Storing outdoor carpet

[Montana_738]

My wife wanted this outdoor carpet (9'x9') or somewhere around that size. Well it's great if you can lay it on a concrete pad or ahsphalt, but if your boon doging and you lay it on sand or dirt and there is a little moisture in the air when you get ready to pack up you have all this sand and mud on the back end of the carpet. It don't brush off because it damp. If your lucky and you have a outside shower hose and there is grass or something you can lay the carpet on you can rinse it off. But you still have to contend with a wet carpet. Well I came up with an idea, I bought a 8' x 4" piece of PVC (white sewer Pipe and drilled enough holes in it to let air in to and water out to prevent mold, I glued a 4" end cap on one end and on the other and did the same but didn't glue that cap on, you can just pull it on and off when you want. I mounted a couple chrome suit case latches to the removable cap and the 4" PVC tube to hold that cap on.
I mounted this finished tube just behind the tube for my sewer hose under the front belly. When I am ready to go I roll up the carpet stick it in the tube clip on the end cap and I'm ready to go. When I get to a spot or my home base I pull it out and wash the carpet down, you can even wash the tube out because you drilled holes in it to let air in, and water out. It works great, no more sand or dirt in my storage space, and garandma is happy she has her pretty carpet. I have to agree it does save our interior carpet, even though we have a rule if you go inside the shoes come off. But try to stop a couple grand kids that are in a hurry to get to the comode, by the time you say take off your shoes they are on there way back out. You can't help love em though.

Bill

[DHenry]

Terrific post and idea, thanks for sharing it with us.

[Montana_70]

Bill,

What a great idea!

[Chester]

Great idea Bill. I never thought of that one before.

[Montana_2825]

Good idea. I'm headed to Lowes on Monday to get teh stuff to build mine.

wingnut

[Montana_738]

Hi everyone,
I forgot to mention when you get ready to attach the tube to the frame of the RV, you need to mark the spot where the tube will attach to the frame of the RV. After you mark the spot bring it back out where you can reach it and dril a 3/4" whole through the bottom of the tube where it will attach to the frame. Then hold the tube up to the frame and with a long shank drill bit ( a little smaller then the self tapping screw you will use)reach through the 3/4" whole and drill a pilot whole through the top of the tube and into the frame where it will attach to the RV. Then you can reach through that 3/4" whole with a socket and extension using a pretty good size hex head self tapping screw at least 1/4" X 1" and attach it to the frame of the RV. It has to be a pretty thick screw because when the carpet is wet it's heavy. I hope everyone can figure out what I am talking about. If not let me know and I will try to help again. Or if you don't understand this look at the way they attached your sewer tube and do the same, only use a little heavier screw.
Good luck,

Bill

[RC and Samantha]

Fantastic idea and thank you for sharing. We are thinking of adding one for the sewer hoses to free up some basement room and get that yucky stuff out of there. I love your idea for the carpet and maybe if I'm very good I can get Dick to add two.

Patty

[stiles watson]

Good idea, clear explanation, and good post. Thanks

[jsmitfl]

Another great thing to use for the ground instead of the carpet is some shade cloth from HD. Green or Blk. you can put some grommets in to stake it to the ground. The dirt falls thru the holes in it but yet still covers the area. When done just shake it off a bit and put it in the tube.. is great.

[Montana_883]

Great idea..Do you have a pic of this?

[bob n pam]

Smart move. Thanks for the details.

[jsmitfl]

If you go to my picture trail in my links there are a couple. They arent close ups though. A person can take two of them and sew it together and itll be twice as wide. Its really lite weight. Youll find it at HD in the garden center. We use to get the wide stuff (12ft)in miami @ commercial nurseries but I didnt want to drive down there.

[Treecounter]

I would suggest six inch sewer pipe and plumbers tape to hold it to the frame.

[Montana_562]

I use plastic fence post - 8' length, square(so it doesn't roll)
Got mine at Lowes for a fold-up ladder for inside storage. Should work outside and it's not so big or expensive as the 6" plumber pipe.
Just another way to do the same thing!

[jrgwdenner]

Glen just finished adding two six inch tubes under the Monty. One with holes drilled in it is for the sewer hose and the other is for our fishing rods, broom handles, any long item. Some of the sewer connections didn't seem to fit in the four inch tube so we chose the larger size. He cut a form out of wood to fit the shape of the two tubes when they're next to each other. Angle iron was applied to the wood and it was bolted to the metal floor of the front compartment. So we didn't need to go into the frame. It looks like it's going to work great.

We use two plastic beach mats from Target for our outdoor carpet. They're a lot like the plastic roll up shades for a patio. The dirt and sand go right through them as they are quite porous.

[mgdg]

I use the same 4" plumbing pipe with the holes pre drilled, a vented end cap and the other end has a threaded cap to enclose it all. I keep my sewer hose in there since the Mountaineer doesn`t have a sewer hose compartment. I don`t like using the bumper like the the older trailers use to, it tends to rot them out quicker. I use the exsisting underbelly screws, which I have since changed to better screws with a washer head on them, and brass strapping wrapped around to hold it up. Works great so far as I`ve probably put about 8,000 miles on the RV and had no problems. I think I`ll put a couple more up for the fishin rods and carpet as those are great ideas too!!