Site limitations of big rigs?

[Professor David]

I'm new to investigating bigger RVs and hope this isn't a stupid question. Obviously, a large (30+feet or so) motorhome will limited access to certain sites. Please tell me your experience with this issue. Are there generally sites in more natural settings in state and national parks for larger motorhomes? What are some options for sites for larger motorhomes that are more isolated (not lined up next to each other)? I've heard of some great sites out there for larger rigs.

Previously, we had a slide in truck camper. We loved it and could pretty much go almost anywhere...especially more natural settings in state and national parks...even within a short walk to great fly fishing. However, on longer trips (weeks)... it got pretty tight and cramped even for just the two of us. As we have gotten older, we are looking for more comfort on longer trips lasting weeks or months. We would like to visit family around the country and go South for part of the winter. We also would like to spend time in more remote areas closer to home like Wyoming and Montana (where fly fishing is excellent). Having a tow vehicle along of course will be helpful to travel around after parking the big rig to find those off the beaten track places but it would also be nice to "camp" in beautiful, more natural locations.

 

[JudyJB]

I have a 32' Class C motorhome and have been staying in state, federal, and county campgrounds almost entirely for 10 years. It is true that there may be some smaller sites in a state, federal, and county campground, but they are getting more rare. I don't know where this myth of you have to be under 30' to camp in a state or federal park started, but it is just not true.

Admittedly, I don't tow a car, but I see a lot of people in campsites near me that do, and most do not have trouble finding room for an extra vehicle. As an example, I just had a friend visit in her car. All I had to do was pull back in my site a few feet so it was overhanging a couple of feet, and she had a ton of room to park in front of my rig.

Here is what you need to do to answer your question yourself--pick a place you would like to stay in a state park somewhere and go into the reservation site online. It will almost certainly list the sites and the sizes of each.

Yosemite does have limited larger sites, as does Yellowstone, but each of those places does have some, and i have stayed in each. Grand Canyon has a limit of 30' in its non-hookup campground, but Trailer Village has larger sites that can accommodate bigger vehicles.

Also, some of the older state parks are recognizing the need for bigger sites and are enlarging them when redoing their campgrounds. And many are also increasing the number of full-hookup sites they have available.

 

[Kirk]

We spent nearly 12 years living fulltime in a 36' class A and while there were a few times that our preferred site was too small for us to get into, those were very few. We did tow a car the entire time. We spent a lot of time at Corps of Engineers parks as they are nearly always spaced well apart. We found that state parks vary from some compact and close together and others quite generous with space. TX is one of those generous ones, KY was the other. Most western states have more spacious park campgrounds than do eastern state, probably because of land prices and availability. We found that remote camping was very available in pretty much any location that we were comfortable taking the motorhome.

 

[John From Detroit]

One Campground I used to stay at (Twin Lakes COE. Pendelton SC or near by)
THe site I parked at said "Tents only 24' Max" I drove a 38' Class A with 3 slides and a towed car
Now I do admit I had to be careful parking and exiting the RV. but there was enough room to park on site leaving car hooked up for the first night.. Go shopping, park the car in FRONT of the Rig so I did not have as far to carry the groceries... and still all was on site.

Some of them have very ...er... LONG .. yardsticks.

Another site that said "only short rigs" Not only could I park on that site but there was enough concrete for a 2nd 40' With towed to park in front of me.. Yup. a very very very long yard stick.

I would not count on this however.. One Federal campground.. JUST the car was a "Tight fit" without the motor home. NO way the class A.

 

[emiddleb]

I have had less issues with the length of the site itself than access to the site. Those times when getting to the "it will handle your 40'er" site involved 180 hairpin turns with trees all around, or no one mentioning those beautiful oak trees on each side of the site entrance you need to back into.

 

[Isaac-1]

The simple fact is there is no one answer here, the larger the motorhome the fewer sites it will fit in. We have a 28 ft class A (29'5" bumper to bumper) with a 178 inch wheel base, you can see it backed into and almost fitting in a standard parking space overhanging the curb at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Creamery visitor center in Brenham, TX in my avatar photo.

Attached are a few photos of places we have stayed in state / national parks, boondock camping, etc.

3 out of 4 of the places in these photos could easily have been accessed by a coach 5-6 ft longer than ours, only 1 of them was in a campground with a semi-enforced max length limit of 30 ft.

