Staying longer than 14 days
 

As I start to research our transition to FT, I am finding most RV parks and SP only allow maximum of 14 day stays. We are going to stay in one spot at least three months, as determined by my wifes' contract.
Am I going to be limited in where we can stay for three month stretches, or will most sites let you stay longer than 14 days?

Thanks.

Commercial RV parks will allow you to stay longer than 14 days. There are many who live full-time in RV parks. Most of the state parks have a 14 day limit, but there are some regional parks (specifically in Arizona) that will allow you to stay in their parks the entire winter, but you do have to change spaces every 14 days.

A lotto state parks have 14 day limits, but you shouldn't have a problem finding parks that accommodate monthly or longer stays. Honestly, monthly or longer stays yield the best rates.

campgroundreviews.com to check out sites, and then go to the park's web site if it looks good.

For parks that cater to the seasonal Summer and Winter campers, it pays to reserve early.

many (most?) public parks (local, county, state, federal) will limit your stay to 14-consecutive days, then 7, 10 or 14-days off that site before you can re-occupy that site. depending on the camp host/ranger you may be allowed to stay an additional X days in the same site if demand allows but during prime time don't count on it. you might be able to move to a different site within the park if available but some parks require you to leave the park for X-days. not sure if you could reserve campsite A for 14-days (days 1-14), then campsite B for days 15-28, etc. but it would be worth asking. each park will be different so be sure to ask and know the rules before reserving.

private/commercial RV parks and campgrounds will have no such restriction. stay as long as you like providing the check or CC doesn't bounce. :rofl: but, again, demand may preclude a longer stay without a reservation. so if the wife will be under contract for 12-weeks then be sure your reservation for that park is for at least 12-weeks. during prime time don't expect to drive into a park and find an available site for 12-weeks. you might but don't count on it.

Try making one 14 day time period in your name followed by another two weeks I your wife's name.

That may not work in some public parks; one had better read the rules carefully before committing to that plan. Florida State park rules state that a group faces the 14 day rule, and if the group swaps reservation names,the park is to reduce the stays to bring the group into compliance. So if a ranger or camp host or computer data detects the name swap, the group would lose the extra days and pay a cancellation fee to boot. It might be unpleasant to try to find a last minute site elsewhere as spouse is trying to go to work.

As mentioned private parks usually welcome long stays. Public entities are trying to let different people enjoy access to their facilities.

State and public parks do not have the ability to pick and choose who stays in the park. As camp hosts in state parks we have come face to face with what can only be described as "low lifes" . The park rangers can do nothing , especially when the camping fees are being paid by welfare. The best they can do is enforce the 14 day rule for everyone. One park we worked in had the state highway patrol/tribal police drive thru 2 or 3 thru times a week to check for those hiding from the law. This was a park far from any urban centers.

Wow Rambeau! Where do you host? We've never run across anything like that as volunteers.

OP: I really doubt you'd find many public parks that would allow you to stay 3 months. However, Gulf Shores State Park, Alabama will allow that in winter until spring break. That's the only one we've found in 16 years of full-timing.

For you, the best and cheapest way to go is to get in a RV park and get a monthly or seasonal rate. I doubt that RV parks have a 14-day limit.

Private/public RV Parks..daily, weekly, monthly rates
Monthly rates usually have separate electric metering

State/National/COE.....14 day stays then OUT. No game palying allowed

We found one in our first year fulltiming: Cliffside County Park in Wisconsin allows people to stay for the entire season. No price break for longer stays. I wonder if it will take 15 years to find another.

You will find paying the daily rate in a state park is much more expensive than finding a private campground that offers a monthly or even weekly rate. We have found an occasional state park that offers weekly or monthly rates in the winter time because they do not close down but also have few campers. Also most state/local/federal campgrounds do not offer sewer and depending on the location and time of year may also have the water off. Even though a private campground may not be as scenic as a state/federal/local one, it is probably your best bet.

We are in a private campground and there are some some spots that are full time but there is a long waiting list to get these, and some of them are not so nice. What we have to do along with many others who stay longer than 2 weeks is move, every 2 weeks. We change spots every 2 weeks but we have them all reserved for our future moves so we get nice spots. We have been doing this for the last 6 weeks and have another 6 weeks to go until we are done with work and get to go home.

