Thousand Trails & Big Rigs?

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RVUSA wrote:
The deal with encore is that encore owns TT's.

Interesting about pie shaped sites. Where was that at?

On the gulf coast side, 2 miles north of Nokomis on US 41, then 1 mile east on Laurel to the entrance on the south side of the road. There are some permanent park models on the way in, then some seasonal sites in a traditional checkerboard layout (east/west and north/south roads, then the short term vacationers in the pie shaped area.
Not really their fault, I suppose. The entire property shape is triangular and the pie-shaped sites are in the southernmost point. But no doubt that they could have made the "pie slices" bigger.
What frosted me was advertising cable, but finding out after I checked in, that I had to drive into the heart of Venice, put a deposit down to rent a decoder box and return it to the Venice office when leaving to get my deposit back. Impossible to park on the street in Venice in a 'C', pulling a toad. Heck, its impossible to park my Jeep toad in Venice.

I've only been on the east coast with TT and only about a 1/2-dozen parks or so. For the most part, the places are big rig friendly. There are times where it can be preferable to drive around in just your truck or toad instead of hooked up (Williamsburg, specifically- even had 1 turn that caused me angst at Sea Pines in NJ).

The 50amp vs. 30amp. We've had both- some parks have limited 50amp service (some charge, some don't). Some parks are all 50amp.

The old TT site used to give a breakdown of sites a little more than this new version does. The TT app (if you have a smart phone or tablet) lists it, I think.

We travel in a 37' MH with a toad and we Love the TT membership. We do live here on the West Coast which affords us plenty of near by Resorts/Campgrounds. My membership also includes Encore Resorts at discounted rates and RPI Preferred at 10 bucks a night. I'm currently in an RPI resort on the Colorado River and although its more of a Parking Lot, the River itself and all of this Parks features make it worthwhile. We have been to some smaller TT Parks and have never had an issue finding a spot and have always seen 40 footers, at least, at all of them.

The deal with encore is that encore owns TT's.

Interesting about pie shaped sites. Where was that at?

Just from looking at their map of locations, they have 86 CGs in 32 states. But they appear to be concentrated on the two coasts. They also have some sort of deal with Encore Resorts. I stayed in one of those in Florida twice. My first and last time. Strangest setup I've ever seen. Pie slice shaped back in spaces gathered in circles. About half the units looked like they would never move again. But at least it was expensive.
TT seems to cater to full timers. If I was one, I'd want to try a bite of several things on the menu before I ordered a full dinner. :)

Don't count on 50 amp being available, they are upgrading slowly but surely but very expensive so being stretched out over time.

We have a 36' motorhome with dolly and toad and have not had a problem, some parks you drive around in carefully and some site you may have to be careful with how you position in spot for your slides. We see many 40-45' rigs around us in most places. Oakzanita near San Diego maybe an exception as it is a very small park and only few spots can hold larger rigs. Don't remember any being small when we were in OR last spring.

One you might try is a zone pass, all you will be out is the annual dues and if you don't like it/doesn't work for you then you tell them not to renew.

Keep in mind the 50 amp vs. 30 amp is pretty common issue through out the membership campgrounds. They can not raise the spot fees to recover the investment like public campgrounds so are much slower to do the upgrade.

One thing I believe is pushing the upgrades is the old infrastructure is having more and more issues and it would be foolish to redo the power systems and stay at 30 amp max. Now some places may because the power company can not supply and more power to the location.

I have been a TT Member for over 34 years and towed a 40 ft 5th w for a year or so and never went to a TT Park where I could not get a site. As far as 50 amp I seldom used as I prefer 30 amp as a lot of the Parks charge $5.00 a night extra. We spend several summer months along the Cal, Oregon, Wash Coast and seldom need A/C

The only folks I know with TT memberships drive either 40' MH or pull 35-40' 5ers. All 50 Amp - never heard anyone complain.

However, I see some reviews of some of the older parks in the Pacific NW area complain about lack of 50Amp and some small sites.

There are definitely a few really small TT campgrounds as opposed to the 200-300 sites of most of them.

To me TT is a pretty straight forward math decision. Add up your number of nights you expect to use their facilities per year - subtract 10% / divide by the costs of membership.

If you are down below $20 per night - I'd say it's worth it.

I did look at their website, butr the descriptions are very general: swimming pool, laundry, mini golf etc. No specifics on electricity, full hookups or length of sites available in a campground. I'm hoping for more detail. I did check RV park reviews. Only some of the TT campgrounds are rated there. I'm just trying to figure out if TT makes sense for us as I evaluated the various membership campgrounds before we start to fulltime. Thanks.