Protecting your car during the off-season

In our community, only about 30% of the residents are "rounders" -- staying here year round. The rest choose to go to cooler climates during the summer -- most to their homes back up north somewhere (Minnesota and Iowas seem to be the most common). Even among the "rounders" many leave for parts of the summer.

Of those who leave, there are quite a few who leave a vehicle here at Venture Out while they are gone. We left our golf cart this past summer (I posted about having it under the awning of our casa and having it covered: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/05/packin-up-and-movin-out.html). 

Here's a car that appears to be very well protected -- the cover seems specifically designed for the car it is covering, and the owner has also placed a board, held in place by a piece of concrete edging, against each of the tires to protect the tires from baking in ultraviolet rays.

This off season, there have been some pretty strong storms that have come through... and some of the sun protections have not held up to the challenges. This owner tried... you may not be able to tell, but the frame is actually up on jacks so the tires are not resting on the ground, and the cover had been tied securely around the car... but... while the ropes survived the summer, the cover did not. We have heard that 3 years is about as long as you can expect a cover to last in the Phoenix/Mesa sun. This year, with the strong winds, the cover just could not hold up. 

We heard of neighbors helping neighbors when the storms went through -- re-securing golf cart covers and shoring up other things that went awry. Our across-the-street neighbor (a "rounder") was parking at our casa during the summer and keeping an eye on the RV lot as well as the casa. He had let us know that some of the skirting around the base of the casa had become loose (both front and back), but thought it was something we could address when we returned. When we got back, we were surprised when we were working around the casa to find the skirting in great shape, and thanked Don for his work on it -- we certainly didn't expect him to work on it. He said that he didn't do it, that one day, there was a guy stopped in front of the casa, and when the guy left, the skirting was fixed, front and back. Don didn't know who the guy was, thought that maybe we had arranged for it... but we hadn't. So, I guess we benefited from the neighbors-helping-neighbors brigade too!

 

I'm guessing the car cover in the second picture was not something that a neighbor could resolve.