RE: Pop-Up Storage

[spirit]

 

 Was wonderiing if anyone could give me some idea s on storing our PU on the side of our house.  I kept our PU on a double cement driveway but I think the neighbors are not happy althoungh they never complain.  Also, most importantly my girls can no longer play basketball on the driveway.
 
 I would like to make some kind of pad for the PU to sit on.  Was wondering if I should use stones, patio block or some other product to make pad.  Would love to use cement but expense would be too high.
 
 After the pad is laid I would put some plastic pricacy fence to go around PU.                
 
 Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
 Jackie
 Ted
 Kateland
 Kelly
 
 Sun Valley " 02"
 Winstar 2000

[Venatic]

 spirit
First check with your city, county or neighborhood association to see if there are any restrictions as far as what materials can be used.
 
 If it were me, I d use gravel. Patio blocks are too thin in my opinion and would crack with the weight of the PU.

[mike4947]

 spirit
A lot depends on where you live. Get an area with a lot of rain and gravel sinks in the mud and up here in the rust/snow belt just about anything needs yearly maintenance due to frost heaving.
 For over wintering, we ve got 3 pairs of patio blocks sunk in the back lawn. Since the PU only goes out back after the grass stops growing and comes out front before it starts up again we don t need a full " patio"  for the PU. The blocks are at least 15 years old now and about 6 years ago I had to reset them as they were sinking a couple of inches, but they ve held up under 4 different PU s.
 
 What seems to work well that I ve seen is landscape cloth under gravel for the majority of the pad and the patio blocks for the wheels and tongue. The cloth keeps out the weeds and you don t have to try and mow under the PU and helps the gravel from sinking in the ground and the blocks provide a firm, flat, smooth support for the wheels and tongue jack.
 If you are located in an area where you get winter snow stand where you want the PU and check out any roofs nearby. In our area last year there were at least 2 trailers damaged from ice falling from roofs and this year one nimrod got his damaged for the second time in two years.

[ThunderRock]

 spirit
Actually, last year, we DID take the " big bite"  and poured cement for the camper. Our property sits somewhat on our neighbor s side, but the city (or the neighbors) did not have a problem with our move.
 The camper used to sit on 3/4"  wolmanized 4x8 plywood, but it became increasingly difficult to maintain. DW came up w/the idea of an added patio for the BBQ next to the house; I wanted a drive-in spot for the PU in the yard, although my idea would have meant adding a double-wide gate next to our existing driveway - a little tight to say the least.
 
 http://thunderrock0.tripod.com/trkamping/id12.html
 
 Here s a pic to give you an idea. Good luck.

[Horscampr]

 spirit
My dad built an extra parking space at " my house"  for extra vehicles as well as the plow truck when it is in use.  I have also put my camper there for short periods during the summer when I wanted to camp in my backyard.
 
 Anyway, the spot is alongside the pole barn.  My dad made sure he put it over level ground that doesn t collect standing water during rainy weather.  First, he used his tractor and disk to level the area as evenly as possible.  Over that, he put a thick bed of sand and then leveled that as well.  On top of the sand, he used limestone to make a gravel parking area.  Around the parking area, he put in small wood blocks to give it a nicer appearance.
 
 This little area is really a nice little spot to park and we have no trouble with water collecting and it has needed no " maintenance."

[wynot]

 spirit
Need to describe our area first.  We have a drive through gate 10  from the side of the garage.  Fence is at the rear edge of the house.  Our driveway is gravel.
 
 I m going to describe what we did and I can tell you there has been no problems with it.  Even in snow, frost, frozen ground, etc..
 
 The ground is sloped away from the house (as it should be).  I know that gravel is porous, so that is not a concern.  I placed .40 ground contact landscaping timbers to the height I wanted to put the gravel up to and staked them vertical.  It is very important that the top of the timber remain visible, because this is what I use to line up the trailer when parking it.
 
 I calculated the amount of gravel I would need in cu yards and ordered the appropriate amount of dirty and clean 1.5 inch crusher run.  I also rented a skid loader.  REALLY nice when you have 45 tons of stone to move.  I also rented a sod cutter.
 
 I cut out the grass under the area.  This is important 1) because I could use it elsewhere, 2) It keeps it from growing up under your gravel, and 3) it defines the area you re working in.
 
 Placed the landscaping timber at 10 ft from the drive-through gate.  This became the area that had to be relatively* level.  I have gotten the skid loader delivered (end of day on Saturday, which gave me until Monday to get the work done for a 1 day rental.)  Sod cutter was a day rental.  By the time I had finished the sod removal, the first truck arrived with the NOT expected, clean gravel (got their order out of order).  Fortunately, I have gravel on the drive, so I could get them to put it in a pile nearby.  They came back with the dirty gravel and I could have them place it right where I wanted it to be distributed.  For those who don t know, dirty stone is cheaper, unwashed, and has everything piece of anything that comes out of the quarry.  It packs extremely tightly, so this works well for a base.  Spread the stone out and ran over and over and over it with a loaded skid loader.
 
 Placed the clean stone on top and spread it out level.  Remember, I kept the landscaping timber visible and flat to the surface.  Also tamped it down as well.
 
 The area I had defined was 22 ft wide, so that I could use it as the lane for the drivethru gate as well.  I then graded the gravel down on the edges so that I could go on and off the gravel as necessary.
 
 When I park the camper, I have enough room to open the camper up, and drop the step door.  I can either park the other trailer next to it, or use it for additional parking as well as a way into the back yard.
 
 We had this work done in a long hard day, and spent part of the next day finishing up, but it has been just perfect.  
 
 I spent less than $225 on equipment rental (skid loader, delivery, and sod cutter).  And at the time, probably only $200 on the stone.  It goes down in our family history as one of the fastest, best, and cheapest improvement projects.  Less than a weekend in time, and really minimal muscle work.
 
 Almost forgot, I have a drop of approximately an inch side to side on the camper, sloped away from the garage.  This encourages any water that is on the camper to go away from the house and foundation.  Still within  level  when camping, but enough to provide good water drainage from the camper.