I'm going to have a 24x40 steel RV cover installed in a few weeks. It's one of those run-of-the-mill units you see for sale on the side of just about every major road.

It's going to sit on a pad of crushed granite and for right now, I'm just planning to have them install the earth anchors to hold it down. Do y'all reckon that will be enough or do I need to go ahead and pour sonotube concrete footers?

Location is Mason, TX and the ground is pretty soft.

I had two 20x24 buildings like that put on our place for hay storage. As I understand it some of those companies use a drive in anchors and some use auger drill in types. The auger type hold much better. I made them put an auger anchor every 6' around the walls. Have had them for just at three years and they have withstood some pretty bad windy storms.

I really appreciate it. I'll make sure they're using the auger type.

They will try to BS you that the drive in work just as good. That's because they are easier to put in than the auger type..... I have a cousin who delivers and sells mobile homes who told me to insist on the auger and use the largest size.

How's that auger type gonna work in Mason, TX?

I know driving t posts in San Saba is a bear.

ETA: You say the ground is soft; but how deep?

Our ranch is close to Junction and they used them.

There are parts of the property that would be a big problem (granite). Where I'm putting the cover is soft down to at least 6ft

We bought one of those for an RV shelter. If I recall, it was 40 feet long, 16 feet wide and 12 or 14 feet tall at the wall. We were on a trip and our daughter went out to our place to check on things and sent us a photo of it laying over on the roll bar of the tractor. But the anchors held, and they were screwed in. In Young County, the wind blows all the time, but we had the wind braces. It was less than a year old. We had a two car carport built at the same time, about 10 years ago, and it is still standing.


Edit to add....when I called and sent pics to the manufacturer (somewhere in E. Texas) he did tell me that was the first one they had blow over. All other failures were being lifted by the wind. So....the anchors seem to be the weak point of these structures.

We put 3 wood fence posts on each side of ours. It has lived through multiple tropical systems just fine. I'm amazed how strong those carports are.

Did you concrete in 4x4s and then strap the structure to them?

We use them for livestock shelters. We literally just lined them up and put in cedar fence posts just like we would with a normal fence/pen. Then we tied them into the structure with bolts.

Not sure this helps the OP, but it worked well for us. No concrete or anything other than some small gravel for packing fence posts.

We did run some coral boards between them. To create a pen wall.

OP, what is your soul type? This is going to dictate the style of anchor you need. If you have nice clay rich top soil to 24", the auger style will be fine and a better choice. Do you are in the hill country and you have 3" of soil followed by solid limestone, then augers won't be worth a crap. For. This, I use rebar driven with a slightly undersized hole. It's simple physics and superior to auger in every way. Pick the right product for the purpose and soil and your structure will fail before it pulls out.

If you are in or near Mason you either have decomposed granite, sand, or solid granite so you need to know what is happening in the ground before deciding.

Decomposed granite to about 6". Soft sand to at least 4'.

AggieAuditor said:

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Decomposed granite to about 6". Soft sand to at least 4'.

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Well, there you go.

Gunny456 said:

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I had two 20x24 buildings like that put on our place for hay storage. As I understand it some of those companies use a drive in anchors and some use auger drill in types. The auger type hold much better. I made them put an auger anchor every 6' around the walls. Have had them for just at three years and they have withstood some pretty bad windy storms.

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used 4' auger anchors on mine and it has withstood 70mph winds and never buckled