Can you explain your comment about camping fees being paid by welfare, and how that affects what park rangers can do?

This has always worked for me...

Exactly what I said...Happen to be a northwest State Park. 40' 5th wheel arrived middle of the night in a snow storm. RV family was well know to the rangers, they rotated between two state parks 14 days+ in each. As far as I know they paid the daily rate for 14 days with welfare voucher and then paid nothing until they were forced by the rangers to vacate. Children (3) were home schooled, third adult in unit was (allegedly) a convicted sex offender. I suppose the crowning touch was the washing machine they had set up and used outside next to their steps...the park was water/electric only. The rangers could do nothing.

If they take your license plate number, the park rangers will notice if you change reservation names and try to stay longer than 14 days.

Florida state parks also have a 56 day limit per 6 months. So 4 14 day stays, out 3 days in between, is also a limit.

I think there's a lot more going on here than is presented, and that it's a pretty specific situation. That's generally not a good time to paint with a broad "welfare" and "low-life" brush. And there are lot of resources for finding out if someone is a sex offender. It would take a tiny bit more work than just calling someone "(allegedly) a convicted sex offender," and whether it's worth the bother probably depends to some extent on your agenda.

I don't like washing machines sitting outside any more than the next non-low-life, but if the place you're staying doesn't have a rule against it, or if the managers choose not to enforce it, you just have to accept it.

Rambeau: I question your use of "as far as I know" and "allegedly" in your above post.

Also, In January you made a reply to a post: "Washington and Oregon have some of the nation's best FHU state parks... you would need to move every other week or so. Pick 2 or 3 and rotate." So you're recommending it? You've done it?

I think you need to check for accuracy before making accusations. You know nothing about the RVer you 'suspected'.

As far as the washing machine... I assume it was a small portable one. Perhaps it was used for washing a few of the children's clothes. People hand wash things all the time and hang them out - if the park allows it. I doubt this was a full-size electric washer that was setting outside.

What state park was this?

We were Park hosts and not allowed to handle money just parroting what was told to us by those that knew.

Washington and Oregon do have the best FHU state parks. Never had a need to rotate between parks but see no problem if someone did.

No! washing machine was a full size and allowed to discharge under the RV

Identifying the State park would only serve to get attention aimed at the rangers and not serve any useful purpose.

I have many bad habits...prevaricating is not one of them

Washington State Parks state, "From April 1 through September 30, the maximum length of stay in any one park is 10 days. From October 1 through March 31, the maximum stay is 20 days.", and "All Washington state laws are enforced in Washington state parks."

I smell some fish or maybe BS.

Both WA and OR have laws against discharging untreated grey and black water into the environment. The Park Rangers should know this. If they do not or choose to not enforce it, then they shouldn't be Park Rangers.

The illegal discharge of grey water alone is more than enough to get the RV'ers ticketed, fined, and evicted. I am really surprised that this park did not enforce the laws, if indeed what you describe is what actually occurred.

Identifying the state park would serve a useful purpose to me because I'd like to know if a park without sewer hookups allows people to drain gray on the ground. We can go a month on the black tank, but less on the gray, especially if we want to wash clothes. So the option for gray water disposal is almost like a full hookup site for me.

But if the rangers are not supposed to be letting people drain gray on the ground and allow it anyway, especially for people who they allege are sex offenders behind their back, then maybe attention should be aimed at these park rangers.

Here in Oregon I have witnessed "family-groups" swapping from one county park to another every 14 days. They seem to make an agreement with another "family-group" and both groups swap places at the same time , insuring that they won't miss out on their desired camping spot(s)...and take their prerequisite blue tarps with them...
Camp hosts said that as long as the campers do not raise a ruckus nothing should be done. No exclusions just because they are down on their luck & poor.....If all they can afford are blue tarps...so be it.

Down on one's luck and poor doesn't seem to square with $21 to $26 a night for camping fees. There are many places in Oregon where you can get an apartment for that.

I find it interesting that some "good RVers" say cheat the system and stay longer than allowed so others don't get a chance to use the park.

LEN

x2:banghead:

I look at it more as an issue of fairness.

Think about a person traveling alone. Can he get around the stay limit the same way a couple can? If not, then I think the couple getting around the stay limit isn't fair.

The stay limit obviously isn't intended to affect only single people, yet if couples do as some suggest here, that's the result.