Is 34'-7" Too Long for Parks?

[Sport45]

My wife and I are starting to look at trailers to get into RV’ing. Her folks had a TT and they camped every summer and many of the longer school breaks when she was growing up. They continued the tradition with grandkids until my kids were almost adults.

Anyhow, my in-laws have passed now, and the wife and I are looking to start trailering again and hope to be accompanied often by our boys and their future families.

To this end we have started going to RV shows and searching manufacturer and dealer sites to see what's available. The actual purchase is probably a couple years out, but I don't think it hurts to start early. We may buy sooner if something really tickles our fancy,

All that said, the question I have is this: If we get a 5th wheel with an overall length of 34.58 feet will we have a lot of trouble getting into State and National Parks to camp? We would really like to go back to Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite, and all the other great places my In-Laws treated us to. Just don't want to buy too much trailer and find out we can't get in to the many places we want to camp.

They pulled, IIRC, a ~27' Coachmen TT with a Suburban and were able to get in every place we went. We'd like to be able to sleep at least 7 and I'll be pulling it with a one-ton SRW crew cab pickup which I'll probably buy about the same time as the trailer. Since my wife's sister is joining us in retirement one model that caught our eye is the Keystone 292FWBHS. It has what amounts to a rear in-law suite and plenty of available sleeping spaces.

Sprinter 292FWBHS

We're open to suggestions if you know of other trailers we should be looking at that fit the bill as well. Any insight is appreciated!

[greende]

eHoefler wrote:
We have a 40'2" fifth wheel, if you do a little planning ahead, you won't have any issues, we haven't, and state or federal parks are 90% of our stays. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, and just wing it, you will have difficulty finding the bigger sites.

Agreed. We have a 35' FW and do not have problems at New York State Parks but we plan ahead. We are usually able to book a site listed at 30' and are able to fit the length of the trailer. The only problems we have had is backing into the spot because of trees & other obstructions. Once, we had to go around the loop backwards to miss a tree. These are rare, however. As stated above, anything north of 35' may take some planning.

[eHoefler]

We have a 40'2" fifth wheel, if you do a little planning ahead, you won't have any issues, we haven't, and state or federal parks are 90% of our stays. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, and just wing it, you will have difficulty finding the bigger sites.

[camp-n-family]

a 35' fiver isn't much longer overall than a 27' TT, I don't think you'll notice much difference.

[naturist]

I'm no expert, but I do know that any rig you buy will constrain where you can take it. My TT is only 21 feet, and there have been private as well as public parks that had sites too small for me. It has never kept me out of a park entirely, just limited the sites available. I also note that there are highways with length limitations: at Glacier NP and down the Pacific Coast Highway in certain spots there are limitations in the 24-26 foot range. I also know that the road into Zion NP from the east has a height limitation that precludes Class A and most 5th wheels. When we were making reservations at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone, they mentioned that their sites were generally on the short side, and demand was high for the biggest sites available.

This should not be construed as saying that you should avoid any large rig, only that whatever you buy will require you to pay attention to the details when choosing a route and destination.

[waltbennett]

Our model Montana is over 37' and we've spent several days at the oldest state park in the country, Westmorland in VA, with no problem at all. We've also camped at several other older parks & only had to worry about getting around trees here and there. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to find several places we couldn't get into. If the places you want to go to don't have the info you need on their web sites, just call them up and ask. I'll bet a lot will have at least a few spots that would work for you. Also don't forget to ask about width with slides out.