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Thread: Lining the cargo area of my minivan

  1. #1
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    Lining the cargo area of my minivan

    The bride wants mulch and the city has it for free. But all I have is 2014 Chrysler Town & Country mini-van. I don’t want to make a mess and it occurs to me that a giant bag that would line the floor sides and ceiling would be just the thing. My idea would be a bag that’s 4’x4’x8’ that opens at the back with a lot of extra for closing. I would support the upper corners in front somehow and also the upper corners at the back. I pitch the mulch in, close the bag and take it home.

    I don’t see anything on the market. I have a sewing machine so I suppose I could make something from heavy tarps. Any ideas?

  2. #2
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    Why do you need to sew it into a bag? Just line the back with the tarp leaving a couple feet above the floor all around and shovel the mulch in. When your done you still have a usable tarp for the next time or any other use. I think you are over complicating it.

  3. #3
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    We buy plastic garbage cans as needed, when they are on sale.

    We use them for storing potting soil we buy by the yard.

    A few of these would make it easy to wheel a barrel full of mulch around with a small hand truck.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  4. #4
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    Rent a trailer or find a friend with a pick up. It will be difficult to load and unload doing what you are thinking. Mulch is messy and stains. It even stains concrete for a while and fabric well that could be stained permamately.
    George

    Making sawdust regularly, occasionally a project is completed.

  5. #5
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    It's the old, "use the right tool for the job" thing. I agree with George - a pickup truck or a small trailer will be a far, far better solution than trying to make a minivan do something that it wasn't designed for. And if you live in an urban area where pickups aren't as common as cattle on the range, your friends that DO have pickups will be used to having people ask them to help out. Feed'em pizza and beer.

  6. #6
    I haul bagged mulch in my 4Runner all the time and even though it's bagged, still gets tons of debris, "wet soup", etc. in the cargo area. I agree with idea of just renting a trailer. Your time isn't worth trying to clean out the back of a family-use vehicle from mulch debris, LOL.

    Erik
    Ex-SCM and Felder rep

  7. #7
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    Also, consider the weight. I get compost and mulch from the local landfill recycling facility for pretty cheap in a 5'x8' utility trailer. If the mulch is pretty dry I can get 3 yards but if it is wet, I can only get 2 yards.
    Dry mulch weights about 400 lbs per cubic yd. and wet mulch can be double that. A 4'x4'x8' bag is over 4.7 cu.yd. That's a lot of weight.

  8. #8
    I am thinking the only way I would use my van for mulch is if I some serious containers to guarantee that mulch juice could not possibly leak.

  9. #9
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    Thanks to all. I’ll hunt for a truck or something.

  10. #10
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    When I was a kid we got shredded wood mulch from the dump in two or three 30 gallon plastic garbage cans, which we lifted into the back of the minivan after filling them. They didn't make a mess, but they were heavy as I recall. We used the mulch for paths in the garden, it was free and worked pretty well.

  11. #11
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    Someplace I've seen a company selling minivan liners intended to prevent your muddy dog from dripping on the car. IIRC, the liner connected to the van partway up the walls. And it was easy to remove for cleaning. Here's a for instance -- https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Cargo-Lin.../dp/B071G3V8T3

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jamie Buxton View Post
    Someplace I've seen a company selling minivan liners intended to prevent your muddy dog from dripping on the car. IIRC, the liner connected to the van partway up the walls. And it was easy to remove for cleaning. Here's a for instance -- https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Cargo-Lin.../dp/B071G3V8T3
    OK, but just for the record, where I come from, that is not a dog.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Garson View Post
    OK, but just for the record, where I come from, that is not a dog.
    But it would keep people from messing with your car just as good as a dog.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  14. #14
    how 'bout one o' these?

    bagster.jpg
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  15. #15
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    Time for another tool get a small Harbor freight trailer you will use it more then you think

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