CG Length Limit

[BigOldBear]

Question:
Who has, or at least tried, to go to a camp ground or State Park with a 45' MH when they have a set a limit at 40'.?????

Please note:
I am NOT looking for approval to do so, nor am I looking at either the legalities or the moralities.

I am specifically looking for histories of those that have tried -or- done this, to see what I MAY be setting myself up for.
Thank you, Bear

[Mich F]

When a campground sets a length limit, there has to be a good reason to do so. The sites might be limited in length or width, or the road access is limited, to a certain length or height RV. If a site is 20' deep (as an example), you would be hard pressed to fit a 45'er in that site. If your rig is within a few feet of the max length, it might work.

[Mike and Cha]

Ours is only about 37 feet total but in California a lot of the State Parks have a 35' limit. I noticed that many of the parks with this limit would easily fit a 45' plus room for a Toad. So I asked one of the park Rangers about it, and he said back in the day when they started putting the CG's in an on line service, the 35' MH's were considered to be the bigger MH's and they arbitrarily put that limit. He said when the industry started building bigger MH's they never went back and upgraded any of the lengths allowable, as they really don't have the time to measure every spot and upgrade the system. He said they never will measure your MH and if you fit, you fit and nobody really cares. You just have to make sure a spot you reserve will fit your MH, because if they do not have any open spots that can accommodate you then you will lose your money. An extra 5 to 10 feet does not cost anymore to them, and nobody will care as long as your MH or Toad is not blocking others access.


So here's what we do with that info. If we have never stayed at that CG before and really don't know whether or not we will fit, we don't make reservations. We just go to the CG get a spot that will fit us, and then we take a CG map, walk the CG and mark all the spots we will fit in. You will find that many spots will easily fit your MH, but there will be some that don't. We keep a folder of CG's we have done this with and then in the future we can make reservations and be assured we will fit. We keep a CG map of every place we have ever stayed even if there is no length restrictions, and also mark the spots we prefer so we can select if reserving.


We have also driven our Car to some CG's when just traveling by car, just to check out spots in the event we want to come back with the MH.

[palehorse89]

Not sure why one would want to try it........max length is posted for a reason, just asking for trouble and a headache. I have been into campgrounds that list "Big-Rig Friendly"........and are no where close to it. Really had a hard time in a couple of them.

[Nana25K]

Some times its a crap shot. We have found our rig fits easily others not. The reserve America usually will show you a picture of the site. If not I sometime google earth it. Our fav site at Greenbelt NP in MD says 35 ft on the back in we always use. But it is a back in onto an open central area. Our MH is 40 ft long and we fit as easily as our 32 ft 5th wheel did. If the site has other obstruction visable then we might not fit. Take a close look at the road. We know that we might no longer fit into our fav sites in the Smokies due to narrow road making it hard to back in. We have also called ahead and spoken to the staff. They have never steered us wrong.

[Hikerdogs]

The maximum length limit may also be a function of the amount of annual maintenance performed at the campground. Wisconsin has a maximum limit of 30' for some of the sites in their most popular state parks. Most of the time a 40' or 45' motorhome will fit in those sites. However they trim back the brush and trees only every 5 years or so. Right after the trimming has been done there's no problem getting in any of the sites.

After the 3rd and 4th years things get a little tight. Last year it took almost an hour of jockeying to get our 33' motorhome into our favorite site. This year we were prepared for the same scenario. Fortunately the trimming was done over the winter months. There was so much room we could have driven straight in and done a U turn in the campsite.

[Selah2]

On Reserve America, if there is a 40 foot restriction, I call the campground and ask. I have been told about 60% of the time that Reserve America is not up to date and the campground can take a 42 foot motorcoach.
I always call though.

[DegoRed]

We are 42ft, and we learned very quickly to say that we are only 40ft, and sometimes we are only 39ft, and even once we were 35ft.

We have stayed at muliple sites that say 40ft max only to find once we shoe horned into our site, the rest of the campground is filled with 40+ rigs. We ran into this on the beach camp grounds in Cali, several places we stayed(State Parks) were 40ft max, but we fit just fine, stuck out a few feet, but it worked out. Another place we stayed was in Grand Canyon, they were 35ft max, we manage to fit just fine there too.

Firm beliver in asking for forgivness than asking for permission, but to each their own.

[navychop]

I just came from a TX state park in my 40 ft. Plenty of room for my 43RBQ

[rbpower]

there are 2 times I have run into length limit problems.

first time in St Augustine FL "Bryn Mawr" made reservation for 52' long coach with no problems drive 4 hours to get stoped at the gate and told no way I am getting in.. after a few minutes of talking with the head mantince man he loaded me up on the golf cart and showed me the problems, we looked at the vacant spots came up with a plan and got it done. had a great time and plan to return there. staff was great working through the problem



second time I had someone go ahead and talk to the park manger and set it up for me "Tallulah Gorge state park" went just like planed I had to back from the roadway all the way into the spot

with proper planning and some skill driving it can be done

[mel s]

Originally Posted by BigOldBear

Question:
Who has, or at least tried, to go to a camp ground or State Park with a 45' MH when they have a set a limit at 40'.?????

Please note:
I am NOT looking for approval to do so, nor am I looking at either the legalities or the moralities.

I am specifically looking for histories of those that have tried -or- done this, to see what I MAY be setting myself up for.
Thank you, Bear

BigOldBear
Me thinks you worry to much.
Although I don't know about a 45' coach in a 40' limit campground...but I can tell you that I have NEVER been denied entry into a 30' limit campground with my 35' coach.
Mel
'96 Safari Sahara, 140k miles

[PostMan]

We have very often occupied sites advertised as limited to something less than our 43' 5th wheel, even one site advertised for no more than a 35' RV. If there's someplace that we want to go and the limit is less than our size we either visit without the RV to see if we think we can get in and out okay or we call and ask someone who is very often a work camper if they think we can make a site work. We've never been turned away just because they advertise that a site is limited to a 35' RV and we have a 44' RV. I have had all or part of the rear 12' of our 5th wheel hang over a drop off or even water to make it fit. But I find that many, if not most, of the front desk people, if they're not work campers, have no idea about whether of not an RV can be maneuvered into a site. They probably only know how long the pad is.

[OLYLEN]

It just depends on the CG. Some, very few really mean 30' or 35' and others you can park an ocean liner. Some parks in the forested have the limit because of the access road turns between trees and not the site size. Others have the size restriction that has not been updated. When in fought call the camp ground, I have always found them hard helpful.

LEN

[luckyd]

We have found that some c/gs listing 40 foot max. only have room
for that length "PLUS" a toad.
They have problems with longer coaches, towing pickup trucks, or
enclosed trailers.
The size restrictions are there for the ease and ability of other rvers
to be able to manouver. Experience in driving plays a big part in tight
spaces.
We phoned ahead, gave out length and were told we would have to disconnect
the car. Went to the site and found it would not even fit a 20 foot trailer.
Park attendant said they would give me another site, however the only way out
for me was to back up all the way back to the entrance.
They went ahead, (or behind) and cleared traffic for me.
Would have been a disaster with a 20foot trailer attached.

I have been in many parks that fivers take up the complete site and the trucks
block or hinder backing into your site.