Who designs campgrounds?

[Veebyes]

Surely it cannot be CG users. Sorry about the rant, sometimes a bunch of little things build up & hit a nerve.

We are traveling RVers, not weekend warriors using the same CG weekend after weekend, so we never get to know any CGs real well.

The biggest complaint is poor signage to find the CG. We are currently at a CG, a large one that is unseen from the highway, that does not even have a sign at the intersection letting one know that it is here. From one direction there is a sign saying that you have PASSED it & turn around. From the other direction there is a sign almost a half mile from the intersection saying to make the next left.

The last CG we were at had a nice paved pad for the RV, however the ground surrounding the pad was so low a high step box was needed to get to the lowest RV step. This is common. Why does the RV get the nice pad & we have to step off into dirt? Seems like it should be the other way. Went to the dump & who was the rocket scientist who set this one up? Dump hole is far from RV side & the cover hinges TOWARDS the RV, not away from it.

Still on dump locations, who thinks a good location for the dump is above ground & way at the back of the site pad when most RVs have their discharges near the middle?

We love a fire & the variety of fire rings never cease to amaze but why do so many NOT have any vent holes so that air can get in & actually allow the fire to burn cleanly? Have the designers of these things never lit a fire?

Here endeth the rant, for now.

[colliehauler]

2oldman wrote:

colliehauler wrote:
In the new reg's the ground has to be at the top.

That's something that's hard to understand.

The reason this is done is if something metal falls between the plug and receptacle the first thing it hits is the ground instead of shorting out.

[Veebyes]

Hope y'all read my comment praising a CG.

[bukhrn]

Veebyes wrote:
Surely it cannot be CG users. Sorry about the rant, sometimes a bunch of little things build up & hit a nerve.

We are traveling RVers, not weekend warriors using the same CG weekend after weekend, so we never get to know any CGs real well.

The biggest complaint is poor signage to find the CG. We are currently at a CG, a large one that is unseen from the highway, that does not even have a sign at the intersection letting one know that it is here. From one direction there is a sign saying that you have PASSED it & turn around. From the other direction there is a sign almost a half mile from the intersection saying to make the next left.

The last CG we were at had a nice paved pad for the RV, however the ground surrounding the pad was so low a high step box was needed to get to the lowest RV step. This is common. Why does the RV get the nice pad & we have to step off into dirt? Seems like it should be the other way. Went to the dump & who was the rocket scientist who set this one up? Dump hole is far from RV side & the cover hinges TOWARDS the RV, not away from it.

Still on dump locations, who thinks a good location for the dump is above ground & way at the back of the site pad when most RVs have their discharges near the middle?

We love a fire & the variety of fire rings never cease to amaze but why do so many NOT have any vent holes so that air can get in & actually allow the fire to burn cleanly? Have the designers of these things never lit a fire?

Here endeth the rant, for now.

Yah, nice try, you may have ended, but you've only begun what will probably be a very long thread. :B

[FunnyCamper]

Veebyes wrote:
Surely it cannot be CG users. Sorry about the rant, sometimes a bunch of little things build up & hit a nerve.

We are traveling RVers, not weekend warriors using the same CG weekend after weekend, so we never get to know any CGs real well.

Here endeth the rant, for now.

I guess ya missed the whole meaning behind this thread. a rant to get it out and off the nerves.

it is best to read the OPs intent on the thread before ya jump to a conclusion.

It was a rant with a question in it about design. No one will ever love every cg design. like asking what rvs are best and what trucks are best to pull them with 🙂 and finding tons of faults with cgs can happen as many have posted. gets tiresome to me anyway.

rockhillmanor wrote:
Geeze get over it.

They are NOT rants. It's discussing what campers have found in their travels.

:C

How about reading the OPs own words in his post.

[rockhillmanor]

I gotta stop reading these rants. honestly they take the fun out of rving for me. so much negative. I have to avoid too much negative, it gets on my nerves. I know you are letting off steam on a few things that annoyed you. probably made ya feel better just to let it out 🙂

Geeze get over it.

They are NOT rants. It's discussing what campers have found in their travels.

This is a discussion 'forum'. Liken to sitting around a campfire and talking about our travels, what was a good experience and what wasn't. News flash is it isn't a perfect world out there no matter what you do! :C

[FunnyCamper]

rr2254545 wrote:
Geez you need to get a hobby and not think up things to complain about, I have been in lots of campgrouns over the last few years and its all good we are away for home having the time of our lives.

X2!!

OP, I know you found faults, but geez we all know the rants get old. I go and have a fun time and think for 'only a nano second' about the few little faults a cg might have and then I concentrate on family fun and more fun 🙂

I gotta stop reading these rants. honestly they take the fun out of rving for me. so much negative. I have to avoid too much negative, it gets on my nerves. I know you are letting off steam on a few things that annoyed you. probably made ya feel better just to let it out 🙂

[Veebyes]

Then there are a few CGs which have gotten it very close to just right.

We arrived at such as an example yesterday, The RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads, Roanoke Rapids, NC.

This one is quite new, looks like it caters to transients on I95 but is far enough from the highway so that it is barely heard. Yeah, it is carpark styled layout, almost 100% pull through, but most sites are separated by a growing hedge of sorts. You are not looking at the next guys sewer. The picnic table sits on a concrete pad & the surrounding grass is thick. No grass killing mats permitted. Some site have a covered pergolla. Neat! An area is reserved for the quick overnighters so as not to disturb others with early departures.

