Is my coach too big?

How well does your rig do without 50 amp shore power? The good news is that you rarely need to use air conditioning up here. The bad news is that 50 amp service is not that common up here. I remember a few years ago reading about someone with a large rig on a caravan trip who was furious that the caravan's itinerary only included sites with 30 amp hookups.

We stayed in a couple of provincial CG's last summer in Jasper Natl Park. At one particular park we were told that their largest sites only accommodate up to 36'. Since I have experienced that in the past, I asked if I could ride my bicycle around the CG and see if there was something I could fit our 40 footer into. They said sure, as long as I realized that the motorhome would have to be completely off the road and the tires had to be on the paved pad.

I rode around and found two sites that I could easily fit our 40' into because the rear end was able to overhang the back of the site and still keep front and rear tires on the 36' paved pad. In fact, there was room enough to park a car in front of the RV, although I wasn't towing anything at the time.

My point is, even though CG's have a certain length of pad, it is worth visually checking to see if a larger rig can fit into the sites and not be blocking the access road or parked on surrounding vegetation(off the paved pad). No harm in asking if you can look at their sites.

You'll miss out on fitting in some places, and some places only have a few spots you'll fit in, so if they're full you won't be able to camp there. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't worry about it. Reservations will be your friend.

William B wrote:
We had no problem all last summer in our 45' rig traveling with a family member in her 42' rig. Maybe a little issue at a particular campground on a particular day, but nothing we couldn't work around. Go for it!

I would guess that's the best answer right there. As a caution, probably nothing you aren't aware of, there are quite a few towns/cities in Alaska where it won't be overly fun to drive a 40+ foot rig just through the streets, etc. Again, nothing that can't be tolerated /worked around, but be aware of it.

The key is to scope out parks before you arrive. We don't have a 42 footer but we still look for parks with good access. We use www.woodalls.com and they have a "big rig" search function. Once we decide on a couple of options, we look them up on www.rvparkreviews.com to choose. I look at their website to see what they say about their sites (pull thus etc) Then I look up the address on google maps earth view and zoom to see the entry and access. Many sites like www.recreation.gov and www.reserveamerica.com show the sites and lengths. We have been all over the US and into Canada (not Alaska in our current DP) and have never had a problem finding sites. We did rent a Class C in Alaska and found many parks that had sites that could easily fit a 42 footer. We also used Milepost for the Alaska trip.

explorenorth wrote:
You've apparently put a lot of miles on the rig over the past few years, so I don't really understand the reason for the question, though - you obviously know the answer.

How did you determine such a thing? And how does this post move this conversation forward? And if they knew the answer then why ask it here?

A lot of assumptions on your part and I for one am wondering what the purpose was of your post since apparently YOU knew the answers?

Good Grief...

explorenorth wrote:
You've apparently put a lot of miles on the rig over the past few years, so I don't really understand the reason for the question, though - you obviously know the answer.

RUDE!

explorenorth wrote:
You've apparently put a lot of miles on the rig over the past few years, so I don't really understand the reason for the question, though - you obviously know the answer.

We just bought this coach last year, have only driven it about 5k miles. Previous coach was 36 ft.

Our friends brought their 45' to Canada and Alaska last summer with no campground issues. I have to say though their MH was soo covered with dirt, we won't be bringing ours to Alaska.

We had no problem all last summer in our 45' rig traveling with a family member in her 42' rig. Maybe a little issue at a particular campground on a particular day, but nothing we couldn't work around. Go for it!