Jammer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Posts
- 1,491
Many people (and many forum members) believe that street camping in any form is a bad idea on safety, public relations, legal compliance, and practical grounds. I understand this point of view and share it to a large degree.
I would define "street camping" as overnight parking somewhere other than a campground or remote area (Since there are a dozen other threads devoted to Wal-mart, Sam's Club, and other retailers that tacitly encourage camping in their parking lots, we'll leave those places out of this discussion, though).
It is my view that the Class B is most suited to such activities. Indeed, much of the appeal of the VW Transporter (with or without the Westfalia conversion) to those in the counterculture movement of the 1960s and early 1970s was its potential utility as an ersatz hotel room, providing privacy and basic needs while still blending in with other parked cars well enough to avoid attracting undue attention.
I had an old friend who for many years would go out and whoop it up at the bars on weekends driving his Lesharo, and spend the night in the bar parking lot if he had a few too many.
I had another friend who drive a truck camper to work fairly routinely. Since he lived quite some distance away, he would spend the night in the parking lot at work (in a suburban office/industrial park) under some circumstances -- icy roads or when he had to work late.
Both these people operated in a sort of gray area: They didn't exactly have official permission of any kind, but people knew who they were and what they were up to and more or less tolerated it (There are various problems places have with formally granting permission -- usually enough HR, legal, and finance people get involved that the paranoia approaches clinically significant levels).
People who do this sort of thing are not, on the whole, on vacation (though I suppose there are exceptions). In general they have circumstances that require them to be in an area where campgrounds with amenities are unavailable within a reasonable distance, and they prefer their RV to a hotel.
I'd encourage you all to share your comments or (especially) experiences with this sort of thing.
I would define "street camping" as overnight parking somewhere other than a campground or remote area (Since there are a dozen other threads devoted to Wal-mart, Sam's Club, and other retailers that tacitly encourage camping in their parking lots, we'll leave those places out of this discussion, though).
It is my view that the Class B is most suited to such activities. Indeed, much of the appeal of the VW Transporter (with or without the Westfalia conversion) to those in the counterculture movement of the 1960s and early 1970s was its potential utility as an ersatz hotel room, providing privacy and basic needs while still blending in with other parked cars well enough to avoid attracting undue attention.
I had an old friend who for many years would go out and whoop it up at the bars on weekends driving his Lesharo, and spend the night in the bar parking lot if he had a few too many.
I had another friend who drive a truck camper to work fairly routinely. Since he lived quite some distance away, he would spend the night in the parking lot at work (in a suburban office/industrial park) under some circumstances -- icy roads or when he had to work late.
Both these people operated in a sort of gray area: They didn't exactly have official permission of any kind, but people knew who they were and what they were up to and more or less tolerated it (There are various problems places have with formally granting permission -- usually enough HR, legal, and finance people get involved that the paranoia approaches clinically significant levels).
People who do this sort of thing are not, on the whole, on vacation (though I suppose there are exceptions). In general they have circumstances that require them to be in an area where campgrounds with amenities are unavailable within a reasonable distance, and they prefer their RV to a hotel.
I'd encourage you all to share your comments or (especially) experiences with this sort of thing.