Having said that there have also been a number of times when we were able to get that last short sub 30 ft site at otherwise full campgrounds, or when we have stayed at places that a large diesel pusher simply could not get into. Towing a car, which we started doing last year, does make it a little more limiting, but (small) cars, don't add much and can often be parked cross wise in even relatively short RV sites and only add about 5 ft to the overall needed site length.

 

[Larry N.]

I just made reservations for Milford State Park, KS where one campground in the park had pull thru site that required an RV length of 30' or less, but the back-ins in the campground I chose have a 75' length limit.

Basically it's as several folks say above, that many places have at least SOME larger sites, that some places (including commercial campgrounds) may have large sites with restricted access (too snug for my 45' Beaver in two different places (hundreds of miles apart), but the sites were otherwise OK), some places have tent camping only, etc. etc.

Allstays Camp & RV (iOS and online), RVparky and other applications and web sites can provide a wealth of information about nearly every campground and RV parking area in the country, including contact information, number of sites/facilities and much, much more.

 

[A Traveler]

We have owned our current 42-foot diesel pusher for 10 years. In that time, we’ve traveled almost 100,000 miles, all over the country, staying at hundreds of RV parks and campgrounds.

In all those travels, we have encountered only ONE RV park in central Pennsylvania we were too big for.

 

[Domo]

Call and confirm size. You will learn to expect scratches from overhanging and overgrown trees and bushes in most state and national parks. That's part of camping within park systems that are slowly embracing the concept of larger trailers and rvs rather than tents and smaller pull behinds. You'll also learn to look up, under and both sides when manuevering into and out of you site and deploying your slide outs. Enjoy your stays, it's only paint and most of the scratches can buff out (using your tears as a lubricant! LOL).

 

[DonTom]

Obviously, a large (30+feet or so) motorhome will limited access to certain sites.

I don't think many here would consider 30' long to be large. I would have purchased a 30' Class A diesel, but they don't seem to make them that short! At least I couldn't find one.

But to me, 30' is exactly one inch too large (my new Class A (gas) is 29' 11").

I never had an issue with either of my RVs. But there were a couple of times an RV park only had a space where my 24' Class C would fit and that was the one I was using at both times. But that is very rare and in both cases, it was the only spot they had available. Both places were full otherwise and I arrived with no reservation. So it can happen, but is very rare. Twice in ~35 years of RVing.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Kirk]

Both places were full otherwise and I arrived with no reservation.

That is one of the advantages that we now have with our downsized, 20' travel trailer as we have on a few occasions been able to get into a campground because they still had a site that was too small for most other RVs. But that too is fairly uncommon.

 

[Kevin Means]

I think it has a lot to do with where you are in the country, and whether or not you're talking about private, county or state campgrounds. We currently live in the San Diego area, but will be moving to Arizona next month. We never had a problem getting our 32 foot Class A into any of the State parks in the Cleveland National forest, or County and private parks near San Diego.

When we bought our 43 foot Class A, we new we'd have problems in the State Parks. There isn't a single campground in the Cleveland National Forrest that we can fit into now. (I drove to each of them and checked) Not that we'd want to... the State of California pretty much abandoned them, and the last time I checked (about five years ago) they were in such disrepair that we wouldn't have gone if we could have fit. Hopefully, that's changed.

We're also too long for many of the County parks, but that's not necessarily because of the size of the campsites. In many cases it's the roads going to the campgrounds that limit us. They're just too twisty for us to make the turns. They ARE posted as such, with length limitations, so it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. We still fit in our favorite County campground, so we're happy with that.

Having said that, we still love our 43 foot coach. It just takes a bit more planning when you go somewhere.

Kev

 

[Ro and Joe]

We love our 43'9" long and 13' tall rig for our Full Timing purposes. We rarely stay at State Park Campgrounds because the wooded sites of those especially in the east blocks our satellite TV dish. In the fall, those wooded sites also trash the roof and slide awnings with leaves. Often the tree branches aren't trimmed back and will scratch up the rig. Tried and done that and quit trying it anymore. Now when reserving sites, I request treeless ones. I like watching sports especially college and pro football.
During my younger years I've done enough backpack and tent camping with the kids and friends.

 

[NY_Dutch]

We favor state and national park campgrounds, and have yet to arrive at a site that our 34' Class A couldn't access. We do pay attention to the stated lengths when reserving, although there a few sites that we know from experience we can easily fit in despite being listed as shorter. For satellite TV reception, we use a portable dish that we can locate where needed, so we never base a site choice on the sky view.