What Size Storage Unit for an RV Measure Height First

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August 25th, 2026

The right size storage unit for an RV is decided by height, not length. Most people measure the rig front to back, find a unit longer than that number, and never look at the door. The door is what stops you. Enclosed vehicle units generally come with one of three clear openings: 12 feet, 14 feet, or 16 feet. A travel trailer, a Class B, or most Class C motorhomes will walk through a 12-foot door. A Class A or a high-profile fifth wheel usually will not, and needs a 14-foot opening or better. So measure your rig to its true high point, including the rooftop air conditioner, add six to twelve inches of margin, and match that number to the door before you look at anything else.

Key takeaways

Length gets you in the right neighborhood. Door height decides whether the rig actually goes in.
Measure to your true high point, which is usually the air conditioner and sometimes something you forgot was up there.
Ask any facility whether its door number is the clear opening or the rough framing. That gap can run six inches.
A 14-foot clear opening beats Iowa's 13 foot 6 inch legal height limit, so on height, if it is road legal it fits.
Do not buy height you do not need.

The unit is long enough and the rig still does not fit

Every September the calls start coming in from people who want their camper put away before the snow. That is the right time to call. What I wish more of them would do first is get up on a stepladder with a tape measure.Because here is how it goes wrong, and it goes wrong the same way every time. Somebody with a 36-foot fifth wheel shops online, finds a unit 40 feet deep, does the math in his head, books it. He hitches up, drives out here, swings wide, lines up on the door. The air conditioner shroud sits above the header.Nothing about that reservation was wrong except the one dimension nobody asked him for.I do not really blame him either. Every storage site and every listing service in the country sorts vehicle storage by length, because length is easy to pull off a spec sheet and easy to line up side by side. Height is the number that decides it. Almost nobody prints it next to the unit size.

Why does door height matter more than unit length?

Length is forgiving. A door is not.Park a 38-foot trailer in a 40-foot unit and you are tight, but you are in. Put a rig that stands 12 feet 8 inches at an opening of 12 feet flat and nothing changes the answer. Not a better angle. Not a running start. It is a hole in a wall and it is the size it is.So ask this anywhere you rent, here included: is that door number the clear opening, or the rough framing? Those are not the same thing, and the gap between them runs four to six inches, which is usually the exact margin you were counting on. Ours are clear openings.

How do you measure your rig the right way?

Take twenty minutes and do it properly once. You will want the number for low bridges anyway.

Flat, level ground. A sloped driveway will lie to you.
Measure it the way you are going to store it. If the fifth wheel stays hitched, measure it hitched, because a tall truck lifts the pin and the pin lifts the roof.
Go to the true high point. That is almost never the roof itself. It is the air conditioner, or the vent cover, or a satellite dome somebody bolted on two owners ago.
The brochure describes a base build. Anything added after the rig left the factory is not in that number, and those are the ones that surprise people.
Get the width while you are up there. Widest fixed point, slides in.

Then write the number on a strip of masking tape and stick it inside the door frame of the truck. Sounds like nothing. It is the difference between knowing your height and thinking you know it, and thinking you know it is how people find low bridges.

What size storage unit does your RV actually need?

Three tiers, with margin already built in. These are working numbers, not the absolute maximum you could thread through on a calm day with a spotter.

A 12-foot opening clears about 11 feet 6 inches

This is the tier most people need, and it takes the bulk of what sits in our aisles: travel trailers, camper vans, mid-size motorhomes, most boats. It will not take a Class A. It will not take a tall fifth wheel. If your rig clears it comfortably, stop reading and go rent one, because paying for height you will never use is just a bigger bill for the same camper.

A 14-foot opening clears about 13 feet 6 inches

That number is not a coincidence. Iowa's legal height limit is 13 feet 6 inches before you need an oversize permit from the Iowa DOT, which is why manufacturers build under it. So on height, if you drove it here legally, it goes through a 14-foot door. Class A coaches and the tall fifth wheels live in this tier.

A 16-foot opening clears about 15 feet 6 inches

Nothing with a bed in it needs that. This is a commercial unit wearing a storage unit's name: box trucks, a boom or a mast, a stacked car hauler, machinery that will not clear a normal building. If you are storing a camper, you do not need it, and I would rather tell you that in August than take the extra money through April.

Where your rig probably lands

These are the ranges we actually see come through the gate, measured to the top of whatever is sitting on the roof. Use them to pick which tier to look at. Do not use them instead of a tape measure, because the spread inside one category is wide enough to put two rigs that look identical in different tiers.

