it was smaller from the pics... but man is it shaky. Still a bit small for the big van, so I think I'll still go for a portable till I get that puppy fixed!

from the looks of it Josh, I would just demolish that lean too... and build a real garage or use one of those portable shelters... If that thing gets much of a ice or snow build-up on it, its goin do w n n n n ! LOL

[IMG]http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g156/heavy389/PortableShelter008.jpg[/IMG

All depends on what ya want, Got this for $2K it 26'wide,30'deep,and 14' center height,has 2 roll up doors,made of 2 1/2" sch40 pipe,very heavy 3ply tarp w/15 yr war,had for 2 winters now,gets covered with snow,but when I fire up turbo heater it slides right off,only complaint I have is with zippers! going to convert to reg roll up doors next summer!

Wow Heavy389, that's pretty sweet! Even has skylights.

I'd never have guessed that was 2" pipe in the picture - that's one huge shelter! That big pipe can really hold up... my Grandfather's 2" oil well pipe is still intact after being outdoors for more than 40 years - and it wasn't galvanized.

How tall does the roll-up door you mentioned open?

The thing with these shelters that I haven't been able to get all squared away is the size ratios.

Since I have a Maxi van, I think I'd need about 24-26 feet long.

I'd like enough room to freely move around the sides, like for bodywork and painting, so I'm thinking 12-14 feet wide. The 12 feet in Dodges3's looks sort of tight though, especially with the sloped sides. Square sides with a high ceiling would be best for me.

The door opening needs to be really tall, like if the end on Dodges3's came clear off... My van needs a little over 7 feet of door clearance due to the wing & vent. I haven't found high entrances in the 12-14 foot widths.

I've played with the sizing tables at several of the shelter websites, and there seems to be a hole between pickup truck size and RV/motorhome size... and the prices skyrocket unreasonably and they get enormously long in the RV/motorhome sizes.

In the end, as sweet as they are, I really don't *need* a massive permanent type unit like what Heavy's got, or even what Dodges3's got - the portable ones would be sufficient for me, since I'd only use the shelter occasionally, like for painting or big mechanical jobs.

I've actually considered just getting one of the large erectable shelters like folks are using at eVants and draping plastic or tarps down the sides... they'd at least have flat, open entrances and vertical sides rather than barn type curves.

Has anyone here found or tried something like that? I've seen pictures of some Vanners who had their vans under such shelters at eVants, but I don't know who they were to ask for their sources and any pros/cons experiences.

I guess like so much else about my van, it may be necessary to go custom! LOL...

Clear skies!

I had a double wide(24 x24x 12H) ShelterLogic at my parent's place, it was great for doing work in. I could park 2 vans in it, or pull one out, park in the center and walk around the van. But it had such a large span without center posts that a heavy snow brought it down, and it was built with 3" pipe, augers in the ground, everything. In hind sight I should have put in temporary center posts for the winters. Insurance paid for some of the loss, but I bought a house and can't afford a big one anymore, they do get exponentially more expensive as the size grows.

The 12 x 20 x 12H I've got now is just to park the van for the winter, you can barely open the doors in the 12 foot width. But it was much cheaper and seems very sturdy. I think I paid 500 through BJ's Wholesale but they don't have that size anymore. They do have some others though. The membership fee will pay for itself in the savings.

I posted this back when it happened but can't find it in the archives, so here it is again. Please forgive the hijack, but it is related
Very large tent + NH Winter = Heart attack

Can you say ouch?

I understand that we get very little accumulation of snow here in the southern cape of NJ. And I'm not sure if I'd prefer to dwarf my home with a monster tent for $1800... especially when I could probably come close to building a 2-car pole barn for a little more than that... (minus the slab and price of the doors of course). But you don't get that in the tent either. However I may go for one of the small small ones that just fit my VW or the shorty chevy. But I haven't decided yet. Still wrestling with insurance for the house first. *sigh*

Thanks for the input guys. It really helps to know I won't buy a turd if I'm not expecting it. I'll figure out what I'm going to do here in a couple weeks. First gotta figure out what the house need!