Community Forums

WyoFree · 12-11-2016, 06:13 PM

It's mid summer and you call Walmart and the manager says "sure thing, come on in and park in the south parking lot"! You started out the day at 8 in the morning and arrive at Walmart at 5 in the afternoon. A good 9 hour day of driving and it's time to park, kick back and relax.

I understand it's best not to drop jacks and put slides out. That's fine, you have enough room to move around the coach but there's a problem. Your in Tampa Florida the temp is 97 and the humidity is about the same.

Can you in good faith run the diesel generator? My real question is "is it good RV policy to run it in a Walmart parking lot from 5PM to 8AM and does Walmart, Lowes etc have a policy about it?

Monacoach · 12-11-2016, 06:17 PM

It is for sure ok. I would not hesitate to use it in a walmart parking lot.

palehorse89 · 12-11-2016, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WyoFree

It's mid summer and you call Walmart and the manager says "sure thing, come on in and park in the south parking lot"! You started out the day at 8 in the morning and arrive at Walmart at 5 in the afternoon. A good 9 hour day of driving and it's time to park, kick back and relax.

I understand it's best not to drop jacks and put slides out. That's fine, you have enough room to move around the coach but there's a problem. Your in Tampa Florida the temp is 97 and the humidity is about the same.

Can you in good faith run the diesel generator? My real question is "is it good RV policy to run it in a Walmart parking lot from 5PM to 8AM and does Walmart, Lowes etc have a policy about it?

Most all the time when over nighting, the parking lot are big, and I get clear away from the store and auto's..........these generators are pretty quite per say........I run mine when needed.
Start yours up, go outside and walk away from your Coach.......you will not get to far and you won't even be able to hear it.

John Jones · 12-11-2016, 06:20 PM

Your generator is much quieter than the semi trucks that will be idling in the parking lot

Tall Tex · 12-11-2016, 06:29 PM

You don't say what kind of RV you have, but if you have a motorhome that has an OEM gen set such as an Onan, then your ok to run it at any store or truck stop. Now, if you have a trailer and carry a contractor's portable gen set that is loud, you could quite possibly disturb the piece. Common sense should prevail.

jacwjames · 12-11-2016, 06:29 PM

We've stayed at dozens (maybe +100) different Walmarts over the last 20 year and have never had a problem. We run the generator as needed.

DGBPokes · 12-11-2016, 06:55 PM

Thinking the same thing, we pulled into a Wal Mart lot a little before midnight, a few years ago. It was a little warm, but no big deal opened the windows. About an hour later we had three big trucks around us all idling, or running a reefer. After another hour, and no sleep, I closed the windows and started the generator. Have never given it a second thought since.

WyoFree · 12-11-2016, 07:02 PM

Ok then, there is no rule against it! I just want to stay in good standing with fellow RV-er's. And Stay within the rules of the companies giving us the ability to stay there.

bamaspiveys · 12-11-2016, 08:14 PM

I have never stayed overnight in a walmart lot but I can see it happening at some point.

Your comment about not opening the slides has never occured to me though, I have seen RVs in Walmart lots for years but never noticed if they had thier slides our or not. I assumed they had them out.

Is it a case of not wanting to get clipped by someone not paying attention to the extra width or does Walmart frown upon it.

Also, do you have to call Walmart and ask permission from the manager? Again I just assumed is was common knowledge that as long as there was space you could park. (common sense used of course) not going ot wedge my bus in a parking lot.

oatmeal · 12-11-2016, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by palehorse89

Start yours up, go outside and walk away from your Coach.......you will not get to far and you won't even be able to hear it.

Then how is it that I can hear everybody else's generators while I'm inside my coach?

imob · 12-11-2016, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bamaspiveys

Also, do you have to call Walmart and ask permission from the manager? Again I just assumed is was common knowledge that as long as there was space you could park. (common sense used of course) not going ot wedge my bus in a parking lot.

I was thinking the same thing. We have just looked for "no overnight parking" signs. We have a great deal of camper traffic in our local area and we are not rural. All of our CampWally locations have these signs. So when we are on the road we just look for them assuming that if not...its OK. We just go way out in the parking lot away from everything and find a nice quite corner.

twinboat · 12-11-2016, 08:44 PM

I tend to park with the generator exhaust aimed away from the parking area and into the trees or bush's along the border.

I don't have slides but have seen many with them open in Wal-Mart.

If you have a toad and backing up is difficult, make sure there isn't a space to park in, right in front of you. Someone will park there.

adamfolger · 12-11-2016, 09:01 PM

I always unhook the toad and park it in front of the MOHO. Never a problem pulling out. I can unhook and hook up in less than 5 mins. Works for me...

FIRE UP · 12-11-2016, 09:01 PM

Gang,
While it's not a normal practice to look for and stay in a Walmart parking lot, we've done it several times, due to most or all of the adjacent RV parks and campgrounds are full up. And, like the OP, I've ALWAYS gone inside the store, gone directly to the highest ranking person I can find, trying for the store manager but, an assistant will do, to seek permission for us to stay. Even if there's other RVs already there when we pull in, I still go in and ask. To me, it's just the right thing to do.

In regards to the slides, well, we have two. A galley one and a bedroom one. The galley one we can cope with if it needs to stay in for some reason. The bedroom one is a different story. It has to go out in order for us to be able to gain entrance to clothes, sleep etc. But, I've never seen a problem with deploying both slides. And, I don't do anything before I level the coach. That's done with the jacks. The coach is leveled and the slides deployed.

I mean, as Hillary would say: "What's the difference"?? If you're going to stay there, and we have NEVER STAYED more than one night, EVER in any Walmart, then we make ourselves comfortable. But, we find the most remote corner of the stores parking lot and setup our coach. We're not interfering with any truck routes to the back of the stores etc. at all, even with the slides out. It's like we're not even there. And, I can't remember there ever being a time when we've stayed in a Walmart parking lot that, we did not go in and buy at least SOMETHING, if not a bunch of stuff for re-supplies.

We usually pack up and are exiting the parking lot before the morning local workers clog up the main arteries of traffic. And we make sure that where we parked, looks like we were never there.
Scott