Campground etiquette

[Clint11]

Regarding diesel engine idling, Lippert told me to always run the diesel when operating slides or jacks--they need the additional amperage from the alternator. So I button up the coach for travel saving the jacks and slides until the end. Fire up the engine, build air, retract slides and jacks and pull out. Also my Cummins manual says Do Not excessively idle the engine to avoid carbon build up. No one wants to listen to or smell an idling engine in the campground. Other common sense etiquette items:
No barking dogs
Pick up dog poop
No noise after 10 pm
Dont walk thru others space.
No commercial generators
Pick up trash
I am sure I am missing some obvious items---any others you can think of?


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[MarkusW]

No noise before 9am. I personally enjoy being able to sleep in and hear the sounds of birds and the wind blowing as I wake up. Puts me in an awful mood if I wake up to racket first thing in the morning.

[tomwalt]

No slamming car/rv doors - they can be closed gently. Bugs me when campers open and slam doors a dozen times.

[Dutch Star Don]

Here is something you might want to try. When you arrive at the campground, connect your hoses and shore power while the slides are in. Your shore power will give you the same boost as running the engine. You also save having to bend under the slides to make connections.

When you depart, bring the slides in and disconnect all of your power and hoses, again, not having to bend under the slides. Once everything is in, fire up the coach and wait a few minutes until you feel the coach start to lift off of the jacks, then retract them. This prevents that sudden drop you feel when there is no air in the air bags. It's also easier on the jacks.

Obviously, this doesn't work when boondocking, but I typically turn on my generator first, get power to the coach and then do slides. It also lets me get my satellite set before I shut down the generator power.

One reason companies tell people to start their coach first is that many will boondock, run down the batteries and then try to bring slides in.

Lastly, when boondocking, even though you may be breaking camp and leaving, you should still run your generator to bring your batteries up before you leave. This prevents unnecessary wear and tear on your alternator.

[Tha_Rooster]

Smokey camp fires blowing at neighbors.

[denlock]

Driving through other peoples sites. Memorial Weekend I'm standing there cooking and a guy drives right through my site. I looked at him and yelled what do you think your doing? He shrugged his shoulders and kept going. I was told that wasn't the first time he did it that weekend.

[Gordon Dewald]

Originally Posted by MarkusW

No noise before 9am. I personally enjoy being able to sleep in and hear the sounds of birds and the wind blowing as I wake up. Puts me in an awful mood if I wake up to racket first thing in the morning.

In our park there are probably only two people still sleeping at 9am. Everybody else is up, had their morning walk and is at the pool by then.

Mind you there are very few still up at 9pm. LOL

[JRPA]

I always try to be polite and try not to offend anyone, but reading about people complaining about campfires, noises before 9 or 10 in the morning just seems a little selfish to me. We are all out to enjoy the outdoors and building a campfire is really a big part of the experience to many of us. We don't bring kids with us very often, but when we have a grandchild with us, there is no doubt there is going to be some noise well before 9 or 10 in the morning, and there is going to be a campfire at night if its allowed by the park.

I am thinking folks that are wanting this much peace and quite or serenity might need to find a place where they have a couple of acres surrounding their RV to avoid the rest of us. Personally, I enjoy the campfire smoke, diesel engines (there is generally a reason, and not just to annoy the neighbor), generators when boon-docking and all that goes along with camping alongside dozens of other folks as I cant afford a 5 acre lot to insulate myself and I respect the right of my neighbors to enjoy their self.

I do agree on NO trespassing on your neighbors site, now that is Rude!

[Coma]

Originally Posted by JRPA

I always try to be polite and try not to offend anyone, but reading about people complaining about campfires, noises before 9 or 10 in the morning just seems a little selfish to me. We are all out to enjoy the outdoors and building a campfire is really a big part of the experience to many of us. We don't bring kids with us very often, but when we have a grandchild with us, there is no doubt there is going to be some noise well before 9 or 10 in the morning, and there is going to be a campfire at night if its allowed by the park.

I am thinking folks that are wanting this much peace and quite or serenity might need to find a place where they have a couple of acres surrounding their RV to avoid the rest of us. Personally, I enjoy the campfire smoke, diesel engines, generators when boon-docking and all that goes along with camping alongside dozens of other folks as I cant afford a 5 acre lot to insulate myself and I respect the right of my neighbors to enjoy their self.

