Serj22
04-20-2009, 02:11 AM
So, I had to do a dump run for my brother who offered me and my wife a brand new Playstation 3 that he would get for us if I haule all the garbage in his garage to the dump across the bridge and about 15 minutes away. No big deal right?
Well, when you're Silverado is broken after 250,000miles (it did it's time) and all you have is a 2004 Odyssey EX big enough to haul stuff and won't let dirt TOUCH your Cr-v, like me... then you are faced with a tiny problem. Luckily Honda designed the Odyssey to be a truck primarily and a people transport second:D.
I managed to fold the rear seat down, pull the two captain's seats out within about 5 minutes and had a nice smooth-ish surface to start a haul. Perfect.
The bad:
The Odyssey is not a truck, does not have truck bed liner, and is covered with nice leather and plastic that will be ruined by dirt, wood, boxes, metal shelves, etc...
The Good:
I have blankets and I don't care.
I lined the whole car with flattened boxes (that also needed to be hauled away) and then put some moving blankets over the backs of the front seats and sides of the interior of the car.
Now the cool part of the Odyssey is that, like a truck, it has 3 loading points: The back, the left, and the right. Another cool part - the key fob can control the side doors opening or closing - so I don't have to set something down to get the door open to put something in a different way, just click the button in my pocket and it's open in a few seconds. No dropping necessary. I loaded the car up with vacuums, boxes, shelving, and all manner of heavy stuff on top. With the low loading height of a minivan, I didn't have to lift anything above my kneecaps maybe (that and I was parked on a steep driveway)
Everything was going fine until..................... outside boxes COVERED WITH SPIDERS AND BUGS AND CRAP!!!!
It took about 30 minutes to wrap each box with a plastic garbage bag to eliminate the arachnid invasion from the interior of the car - all loaded in completely filled from floor to ceiling (literally) with overflows of stuff inbetween the two front seats even. then OFF WE GO TO THE DUMP!!! Just me and my wife on a wonderful pleasure cruise with smelling van interior to a wonderfully smelling place across the river in a land far far away.
WE get there and park awkwardly next to several trucks with inhabitants emptying their trucks (after paying a $21.00 fee to dump) and received many a look from people curious why a semi-nice Honda Mini-van is in a dump-site. I would have wondered the same thing, till they saw us pull board after board, box after box, couch cushions, shelves, dirty bug bag boxes (eiw:() and threw them all into a pile successfully hauling twice as much as their regular trucks did and not being charged the extra $20 ($45 for a truck with taped load if it goes over the bed sides) and hauled twice as much since it technically isn't a truck and they had no idea that van was filled to its brim. HAHA!
After all was done, and we had unloaded the van, it was a bit dirty, so we returned the moving blankets and vacuumed a bit of dirt off the floors -not much but still dirty, examined the walls for scratches, which there were none, no damaged leather, and it was all good. In another 5 minutes I had the seats all back in and the car became a "people mover" yet again. All back to "normal" and now we await our brand new PS3 next week. HOORAY!
I would like to thank Honda for making one of the most useful, comfortable trucks with navi and leather seats that I have ever owned and used: THE ODYSSEY!!!. Big thumbs up!:D
Well, when you're Silverado is broken after 250,000miles (it did it's time) and all you have is a 2004 Odyssey EX big enough to haul stuff and won't let dirt TOUCH your Cr-v, like me... then you are faced with a tiny problem. Luckily Honda designed the Odyssey to be a truck primarily and a people transport second:D.
I managed to fold the rear seat down, pull the two captain's seats out within about 5 minutes and had a nice smooth-ish surface to start a haul. Perfect.
The bad:
The Odyssey is not a truck, does not have truck bed liner, and is covered with nice leather and plastic that will be ruined by dirt, wood, boxes, metal shelves, etc...
The Good:
I have blankets and I don't care.
I lined the whole car with flattened boxes (that also needed to be hauled away) and then put some moving blankets over the backs of the front seats and sides of the interior of the car.
Now the cool part of the Odyssey is that, like a truck, it has 3 loading points: The back, the left, and the right. Another cool part - the key fob can control the side doors opening or closing - so I don't have to set something down to get the door open to put something in a different way, just click the button in my pocket and it's open in a few seconds. No dropping necessary. I loaded the car up with vacuums, boxes, shelving, and all manner of heavy stuff on top. With the low loading height of a minivan, I didn't have to lift anything above my kneecaps maybe (that and I was parked on a steep driveway)
Everything was going fine until..................... outside boxes COVERED WITH SPIDERS AND BUGS AND CRAP!!!!
It took about 30 minutes to wrap each box with a plastic garbage bag to eliminate the arachnid invasion from the interior of the car - all loaded in completely filled from floor to ceiling (literally) with overflows of stuff inbetween the two front seats even. then OFF WE GO TO THE DUMP!!! Just me and my wife on a wonderful pleasure cruise with smelling van interior to a wonderfully smelling place across the river in a land far far away.
WE get there and park awkwardly next to several trucks with inhabitants emptying their trucks (after paying a $21.00 fee to dump) and received many a look from people curious why a semi-nice Honda Mini-van is in a dump-site. I would have wondered the same thing, till they saw us pull board after board, box after box, couch cushions, shelves, dirty bug bag boxes (eiw:() and threw them all into a pile successfully hauling twice as much as their regular trucks did and not being charged the extra $20 ($45 for a truck with taped load if it goes over the bed sides) and hauled twice as much since it technically isn't a truck and they had no idea that van was filled to its brim. HAHA!
After all was done, and we had unloaded the van, it was a bit dirty, so we returned the moving blankets and vacuumed a bit of dirt off the floors -not much but still dirty, examined the walls for scratches, which there were none, no damaged leather, and it was all good. In another 5 minutes I had the seats all back in and the car became a "people mover" yet again. All back to "normal" and now we await our brand new PS3 next week. HOORAY!
I would like to thank Honda for making one of the most useful, comfortable trucks with navi and leather seats that I have ever owned and used: THE ODYSSEY!!!. Big thumbs up!:D