State Park says 30? Max. You show up with a 27? trailer on game day.

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FBO Cookie Monster

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But of course, a 27? trailer is really 31? ( or more/ less).

Do parks get testy about this?

The place I love the most in this world has 3 state parks on the lake. We always rented a house, but that option is gone, and I want a trailer for the park for a couple weeks. The fifth wheel is a 27.5, but measures 31. Will it be an issue? Should I get a 24.5 which is actually 29?

Thanks
 
Depends on how tight the sites are. Most account for a car. Maybe park car sideways or off the lot.  ;D

Many parks with tight sites provide overflow parking.
 
As a host........we see that all the time. Lots of the times......when it says 30'........that means rv and tow vehicle.....not just the rv. Then the camper get mad when they have to park the tow vehicle in extra vehicle parking. Best thing to do is check with the park.
 
I would say, you'll be fine,  But it concerns you, so I definitely would call (anonymously of course)

There is no standard.  In our state parks, I'd never get a site.  I have a 20' TT. My Yuxon XL is 22'.  I select 25' sites all the time (after I google maps zoom of course).  I have never had any issues, sometimes site is a tad short, and I just stick Yukon to the side of TT.
 
I have one 24' tent only site I fit on with room for my car both in front and in back of the 37'7" class A with 3 slides.. But I'd not count on that

You show up with a near max length trailer on game day.. Plan on using the parking lot.
 
There is no standard for what a park means when it gives a max length, nor is it sure that anybody will actually enforce it.  Often its just a guideline, advising that rigs over a certain size may have difficulty with access roads or the sites themselves.


Typically, though, the size refers to overall length, not the "floor plan length".  That's because they don't bother to distinguish between motorhomes , travel trailers and 5W, all of which have different proportions for overall vs interior lengths.    I would assume that "30 ft" means just that: you have 30 ft to work with and have to manage to fit within a 30 ft space.  Call the park and ask for details about the length guideline/restriction.
 
One storm damaged rebuilt SC state park gave us a chart with the actual measured length of the sites for future reference. A year later ReserveAmerica still had the old site lengths, and we had to "lie" on the reservation site to get the very roomy site that we wanted.
 
FBO Cookie Monster said:
But of course, a 27? trailer is really 31? ( or more/ less).

Do parks get testy about this?

The place I love the most in this world has 3 state parks on the lake. We always rented a house, but that option is gone, and I want a trailer for the park for a couple weeks. The fifth wheel is a 27.5, but measures 31. Will it be an issue? Should I get a 24.5 which is actually 29?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Many times you can view the campsites with the satellite view on Google Earth, Google maps or Bing Maps to get good idea of how long the campsites are.

Some campgrounds and RV parks are real picky about the length.  Others give the max length, but don't mind if the rear of your RV hangs out the back of the paved or gravel parking pad.  Some places put big rock or posts to keep the rear from going past the parking pad.  I have used the satellite views to help determine if I will fit.

Call and tell them you are thinking of visiting and are actually 31' long and ask if you will fit.
 
Calling seems so simple.  It is.  The hard part is getting someone to pick up the phone at the other end. 
Add to this the currently screwed up recreation.gov site and it makes finding a site at a park you haven't been to in 50 years a crap shoot.

I tried for about 3 days to call the people at Pinnacles National Park in Calif. to see about a site for last Friday.  The recreation.gov site said they had 23 sites that would take my rig, but with no map available I had no way to pick one that would work best for me.  There was also a note mentioning that the dump station was closed and gave a couple of phone numbers to call for information.  Of course, nobody bothered to answer those phones any of the 8 times I tried to call.

Ended up wasting the trip to the Pinnacles and staying at a rest area a little further toward our destination.
 
Old_Crow said:
Calling seems so simple.  It is.  The hard part is getting someone to pick up the phone at the other end. 
Add to this the currently screwed up recreation.gov site and it makes finding a site at a park you haven't been to in 50 years a crap shoot.

I tried for about 3 days to call the people at Pinnacles National Park in Calif. to see about a site for last Friday.  The recreation.gov site said they had 23 sites that would take my rig, but with no map available I had no way to pick one that would work best for me.  There was also a note mentioning that the dump station was closed and gave a couple of phone numbers to call for information.  Of course, nobody bothered to answer those phones any of the 8 times I tried to call.

Ended up wasting the trip to the Pinnacles and staying at a rest area a little further toward our destination.
Click to expand...

Those answering the phone are usually volunteers and there is a flux in volunteers right now as people move around for the winter.
With 23 sites available why not show up and pick one?

Why was the trip wasted?
also I have had no problem with recreation.gov site what is going on with it?
 
My biggest complaint is that as yet, they have no maps of the campsites or pictures of the sites up yet.  Hard to make a reservation at a campground you aren't familiar with without maps and photos.
I do know that in the case of the parks managed by Recreation Resource Management, they(the new company)lost all the campsite pictures in all 150+ campgrounds when they changed the web site.  When we left our host job in Nov., RRM had someone going around to take new pictures of all the campsites.  Can't imagine that will be a quick process.
 
Is anyone available to show up on chat and explain all of this?  Wednesday night Fireside Chat starts in about 1 1/ 2 hours.
 
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