Campsite issues with longer 5ers?

All great answers. Yes, it depends on where you want to stay, but with planning, you will find a way.
Early on with my 35" TH, I booked a FS site, unseen, that was 40" long (back in). Perfect, I thought. But I could not get in. As soon as I tried to straighten it out, and the front of the truck swung around, there was a tree in the way. I tried about a dozen different approaches.
Now I look for pull thru sites, book as far in advance as possible, and use private campgrounds.

Cheers,

Not only were the SP and NP campgrounds built with small lots they were also only built for Tent Campers in mind... The Blue Ridge Parkway camping spots from Virginia to Tenn is a good example of this...

I was pulling my POPUP trailer around one of the old site roads and came to area where three or four trucks were parked on the side of the camp road just barely giving me room to maneuver around them. All those guys (Hunters with guns) were watching me as I am inching forward and backing up and trying again trying not to swap paint with them and finally got around it all. One of the dudes hollers out at me saying we was rooting for you to get around the tight spot. They certainly didn't want to come out and move their truck for me and with all the guns leaning up against the tree there I wasn't wanting to go over and ask them haha...

If we were RV TRAVELERS and running the big roads the bigger the better I guess... RV CAMPING is most definitely a different story size wise... 20-24 feet would be my maximum length... In our case we love to camp off-road all around the Virginia high country within a couple hundred miles of home base here in Northern Virginia.. We occasionally make a long trip to us down to Myrtle Beach and back up through the Smoky Mtns of NC and TN... The North high country of all of those southern states is perfect for us and our style of camping...

Sure don't ever run into very long motorhome/trailer campers in these parts...

We love waking up in the mornings to a big ole bon-fire going and fish jumping in the creek and enjoying my fresh ground and brewed coffee beans cup of coffee haha...

Roy Ken

We've been full-timing in a 42' TH for 3 years and been In 42 states so far. It's true that your access with your rig to State and National Parks will be limited, as well as to older campgrounds. With that said, we have yet to miss visiting a NP or any area of the country we wanted to visit. We sometimes have to find a private campground in a nearby area, but since most of our touring is on our motorcycle, that's fine with us.

We ALWAYS have a confirmed reservation before pulling into a campground, but may have made it the day before except during peak camping holidays or around high traffic venues. When we call we always specify our length and type of rig, that we have a long bed truck, and emphasize we'll be unloading and loadin our bike. I've also often used Googe Earth to look at a park to make sure trees, turns and layout will be manageable. Not perfect but it helps.

Bottom line is there is little in these United States that you cannot do or see in a big 5ver TH. It just takes a little planning. Have fun!

We have found that the big toyhaulers will only work in a small fraction of the sites at our parks. Automatically, we eliminate all the back in sites from consideration. Our back in sites are some of our best sites since they often back up to natural features such as bluff overlooks, water features etc. We take those out not only because backing those big rigs is often too much of a challenge for the owners, but also because once the rig would be in the site, the hauler area cannot be accessed or used. You have to have 20 plus feet beyond the back of the rig to allow for the ramp and then space to actually remove the toys. That means sites have to be nearly 100 feet in length to accommodate the truck, the rig and the access area. Even then, the toys are going to have to drive across the site to reach the roads which is something we do not allow for obvious reasons.
Then we have to remove many of the pull thru sites since those beasts have to have a huge turning radius, both entering and exiting. We quickly got tired of the damage caused by rigs sweeping across the adjacent sites while coming or going. Even if the site is long enough, the big swings required by the triple axle haulers make those sites with tighter turns unusable.
So that leaves us with probably 15 percent or so of our sites fully accessible for toy haulers. Early reservations would be the key to getting those sites.

Like mentioned it depends on where you wish to stay. We've only been a couple campground/RV parks that didn't have anything for our 38' toyhauler, but we usually check ahead of time so we aren't disappointed. Most private campgrounds will be able to squeeze you in if they aren't already occupied. Longer rigs do limit your options, you just have to decide if it's worth it.

We camp mainly in SP and NP campgrounds - as the prior poster said,often they were built before the latest generation of BIG campers. We've seen several times where the campsite itself might have been long enough, but the narrow twisty roads in the campground caused lots of backing up and cursing. We love our 20' trailer!

What kinds of camp grounds? NF campgrounds in many parts of the country were build years ago when a large RV was 25 feet. In those cases, you will be SOL. Newer private parks generally have been built to accomodate the monster RVs people today choose.