For Father’s Day, my wife bought me a weather station to install in the RV! The exact model is an AcuRite 00639W.
One of the neatest features is that you can set thresholds for windspeed (and other measurements such as temperature, etc.) and it will sound an alarm when the threshold is met. This is great for knowing when the wind is about to reach a speed that is too much for our awning to handle (since we don’t have a fancy awning that retracts automatically during high winds).
It came with an anemometer, which is the wind speed sensor (awesome!). I didn’t want to have to mount it on the roof or rear ladder every time we parked at the RV, so I made a bracket that I hope will withstand freeway speeds over time. I just finished it this evening and it did well at speeds up to 45 mph as we drove the RV a few miles. When we embark on our journey to the West Coast soon, that will be the real test. Below are some photos of how I constructed the bracket out of 3/4″ PVC pipe.
The T pipe on the right has a section cut out (came like that, and it perfectly snaps over the ladder!). It is threaded on the left side so I used a thread-to-slip on adapter. Total cost was a few buck.
Assembled bracket painted flat black:
Because this will be mounted permanently high up on the ladder where there will be a lot of wind while driving, I used silicone and also drilled a hole in the PVC pipe so I could use a longer screw than the one provided.
Before I mounted the bracket on the ladder, I put a strip of double-sided 3M adhesive tape (very strong) on the ladder where the T-pipe snaps on to help prevent the bracket from swinging inward or outward. I then used two hose clamps to secure it to the ladder.
I chose this location because it keeps the bulk of the sensor out of the wind (The actual anemometer that spins is just above the roofline so that the back of the RV is not blocking wind from reaching the sensor), away from low hanging branches, and also away from the roof which could reflect heat and result in an accurate temperature readings.
Nice job!! Can you tell me where you purchased the piece of PVC that “snaps” over the ladder?
Thanks, Jim! I bought the pipe at Lowes. I was so glad to see I didn’t have to cut out a piece of the T pipe, and that it fit nicely over the ladder rail. I put a piece of the really heavy duty 3M double sided tape on the ladder so that the T pipe wouldn’t twist at all. I also found that I needed to put a few drops of super glue where the threaded pipe connects so that the weather sensor doesn’t get blown downward by highway winds. After those two mods, it held up great over 4000 miles this summer!