Well said!

Goodness, no tolerance from anyone anymore.

[MarkusW]

Originally Posted by JRPA

I always try to be polite and try not to offend anyone, but reading about people complaining about campfires, noises before 9 or 10 in the morning just seems a little selfish to me. We are all out to enjoy the outdoors and building a campfire is really a big part of the experience to many of us. We don't bring kids with us very often, but when we have a grandchild with us, there is no doubt there is going to be some noise well before 9 or 10 in the morning, and there is going to be a campfire at night if its allowed by the park.

I am thinking folks that are wanting this much peace and quite or serenity might need to find a place where they have a couple of acres surrounding their RV to avoid the rest of us. Personally, I enjoy the campfire smoke, diesel engines (there is generally a reason, and not just to annoy the neighbor), generators when boon-docking and all that goes along with camping alongside dozens of other folks as I cant afford a 5 acre lot to insulate myself and I respect the right of my neighbors to enjoy their self.

I do agree on NO trespassing on your neighbors site, now that is Rude!

I'm not sure about you but I grew up hunting and camping in a tent with my dad. I enjoy camping and being away "from it all" I tend not to camp near other people. That's the whole reason for camping. If I wanted the smells of diesel blowing into my windows, loud barking of dogs and screaming of children and engines as they pass by all hours of the day and night and through the morning, I would go camp out in a Walmart parking lot or downtown Orlando. I'm not that old but I'm old at heart when it comes to certain things.

[Savannahdan]

Fires are a big concern for me. So many people use their fire ring as a dumpster, tossing cans, bottles, and other trash in the fire. Putting out your fire is important as well. It's just good etiquette.

[Nomad Mike]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Here is something you might want to try. When you arrive at the campground, connect your hoses and shore power while the slides are in. Your shore power will give you the same boost as running the engine. You also save having to bend under the slides to make connections.

When you depart, bring the slides in and disconnect all of your power and hoses, again, not having to bend under the slides. Once everything is in, fire up the coach and wait a few minutes until you feel the coach start to lift off of the jacks, then retract them. This prevents that sudden drop you feel when there is no air in the air bags. It's also easier on the jacks.

Obviously, this doesn't work when boondocking, but I typically turn on my generator first, get power to the coach and then do slides. It also lets me get my satellite set before I shut down the generator power.

One reason companies tell people to start their coach first is that many will boondock, run down the batteries and then try to bring slides in.

Lastly, when boondocking, even though you may be breaking camp and leaving, you should still run your generator to bring your batteries up before you leave. This prevents unnecessary wear and tear on your alternator.

I'm a bit confused about the statement of connecting to shore power to provide extra power to the leveling jacks and slide. For my Journey, my understanding is that these are powered off the chassis batteries. Shore power and gen set are not providing power to those batteries except for an Amp-L-Start I have installed. I'm sure many rigs must get power to the chassis electronics from shore line or their slides/jacks operate on the house batteries.

My manual though does not have me start the engine, except in the HWH it states to start the engine for storing the jacks. That might be because of not only extra power, but I will be airing up to and that will need more power.

I think camping near others, one might expect that people will come and go and they will be either breaking or making camp.

[Nomad Mike]

Originally Posted by MarkusW

I'm not sure about you but I grew up hunting and camping in a tent with my dad. I enjoy camping and being away "from it all" I tend not to camp near other people. That's the whole reason for camping. If I wanted the smells of diesel blowing into my windows, loud barking of dogs and screaming of children and engines as they pass by all hours of the day and night and through the morning, I would go camp out in a Walmart parking lot or downtown Orlando. I'm not that old but I'm old at heart when it comes to certain things.

The place your talking about, and the one JRPA are talking about, are two different places.

This is the one your talking about:

youtube

Now the trick is to find your's and park a 40 footer

[MarkusW]

Originally Posted by Nomad Mike

The place your talking about, and the one JRPA are talking about, are two different places.

This is the one your talking about:

Now the trick is to find your's and park a 40 footer

Yes, that's the hardest part about it. I don't have a 40' but I already have issues scouting locations for a 32' the law around here says that you can park your rv anywhere you want as long as it's within 300 feet of a main road and you can't cut any trees or brush to get her into the location. But that's becoming almost impossible now these days since the state is snatching up all the land and putting barbed fence up or digging 30 foot deep trenches around ideal boondocking locations.