Azaraith

So here's my question. I have a fair sized lot (1 acre), but not so much driveway. I can't leave the trailer on the driveway without having to park both vehicles (car and truck) on the street. So I need to park it in the yard most likely. The other option is to park it on the street in front of my house, but that might invite theft even if it's not against regulations (I don't have an HOA, so no worries there).

If I park it on grass, would pouring about 1-2" thick of gravel over the area work to provide a base for it to avoid some of the issues with water? Or would it quickly create ruts in the gravel and I'll end up with muddy gravel slush? I'm in DFW, so rain isn't too frequent, but this May it'd have been a nightmare.

What does everyone here do? In the backyard straight on grass? Gravel bed? Curb-side?

130428

maybe a couple of 2x6's under the trailer's wheels, and park it in a way that you dont have to get the truck too far in the grass to retrieve it if it does rain?

Gravel on a soft base will just turn into poop at the first rain...

Manuellabour247

If you're going to do a gravel bed, I would recommend making a border out of landscape timbers or rail road ties to keep the rock from going into the yard as much. They will migrate to your yard, that's almost a guarantee. Lol. I have used old plywood or 2x10's before so that the tires do not sink in as much, but the problem there is that the boards will sink. I just park mine next to the garage in the grass. I also put a ball receiver lock on it to further prevent theft. If they want it, they'll take it. You can only slow them down a bit.

If you do the border and gravel idea, make sure you put down some landscape cloth below it. It will help to keep grass and weeds from getting out of control. Lowe's or your nearest general landcape supplier should have it in 3 foot sections or possibly bigger by 25/50/100 foot rolls.

raisin

You could use 2' by 2', 2" thick patio blocks where the tires go. They come in green.

RLXXI

I needed to do something similar as my carport is not connected to the street via concrete (yet) so I got some grass paver material to take the load and spread some white marble chips over them for water to run down/off to eliminate the muddy mess I had.





I was originally going to just re sod over them but decided on the marble chips instead as there will be no root system to take hold of the grass paver material when I need to pull it up for concrete paving.

This is the stuff I used for the base. Comes as a 4' wide roll that splits down the middle easily.





What the drive looks like now. Been a year or so I guess since I did it and I need to spread a little more marble on top strictly for aesthetic reasons now that the base is compacted, when it rains water runs off down to the street.




I drive on it 2-4 times a day 7 days a week so it's pretty stout.

Google grass pavers to search the best prices.
.

Ricktwuhk

To me, it's courteous to neighbors to put it in an as unobtrusive spot as possible. Most would use side yard over front, and back over side.

My father in-law put gravel over 2 feet deep solid blocks, with blocks under the tires. I think there was less block but it sank so he put more over the years. I pulled it all up last summer.

Dirttracker18

You would need to dig out the top soil and then lay down gravel. If you just lay it on top it will likely become a soupy mess later as it sinks into the grass and soil.

Azaraith

Hadn't thought about pavers. I think the easiest route might be prepping the grass area and putting down the grass pavers + gravel. Patio pavers might be more durable, but I'd thought they'd crack unless I prepped the base properly (rather than just tossing them down, lol).

Right now I think the best plan is to dig down around the grass about 2-3" and level the dirt/sand, place the grass pavers, and then cover over with rock, using edging to keep the rock in place as much as possible. I have a 10' x 16' area that should work, since the grass is already dead there (a shed on one side, fence on another, and tree on the other = no sun). The only remaining question is whether or not it makes sense to lay down the pavers and gravel over the entire area or just two strips? The grass in the area is dead anyway, so it might actually look better as a patch of gravel... It is on a slope, so drainage shouldn't be an issue.

Placing it so I can get it out even when raining isn't feasible, as there's only a small strip of land to the right of my driveway that could fit it and it's too narrow to park the trailer there such that I could pull it out with the truck still on pavement. Where I'm planning would mean driving all the way onto my grass in the backyard. I'm only worried that if I move the trailer in and out of its spot a lot the backyard will quickly begin to look horrible...

Here's the layout:




The grass is green now and I've redone most of the landscape, but as you can see, the red arrow points out the best spot. I'd just have to drive up through and turn left past where the red arrow starts, then back the trailer into the spot. The blue box is a large shed (about 12' x 18'). Putting it along the driveway and laying down gravel there would look super trashy, plus putting it in the back by the shed puts it behind trees, so thieves wouldn't know it's there just looking from the street. Plus I have security cameras and motion lights at the garage area...

xcntrk

Be careful parking/storing under the canopy of large trees. This happened to a friend of mine as a storm front moved through the area with some localized high wind:

Loki 5.0

I have a 12 foot swing gate so I can the side of the house , I used 3/4 inch river rock in the front yard and tree trimming chips down the side of the house all the way to the back fence. I do not have problems with either , but we have clay soil and only get 12" of rain a year. I did not want gravel the whole way as whoever buys the house may not want a permanent RV driveway. The chips eventually break down improving the soil and and are cheap!