Class B camper van, roughly 9 to 10 feet. Twelve-foot door, easily.
Travel trailer, roughly 10 to 11 and a half feet. Twelve-foot door for most of them.
Class C motorhome, roughly 10 and a half to 12 feet. Usually a 12-foot door. This is the category that catches people at the top of its range.
Fifth wheel, roughly 12 to 13 and a half feet. Fourteen-foot door. That raised front bedroom is what puts it there.
Class A motorhome, roughly 12 to 13 and a half feet. Fourteen-foot door.
Toy hauler, anywhere from 11 to 13 feet, entirely depending on the model. Measure before you assume either tier.
Boat on a trailer, 8 feet to 13. The hull is not the variable. The tower is.
Box truck, service body, or equipment trailer, frequently over 13 and a half. Sixteen-foot door.

What about boats, trailers, and work equipment?

I keep a boat myself, so I have some sympathy for how people get this one wrong. They measure to the gunwale. You have to measure to the top of the tower, or the T-top, or whatever else stands up back there, and you have to do it with the boat on its trailer, because the trailer puts two feet under the hull before you start. A wake boat with the tower up will stand taller than the fifth wheel parked next to it. Fold the bimini, drop the tower if it drops, and measure it in the position it will be in coming through the door.Plenty of the boats stored here are running to Lake Petocka, which is about 1,500 feet up the road, or out to Saylorville and Big Creek. Pontoons are the exception to everything above. Height is fine on those. Width is what bites, because the deck plus the trailer fenders is wider than people picture.Otherwise width is close to a formality. Most road-legal rigs are 8 feet 6 inches across, so a 12-foot door leaves you 21 inches a side. Feels like less when you are thirty feet back and steering by mirror.On the work side, the tall thing is almost never the truck. It is the forklift mast or the ladder rack, or a dump body somebody left partway up. If you are sizing a bay for a business rather than a camper, we went through that whole decision in storage bay versus leasing shop space.

How much clearance do you actually need?

Six inches on paper is not six inches in the aisle. The approach is never dead flat, the suspension moves, and you are aiming something large at a fixed hole, usually alone, often in the dark on both ends of a February day. Plan on six to twelve inches over your measured height and you will stop thinking about it.Length wants margin too, and that is the part people skip. Leave three to five feet past the end of the rig so you can get around both ends and still bring the door down. A unit that fits your camper exactly is a unit you cannot work in.

What if your rig does not fit anywhere enclosed?

It happens, and you want to know early rather than late. Measure out at 14 feet or better and you are past what most enclosed storage around here can take. Shopping around will not fix that. What you are choosing between then is an outdoor lot, covered parking, or a dealer or marina set up for oversized rigs. None of those is as good for the rig. All of them beat writing a check for something you cannot get into.

Where our facility fits

Dynamic Storage Spaces XL is in Bondurant, minutes from Altoona, Ankeny, and Pleasant Hill. We publish the door opening because it is the number that decides things. Ours is the unit width minus two feet, square, so the 14-wide units have a 12 by 12 door, the 16-wides have a 14 by 14, and the 18x50 has a 16 by 16. All clear openings. Units run 14x35 up to 18x50, and the aisles are 65 feet of concrete, roughly twice the length of a Class A, which is why you can line up square and back in without somebody standing behind you waving. Sizes and rates are on the availability and pricing page. Still weighing an enclosed unit against a lot or your own driveway? We laid that out in enclosed versus outdoor storage.

Frequently asked questions

Will a 32-foot fifth wheel fit in a 14x35?

On length, comfortably. On height, probably not. Most fifth wheels stand between 12 and 13 and a half feet once you count the air conditioner, and a 14-wide unit has a 12-foot door. A fifth wheel almost always belongs behind a 14-foot opening. Measure yours before you commit either way.

Can I store a fifth wheel or trailer hitched to the truck?

If the combined length fits, yes. Two things to watch. The truck adds enough length to push most setups into a 45 or a 50. And a hitched fifth wheel sits higher than an unhitched one, so measure it in the position you plan to leave it.

Does the rooftop air conditioner count toward my height?

Yes, and so does everything else up there. The air conditioner is usually the high point, but a taller vent cover or a satellite dome can beat it. Measure to whatever is highest, not to the roof line.

Check the door before you check the price

Measure your high point, add half a foot, match it to a tier. Then see what is available and what it costs, or call (515) 827-4545 and ask for a tour. We answer our own phone, so you can find out whether your rig fits before you hitch up and drive out. Directions from Altoona, Ankeny, and Pleasant Hill are on the site.