Ideal RV space size for new park?

F5Park wrote:
great input, thank you.
My location is not a destination location. We are too far from I-5 to jump off and stay the night. The other parks in the area cater to more longer term RVs/5th wheels. I see the need for more longer term folks with the option for
less than 5 day campers. I am planning for at a minimum, 50/30/110 power, level spots, maybe 30'x60' with back-in parking around the perimeter and pull-through in the middle. trying to limit 10 sites/acre. pet space, small play area, future to include bathroom, shower area. picnic table per site, fire rings not allowed at this time.
laundry and large grocery store less 2 miles away.
river access is less 2 miles away.

10 sites per acre will be about 4300sft per site. 30x60 is about 1800sft...bump it up to say 2150sft to allow for the road and you could fit 20 sites per acre. Of course, you would lose some space to the office/bathhouse/play area/etc...so maybe rough estimate 15 sites per acre. But really, you need sit down and do some scale drawings based on your actual site.

30x60 is pretty reasonable.
- 60ft will allow a 40ft 5th wheel with 20ft pickup parked in front or a 45ft MH with a 15ft car...so that's pretty reasonable even for larger RVs.
- 30ft width...8.5ft on road width and if they have 3.5ft slides on both sides, that's 15.5ft max width out of the 30ft allowing for a little open space (most RVs will be narrower).

Of course, you don't have to keep all the sites the exact same size. I wouldn't go much shorter than 45ft unless you are looking to market to small campers but that may open up the ability to add more sites without making them feel cramped.

Also, if you went say 40ft wide, you could shorten the sites up by assuming the truck/toad park adjacent rather than in front of the main RV.

You didn't mention, is the site level? Are there trees, boulders or other obstacles that can't be removed? Is the site a nice rectangular area or is it odd shaped? That can result in a higher percentage of the site eaten up by roads.

Having some pull thru sites are nice if you expect high turn over but for longer term, it's less critical. Do consider angling the sites rather than at a 90 degree. It does eat up a little space for the site itself but can allow for narrower roads and since paving is expensive, a 12ft wide vs 16ft wide road is a big savings. This does usually assume a one way road system.

Ideally, you would hire a professional to layout the site but if you want a rough feel, google "truck turning templates (a 45ft bus is a good comparable to a big MH and A WB-40 semi is roughly comparable to a 5th wheel but doesn't have the same rear overhang) This allows you to layout how customers would enter and exit the sites and make sure they can make all the turns while staying on the road and where you can't have trees or other obstacles. A professional will have them electronically and can modify the vehicle layout to create a sample 5th wheel.

Another idea is to hop on Google Earth and start looking at RV parks. With Google Earth, you can measure dimensions and it's usually good to the nearest foot if you zoom in. This will give you an idea of potential layouts and by cross checking against pictures, you can get a feel for how spacious those layouts feel. If they are nearby, swing by and drive thru looking for damaged trees or ruts where RVs ran off the pavement. This will give you a good feel for what is reasonable.