I live in New England, have a lot of weights, and am short on space to store them. (Getting rid of them is, of course, unthinkable :) I'm looking for cheap ways to store them outside but protect them from snow damage.
In the warm weather, I simply leave them out, with a rain cover for my weight tree, but I don't think this is going to work for a foot or more of snow. Also I don't want to have to run around moving my weights whenever the snow starts falling.
Any ideas?
Keep them off the ground with some wooden shipping crates or strips of wood and cover them with a tarp. If you're not going to use them for an extended period, spray them down with oil (WD-40). Keep the bars inside......when then weather gets better, iron brush the plates down and clean them up with rustoleum. Snow will cover the outer layer of the tarp and not creep up underneath if you have it tied down or tucked under (to stop the wind blowing it up). Don't pack them away to good or you won't use them if the effort to unpack/pack them is to much - nothing like a crisp winter day to lift.
They'll rust, cover or not, unless they're kept painted/oiled/whatever. In CO it wasn't much of an issue because it's dry, in NH I got surface rust sometimes.
That may not be a concern, although if the hole rusts it can be a pain getting them on or off the bar. A small lean-to/a-frame is the easiest, with a flap for the opening. If they're near a building, a small, low awning that will either shed, or support, snow weight is enough, again with a flap and tiedowns.
On a side note, I don't know if I just dropped more weights when it was cold, but I cracked a few plates in the winter--I'm not sure if cold makes cast iron more brittle, or makes Dave clumsy. Also snapped a kettlebell handle, but I suspect that would have happened in the summer as well.
I would think that if they're safe from rain, they're safe from snow. The important thing is to keep them dry so they don't rust. If your rain cover can accomplish this already, I can't see what damage snow could do; certainly they aren't sensitive to temperature or the weight of snow on top.
