Parking pad on a slope -- on a budget

NAUTIQUE wrote:

ECones wrote:

NAUTIQUE wrote:
Econes,
I think my parking area may be similar to what you are describing.
Mine is filled with 3/4" crushed gravel.
I just spread and raked thin layers and compacted by hand with a tamper.
It has worked out pretty well for me.

That looks really nice and it appears it's about as deep as mine would need to be. I hadn't considered wood for the sides, but I see this was put in in 2007. Is the wood holding up for you?

2007! Time flys!:E :)
Wood has held up pretty well.
The vert posts were 8'PT cut in half & set in about 2' deep hole with quickrete.
That area of my backyard can get pretty wet in the spring, so with the winters we've had, they've seen some heaving. But I just use the tamper and bang em back level in the spring.
My intention was to eventually fill-in sloping the lawn up to the top of border, but other projects get in the way - as you can see, time flys!

There area I'm planning to use stays pretty wet this time of year as well. I had just about decided to cheap out and just do some ramps, but this looks so nice you may change my mind. Nicely done.

ECones wrote:

NAUTIQUE wrote:
Econes,
I think my parking area may be similar to what you are describing.
Mine is filled with 3/4" crushed gravel.
I just spread and raked thin layers and compacted by hand with a tamper.
It has worked out pretty well for me.

That looks really nice and it appears it's about as deep as mine would need to be. I hadn't considered wood for the sides, but I see this was put in in 2007. Is the wood holding up for you?

2007! Time flys!:E :)
Wood has held up pretty well.
The vert posts were 8'PT cut in half & set in about 2' deep hole with quickrete.
That area of my backyard can get pretty wet in the spring, so with the winters we've had, they've seen some heaving. But I just use the tamper and bang em back level in the spring.
My intention was to eventually fill-in sloping the lawn up to the top of border, but other projects get in the way - as you can see, time flys!

NAUTIQUE wrote:
Econes,
I think my parking area may be similar to what you are describing.
Mine is filled with 3/4" crushed gravel.
I just spread and raked thin layers and compacted by hand with a tamper.
It has worked out pretty well for me.

That looks really nice and it appears it's about as deep as mine would need to be. I hadn't considered wood for the sides, but I see this was put in in 2007. Is the wood holding up for you?

pauldub wrote:
I'd use crushed rock instead of gravel. The crushed rock is much more stable that round gravel.

Thanks Paul. I'm using the term "gravel" sort of generically. I'm planning to use SB-2, which is crushed stone commonly used on roads and driveways.

Econes,
I think my parking area may be similar to what you are describing.
Mine is filled with 3/4" crushed gravel.
I just spread and raked thin layers and compacted by hand with a tamper.
It has worked out pretty well for me.

I'd use crushed rock instead of gravel. The crushed rock is much more stable that round gravel.

rvten wrote:

ECones wrote:

rvten wrote:
How about digging out to make pad level?
Should only take a couple of hours to do.(to dig out) Than gravel and then your blocks.
You will also need to put something in where you dug out. To keep dirt from falling back in.

This would be my personal choice. But not seeing you lot. Only a guess.

That, unfortunately, is not really an option. The lot slopes away from the house toward the woods. There would be no way to get to it.

Could still be done. Just need a good bucket operator.just move the high ground to the low side. Make parking space wide enough to make RV usable when parked.

You simply just need to level off the parking space. Unless I am missing something here. Did a lot of grading in my past.

I'm sure it's me missing something ;)

As it stands, we'd be turning off a driveway and heading slightly downhill towards the woods, which are about 40' from the drive. If we dug into that slope, I don't know how we'd get down to it.

My wife and I looked at it again today, and we definitely want to put gravel in that area to keep it from being so sloppy when it's wet. But I think we're going to forget about building a raised pad and just ramp the front wheels up.

ECones wrote:

rvten wrote:
How about digging out to make pad level?
Should only take a couple of hours to do.(to dig out) Than gravel and then your blocks.
You will also need to put something in where you dug out. To keep dirt from falling back in.

This would be my personal choice. But not seeing you lot. Only a guess.

That, unfortunately, is not really an option. The lot slopes away from the house toward the woods. There would be no way to get to it.

Could still be done. Just need a good bucket operator.just move the high ground to the low side. Make parking space wide enough to make RV usable when parked.

You simply just need to level off the parking space. Unless I am missing something here. Did a lot of grading in my past.

I just dealt with a similar situation at my brother's house. We take out RV over there but his driveway has a significant slope which is beyond what my small ramp setup that I carry can deal with.

I made some 6 foot long "super ramps" out of lumber They are about 15 inches tall at the end. I made them tall enough for his longer wheelbase Bigfoot to be able to use them also. I just need to get up about 11 inches to be level with my RV. They work great. They weight about 55 lbs each so they are staying at that location. I just back up the driveway, deploy the ramps and drive down onto them.

ECones wrote:

tragusa3 wrote:
You could sink posts at the end of each ramp that stuck up high enough to be a bumper to stop your wheels from overshooting.

There are advantages to what you propose. Getting under it for service/maintenance would be easier.

I knew I'd need to do something as a stop; I like the post idea.

I hadn't thought about the increased height for maintenance. That's a definite positive.

Thanks for the link; that's one I hadn't stumbled across. I had planned to dig down and set the walls below the surface. We did a patio behind the house with them 20 years ago, and it's about the same height I proposed for the camper. It's still doing fine ... but I don't park and RV on it ;)