Circle drive and parking pad dimensions

[SugarCubes]

Hi all! We are at the end of a 1/2 mile long driveway which comes to a fork near the house, with one side going to the barn, and the other to the house. It used to be a circle drive, but the old owners replaced that with a multi-teared waterfall fountain.koi pond thing. Beautiful, but not functional for turning around a trailer, and no fun backing down a 1/2 mile driveway! :lol:

Now, I need to figure out how to expand the barn driveway to allow for a trailer to turn around. I am considering either a circle drive or expanding the width into a parking pad - whichever space will allow. Unfortunately, the barn is located close to the property line, so I only have maybe 25’ to play around with.

Does anyone know the ideal dimension of a parking pad to allow a truck and trailer to make a smooth U-turn? What about the radius of a circle drive? I read somewhere that 41’ outside radius on a circle drive is suitable for a trailer up to 16’ long?

Help appreciated!

[ShotenStar]

When we were first designing the layout of our property, I answered this question by driving my rig out into a flat grass area and driving in circles … the tightest circles I could safely do with the truck/ trailer … then I measured the inside and outside diameters of the tracks. For backing / making a Y turn / parking, I did the same thing with cones and the lines in a school parking lot. When we built the barn, I used those measurements plus a little bit to site the barn.

Those measurements worked perfectly for all the years I pulled a 2H bumper pull; when I upgraded to a oversized 2H GN, things were a little tight. But by driving a careful line, I can still make the circle and park.

So, that is the easiest way to get the answers you need. If the ground is dry and there is no other landscaping in the way, you might be able to do this on your property. If not, get thee to a field or school / church parking lot, measuring tape and chalk / cones in hand.

star

[SugarCubes]

@ShotenStar Thank you! I had considered that, but am looking for more of a “universal” dimension, as we will also be having large flatbeds for hay deliveries, dump trailers for arena and paddock construction, etc coming onto the property. So, it needs to not only be large enough for my trailer, but for larger delivery trailers as well.

[enjoytheride]

Instead of a U turn can you make a T shape so you can pull into one part of the T and back up into the other? My turning radius in my 2H gooseneck is the same as my bumper pull since I have an 8 foot bed.

You’ll need to keep in mind that some people suck at backing up their horse trailers.

[clanter]

might want to ask the local fire department to take a look to get their opinion

[Redlei44]

You can get some additional ideas on dimensions by searching on “minimum turnaround radius”, “types of turnarounds”, “turning radius semi”, etc. As clanter mentioned, fire departments and county building permit division (maybe even your own) publish design standards for this type of thing.

[HungarianHippo]

In my work, I have to design driveways that allow firetruck access to our facilities, and the Int’l Fire Code minimum standard is 25’ inside radius, 45’ outside radius. That’s not the minimum that would feasibly allow you to make the turn, it’s just the standard (which allows for some safety margin of error).

[Bluey]

Could you remove it all and leave the whole area parking lot?

That is what we did in front of our covered arena and it works much better than trying to drive around any kind of obstacles in circles and looks fine.
Make the front of the structures eye appealing and you won’t need a circle in the driveway for eye appeal.

[ryansgirl]

You can Google turning templates to give you an idea. Most of it depends on the total length of your rig. At work we use a turning template in our CAD program and we select the AASHTO vehicle that will be accessing the site.

[SugarCubes]

@HungarianHippo

In my work, I have to design driveways that allow firetruck access to our facilities, and the Int’l Fire Code minimum standard is 25’ inside radius, 45’ outside radius. That’s not the minimum that would feasibly allow you to make the turn, it’s just the standard (which allows for some safety margin of error).

THANK YOU!!! This is exactly what I was looking for.

@Bluey

Could you remove it all and leave the whole area parking lot?

That is what we did in front of our covered arena and it works much better than trying to drive around any kind of obstacles in circles and looks fine.
Make the front of the structures eye appealing and you won’t need a circle in the driveway for eye appeal.

I could, but I never would…the water feature and landscaping are too pretty! :lol:

I spoke with an excavator yesterday who suggested leveling out the slope to the left of the barn/gravel drive and making a parking pad. It should be around 50’ wide if we go that route.

[Jarpur]

We have a circular (more or less, it’s not a perfect circle, more oval on one end and elliptical on the other) drive; my husband and I measured it today, because of this thread - the grassy center, with plantings, is about 45 feet across to the inner edge of the gravel driveway, and 72 feet to the outer edge of the gravel driveway. We didn’t measure it the longer way.

The longest trailers we currently own are 16 foot bed length, towed with crew cabs with 6.5 beds, but we’ve also owned a gooseneck with an 18 foot box that was pulled by a supercab 250 with an eight foot bed.

[jawa]

I’ll have to go measure at the barn tomorrow. We have a circular area to turn around just in front of my barn. I have a Dodge MegaCab with a short bed and a 2 horse bumper pull with dressing room ( not sure of total length, but it was custom made for someone else. It is longer than the standard 2 horse.) We also have an equipment trailer that we use to move our 35HP JD or skid steer. The JD has a bucket and whatever rear attachment. It’s longer than my horse trailer.

The circle we have is plenty wide to not have to do the tightest turn possible. As I make my right hand turn, I pull slightly forward going back out of the drive and then I am able to line myself up with my rigs parking space just to the left of the barn if you are facing it. I’ll take some measurements and photos tomorrow.

The idea of making a T intersection is not a bad one it turning space is limited.

[jawa]

I measured and took photos. It’s around 50’ across.

[Willesdon]

Could you go round behind the fountain koi pond?

[SugarCubes]

@jawa

I measured and took photos. It’s around 50’ across.

Perfect! Thank you so much That’s right around how wide mine will end up if we expand to the left of the barn.

@Willesdon Have thought about that too, but way more excavating and rock required to go that way.