Just bought a 38' 5er and realized that lots of state parks sites only say up to 35'
Anyone know is this a hard and fast rule? Do they ask when you make your reservation your size?
Born2bfree said
06:38 AM Aug 28, 2011
well it all depends on what state and park your looking at. The New Jersey state parks are very small and don't have any hook up's. Alot of the parks in the northeast were built years ago and not made for the large campers we have today.
charles said
07:52 AM Aug 28, 2011
Federal parks are notoriously small and most of the time the attendants do NOT monitor who goes in what space so popups will be in the large sites. We have found this a lot. 38 is BIG for any park! Just our experience. CCC
flyone said
11:02 AM Aug 29, 2011
Most State Parks through out the Mid-West and South East can handle 38' fiver. Web sites at each park can direct you to sites that you can fit in---call ahead to be sure.
Flyone
Ckerr said
09:10 PM Sep 1, 2011
We just set up camp at Bastrop State Park in Texas. We have a 40ft 5th wheel pulled by a quad cab, long bed 4x4 pickup. We fit fine in our site with room to either park the truck in front of or behind the trailer with room to spare. No problem at all here.
The only other state park we stayed in so far was in Tennessee a couple of years ago. That one was a little challenging to get into, but we made it. It wasn't the site so much has the turns in the road going through the sites. They had lots of trees protruding into the roads!
My impression is that eastern parks are probably a little tighter than others, mostly because they are in older areas and were established when RVs were much smaller.
RVRon said
08:54 AM Sep 2, 2011
granny wrote:
Just bought a 38' 5er and realized that lots of state parks sites only say up to 35'
Anyone know is this a hard and fast rule? Do they ask when you make your reservation your size?
I can only speak of Florida and Georgia state parks since we're not yet living our dream fulltime life. Almost all of the state parks in those 2 states will have sites that can accomodate up to 40 ft. rigs. However, keep in mind that the longer sites are in higher demand so you may either have to get lucky or make your reservation a while in advance. If you're familiar with the campground you can often fit a longer rig on a short site by letting the rear of the camping unit hang over the end of the pad, so a site that only specifies 34 ft. may accomodate a 38 ft. rig by overhanging that extra 4 ft. at the rear of the site. That works only if you don't have trees or posts, etc. in the way so you'd have to know that in advance. Also the road leading to the site may limit your access with a longer rig. The site may accomodate your rig but you may not be able to get to it because of tight turns or trees. You can usually check site length for a lot of the state parks on http://www.reserveamerica.com or on the state's proprietary website.
The Bear II said
09:32 AM Sep 2, 2011
There is a fudge factor as others have stated. I know of two State Parks close by where due to the narrow roads, campground layout and tight turns, there's no way our 37 ft 5th wheel would work.
And I know of two other State Parks where there is a 35ft restriction and yet the camp hosts have 38ft 5th wheels.
So it depends on the size of the sites, layout of the roads and type of RV (MH vs Trailer). Plus whether the staff is willing to fudge on the size restriction.
www.rvparkreviews.com is great for research because the comments will sometimes indicate if an RVer had trouble getting a big rig into a site or park.
Just bought a 38' 5er and realized that lots of state parks sites only say up to 35'
Anyone know is this a hard and fast rule? Do they ask when you make your reservation your size?
38 is BIG for any park!
Just our experience.
CCC
Most State Parks through out the Mid-West and South East can handle 38' fiver. Web sites at each park can direct you to sites that you can fit in---call ahead to be sure.
Flyone
The only other state park we stayed in so far was in Tennessee a couple of years ago. That one was a little challenging to get into, but we made it. It wasn't the site so much has the turns in the road going through the sites. They had lots of trees protruding into the roads!
My impression is that eastern parks are probably a little tighter than others, mostly because they are in older areas and were established when RVs were much smaller.
I can only speak of Florida and Georgia state parks since we're not yet living our dream fulltime life. Almost all of the state parks in those 2 states will have sites that can accomodate up to 40 ft. rigs. However, keep in mind that the longer sites are in higher demand so you may either have to get lucky or make your reservation a while in advance. If you're familiar with the campground you can often fit a longer rig on a short site by letting the rear of the camping unit hang over the end of the pad, so a site that only specifies 34 ft. may accomodate a 38 ft. rig by overhanging that extra 4 ft. at the rear of the site. That works only if you don't have trees or posts, etc. in the way so you'd have to know that in advance. Also the road leading to the site may limit your access with a longer rig. The site may accomodate your rig but you may not be able to get to it because of tight turns or trees. You can usually check site length for a lot of the state parks on http://www.reserveamerica.com or on the state's proprietary website.
And I know of two other State Parks where there is a 35ft restriction and yet the camp hosts have 38ft 5th wheels.
So it depends on the size of the sites, layout of the roads and type of RV (MH vs Trailer). Plus whether the staff is willing to fudge on the size restriction.
www.rvparkreviews.com is great for research because the comments will sometimes indicate if an RVer had trouble getting a big rig into a site or park.