All sites look long enough for a 40' MOHO & toad. Our 55' length fits no problem.

I guess the presence of a pool & a playground qualities it as a 'resort'.

Oh yeah, the prices are decent too. Nice to find these gems every once in awhile.

[westernrvparkow]

mdcamping wrote:
I know of a few campgrounds around where I live...some of which I like and some I don't. What amazes me is what LITTLE cost they need to spend to resolve some of these simple problems for which they keep getting BURIED in the reviews... one example is one of my favorite campgrounds where they don't allow your pet off site. owner refuses to change his pet policy and is paying for it in loss of business....

Mike

How do you know he is losing business? Maybe for every person who doesn't like the policy and chooses to stay elsewhere, there are two people who choose the park precisely because of the policy. Just because it might not be ideal for you, it might work for the park.
As for hookups, within the last 10 posts there was a guy who said he needed to be within 6 feet of the sewer connection to use his system and a guy who said he needed to be a minimum of 10 feet away. Hard to meet the needs of both. There is little rhyme or reason to the placement of connections on RVs. Rigs have sewer, water and power connections at the middle, in the far rear and every place in between. A long fifth wheel with rear connections is going to have those connections a long way away from the connections of a motorhome towing an enclosed car hauler when both are parked in the same site.
Other posts have complained about the placement of trees. Often, the trees pre-date the park. That leaves the option of either engineering the park around the trees and sometimes having a less than ideal pathway to enter or leave the site, or cutting down the trees and having a barren park. Again, it is an issue of compromise.

[EPenney]

At the Glory Hole Recreation area of New Melones Reservoir in Calif., the Fed Bureau of Reclamation has upgraded a number of camp sites to HC accessible with nice flat graveled areas to the side and rear of the asphalt RV parking pads. At several of the back-in sites the designers of the site HC upgrades got it backwards when placing the level graveled areas. The photo below illustrates that. The grade on the door side drops away so much that I had to go into Angels Camp and pickup lumber to build a small platform to assist my DW when entering and exiting the 5er. DW has MS and uses a cane, but this site layout and several other HC sites would be useless if she needed a wheelchair for outdoor activities.

What were the designers thinking?

[mdcamping]

I know of a few campgrounds around where I live...some of which I like and some I don't. What amazes me is what LITTLE cost they need to spend to resolve some of these simple problems for which they keep getting BURIED in the reviews... one example is one of my favorite campgrounds where they don't allow your pet off site. owner refuses to change his pet policy and is paying for it in loss of business....

Mike

[atreis]

Campground design is actually something I find interesting. Even here in Indiana there's a lot of variation. For instance, Brown County SP is very pooly designed (IMO) - too many small sites with little privacy, nearly all sights are on a single long entrance road, leading to a lot of traffic going by. On the other hand, one of my favorite parks is Whitewater Memorial SP - very well designed loops with a wide variety in types of sites to suit all needs, and no loop with too many.

[valhalla360]

I think the biggest issue is most folks only build ONE campground in thier lifetime, so they can't learn from thier mistakes.

Part of my job is to do studies for new developements (haven't done a campground), the developers who have never developed anything are typically shocked at the cost of design and construction. Then they want to cut corners at every step. We walk away from most of these jobs. When we do wind up doing them, they usually turn into a cluster where we are constantly warning the client about their mistakes and we don't want to be responsible when it goes bad. It still often ends in bad feelings.

We frequently see campgrounds where I can guarantee the owner/developer got the cost estimate and decided he didn't need no experts, pulled out his tractor and started digging.

[wbwood]

rockhillmanor wrote:

Oaklevel wrote:
You must not have been camping long as older campers for the most part had the dump hookups at the rear. Also regulations have changed in many areas & now require a positive hookup such as a screw on connector for dumping not just the hose into a pipe hole at ground level so some campgrounds are now using a flip cover & the threaded collar is above ground level to comply....

As far as dumping goes, IMHO THIS takes care of ALL the problems you will encounter.

I stayed at a CG where the OWNER had all the sewer pipes raised 8 inches ABOVE the ground.

His reasoning? He was sick and tired of replacing sewer caps and broken sewer pipes from everyone running them over. :R

There is NO way the sewage from my stinky slinky was going to empty up and over 8+ inches and of course the opening was not even close to my MH.

The plan was to stay at this CG for a month for business and after just one dump of lifting a filled cheap sewer hose up and trying to get it emptied, I went out and bought this.






Up, over, and around anything that's in your way to reach the holy grail of the dump station. :B

Rhino Sewer Kit - everything you need to hook up and it's collapsible and RIGID. To this date the best thing I bought for the MH.

Side Winder - folds up nicely for storage and will get your sewer hose anywhere it needs to be.

I have a sidewinder as well as well as an aluminimum one. They work great depending on how far away your dump valve is to theirs and also depending on low your dump valve is. Our TT sat up high and was much better for using the sidewinder than our class c. The Class C sits a lot lower. I have to be at least 10' away from the parks dump hole in order for it to work. But then it's a matter of down, then up and the ngradually down. I don't think i've been able to use it wit hteh Class C since we've had it.

[2oldman]

colliehauler wrote:
In the new reg's the ground has to be at the top.

That's something that's hard to understand.