How to Drive a Moving Van on the Lawn

Moving is a physically exhausting process. You have to pack your stuff in boxes, load the boxes onto a van, unload them and then unpack again. With all of this activity, it is good to conserve energy whenever possible. One easy way to do this is to drive your moving van on your lawn, leaving it as close as possible to your door. The problem here is how can you get the van onto the lawn without its great weight damaging the yard? One solution is to use sheets of plywood as a driving surface that will shield the lawn from the van's tires. Plywood is a great choice because its large surface area will help to distribute the van's weight more evenly over the lawn. You can use scrap plywood as long as it is not cracked or damaged in some way.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Several sheets of plywood

1. Position the van so that you can back directly towards the door of the house.

2. Lay down a sheet of plywood directly behind each of the van's two back tires.

3. Place at least two more sheets of plywood behind each of the first two sheets to form a track. There should be at least three plywood sheets behind each van tire forming a track towards the house door.

4. Carefully drive backward onto the first plywood sheet. Go slowly so that you can maintain a straight line.

5. Have someone else move the first plywood sheets to the back of the rows as you drive onto the second and third sheets. Be sure to maintain your straight line as new sheets are placed at the back.

6. Continue this process until you reach the door of the house. You can now easily pack the van without the added walk across the lawn.

7. To get off of the lawn, simply reverse this process. Have helpers move plywood sheets to the front of the van until you are off of the lawn.

Tips & Warnings

• The number of plywood sheets needed depends on the length of your yard and whether you have someone helping you that can cycle the sheets from the back of the van to the front as you drive up the lawn. For example, if you have enough sheets you can simply lay down a track to drive on. If you only have about six sheets you will most likely need someone to move a sheet from the back tires to the front as you drive to the house and away from the house.