Are there really parks that do not allow rigs over 10 years old? Also, do the national parks not allow rigs longer than 30'? I have heard these stories but surely if there are length limits they are there because of the physical size of the sites. Not all parks can keep out old long rigs, can they?? Tell me it isn't so.

Don

There are parks (very few) with the 10yo rule, but they don't actually enforce it. I believe it's there so they can keep out old clunkers in crappy shape. But to know for sure you'd just need to contact the park and ask. Same goes for the 30' rule. Almost all state/national parks are probably modernized enough by now to have room for larger rigs. I've stayed in multiple IL state parks with my 35' Class A with no problems.

In Florida State Parks each site has a length restriction, based on the size of the site. It's posted with the other info when you go to the reservation site.
I don't believe any state or federal park would have a 10 year old rule but I know that some privately owned parks in Michigan, [at least one in the Hardy Dam area], has this rule and they do inforce it. Never been a concern of mine as I wouldn't stay at any place with such a rule anyway.

Just got home yesterday from a three thousand mile, five week long jaunt to the gulf coast. We stayed in three Georgia and one Alabama State Park and all accommodated the largest rvs.
... Little Ocmulgee, Georgia Vets and Gordonia in Georgia.
... Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores Alabama.
Will reccommend all of them even if you have a 40' Barth and especially if you like to golf too!
Don and Patty

Tom and I have travelled extensively over the years, and we have run into a couple of parks with the 10 year rule, not a place we would have stayed anyway, we gravitate towards State parks, and the Army Corps of Engineers parks. I also believe that the rule is designed for the "old clunkers", not for something such as a well maintained and clean motorhome. It has been our experience that parks who have a 30' limit, do so for a reason, the sites are simply not large enough, nor the roads to accommodate a larger RV. These places are really few and far between, but, they do exist.

Thanks to all,

I would think the 10 YO rule is an easy way to "Refuse Service To Anyone". Instead of saying your piece of junk is not wanted, the park owners can simply state their blanket policy of no older vehicles.

Don

It will be interesting to see how many of those private RV parks with the 10 year rule will keep it with the tremendous decline in new RV sales. They may be limiting themselves to a small population.

I must say that limiting "hippie" rigs and party buses is not something I would disagree with. I've been in campgrounds that got less than desirable due to the lack of oversight too!

Corey

Rusty,

We just returned from a 2 month trip down the west coast of Mexico and found that in some parks the noise can get unbearable into the early morning hours. On the weekends the local folks like to go to the beach and camp. They like to party until 3-4 in the morning and play music loud at those hours. Come Monday, all would be quiet again.

The park operators make money from these people and they do not want to alienate them so very little is done in the way of park rule enforcement.

This only happened in a couple of parks out of the many that we visited. Mostly the parks were filled with Canadians who are very quiet, friendly and know about all there is to know about travel in Mexico.

Don

Sorry last post should have been addressed to Corey not Rusty.

Don

quote:

Originally posted by Cantrade:
Also, do the national parks not allow rigs longer than 30'? I have heard these stories but surely if there are length limits they are there because of the physical size of the sites.

Don

There are a lot of 30 foot limit parks. They are usually older parks, built back when RVs were shorter.

It is not just site length, but also the sharpness of the turns in the road and placement of trees as well....... I know of several campgrounds where the roads are more of an obstacle than the site lengths. Some mountain roads are so twisty that they are quite daunting even before you get to the campground, like the wilderness area above Cachuma Lake. Heck, some driveways have RV length limits.

As an example, many of the California state beach parks are 30 ft limits. That is the official rule, but it depends on who is manning the gate that day, whether they are having a bad hair day and what sites are open. Some places actually have marks on the road at the entry booth to check your length, but that is rare. Our Barth is actually 30 1/2 feet, and I had to work hard to convince the gate person in on at least one occasion. I have also been let in to parks with shorter limits, just warned to be careful on the turns, and to stay out of a certain loop that was too tight. In some parks, the newer sites are longer, but more crowded together and in the less desirable settings. The first sites laid out, quite a while back, were the best chosen. An example is El Capitan State Beach. The sites close to the ocean are short and farther apart and nestled in the trees. The newer, longer sites are up next to the freeway. Some of the older sites at many parks are too short for our 30 ft rig, too.

HERE is a California site that has length figures. A couple are limited to 18 ft, which would rule out some sedans. Perhaps the states you plan on visiting have similar sites.

Another way to go would be to to look through a Woodall's or Trailer Life guide and check the places you might want to go, one by one. AAA camping maps also have length information. I know the Auto Club of Southern California map has all the length limits in a column, like the CA site above, so it is easy to pick a place by length. The shorter length limits are the smaller, more out of the way places, as a rule.

Our previous MH was 27 ft, and before that, several all the way down to 19 ft. Our experiences and preferences led us to have a 30 ft limit on our Barth. But we are rustic dry campers, and prefer to be as far into the woods as possible, and others may have different preferences.

We just came back from a stay at Red Rock Canyon st park, which has a 30 ft limit. Some of the sites would have accommodated a longer coach, but we didn't see any there. Only short ones. It seems that the parks with no cell phone or internet or local TV reception are not heavily populated. We had to drive to flat land to get the cell phone to even try to work.