Rant about fulltimers

[johnhicks]

Well..maybe...

Once again today while perusing an RV Park Review (you know where) I came upon the statement praising the park for not allowing fulltimers "with all their junk and noise."

As I've been plotting our travels for the summer I've often read reviews denigrating the park for having fulltime/longtime campers, apparently as opposed to casual daily campers, and equating them to the Squatleys etc.

Where do they get off???

[DianneOK]

Moderator note. This one has run it's course.

Closed

[larry_barnhart]

NC Hauler wrote:

yillb wrote:
I'm one of the guys that write those reviews from time to time. Full timers generally means people living in an RV in one spot, that's there home. They are very rude, have golf carts our the Ying yang, ND have buildings often attached to there campers.i have been to some where rigs haven't moved in 10 or 20 years. Maintenance on the trailer itself is often masked by new ports or decks added on. They have there own rules and don't care much for us weekend people. Everyone I camp with hates them equally as much as I do.

You did an awfully lot of generalization on a lot of people. We are fulltiming and none of what you say is true about us, nor will it be... and in the last 10 months have met more like us than what you have bunched in as the norm.. A bit ugly, bias and sad. Many take great pride in their land, their camps/campsites and how they look.. We've been camping solid since 1975 and have met MANY MORE FRIENDLY people than those you've run into. I've seen sites like you speak of, but it's rare in our travels. maybe all your run ins have been locally where yo camp... we'll try to stay away from them.. just don't put all of us in the class of fulltimers you seem to be around.

Jim

My experience is both of your guys are correct. Some full timers roam the country because this is their dream. Perfect for them I feel so on the other side we have seen full timers that need to live in a less expensive style and of course they collect stuff.

chevman

[NC_Hauler]

Lantley wrote:
I think we need to define the definition of full timing. A full timer in my book Bis NOT a resident at any CG. but is one who has a working RV that travels the country.

Agree, but we also plan to be at our property in WV and travel from there, then late fall and winter in TX, and travel from there.

Jim

[NC_Hauler]

yillb wrote:
I'm one of the guys that write those reviews from time to time. Full timers generally means people living in an RV in one spot, that's there home. They are very rude, have golf carts our the Ying yang, ND have buildings often attached to there campers.i have been to some where rigs haven't moved in 10 or 20 years. Maintenance on the trailer itself is often masked by new ports or decks added on. They have there own rules and don't care much for us weekend people. Everyone I camp with hates them equally as much as I do.

You did an awfully lot of generalization on a lot of people. We are fulltiming and none of what you say is true about us, nor will it be... and in the last 10 months have met more like us than what you have bunched in as the norm.. A bit ugly, bias and sad. Many take great pride in their land, their camps/campsites and how they look.. We've been camping solid since 1975 and have met MANY MORE FRIENDLY people than those you've run into. I've seen sites like you speak of, but it's rare in our travels. maybe all your run ins have been locally where yo camp... we'll try to stay away from them.. just don't put all of us in the class of fulltimers you seem to be around.

Jim

[Lantley]

I think we need to define the definition of full timing. A full timer in my book Bis NOT a resident at any CG. but is one who has a working RV that travels the country.

[JimK-NY]

I was a full timer for 2 years. For almost all of that time I was traveling and rarely spent more than a week at one site. Most of my travels were in national parks and forests.

I did visit relatives a couple of times and stayed in urban area RV parks. There I saw a different world. Most of the residents had sad stories, no money and were just trying to get by. Some of the RVs had not moved in years. Many were in sad shape. Some even covered with moss of dirt.

I also spent a night at slab city which is a location quite a few people choose when trying to get by with very little money. There is no police, no electricity, no water and even worse, no trash or garbage service. Some of the residents have lived there for decades.

Full time RVers cover a wide spectrum from the truly down and out to those in million dollar rigs.

[yillb]

I'm one of the guys that write those reviews from time to time. Full timers generally means people living in an RV in one spot, that's there home. They are very rude, have golf carts our the Ying yang, ND have buildings often attached to there campers.i have been to some where rigs haven't moved in 10 or 20 years. Maintenance on the trailer itself is often masked by new ports or decks added on. They have there own rules and don't care much for us weekend people. Everyone I camp with hates them equally as much as I do.

[Expyinflight]

My ex and I full timed for 8 years....work related. We stayed in RV parks in several different states. Sometimes weeks, sometimes months. Even for almost a year at a time....twice. We saw it all. Overnighters, weekenders, short term vacation folks discovering the area, long term folks working jobs of various types, and some permanent residents also. Tried to be friendly, respectful, minded our own business, kept our spot and our rig clean and neat. We also met a lot of fun, nice, friendly, interesting people. I still keep in touch with a few.
I guess we were lucky. Had very few negative experiences.

[NC_Hauler]

We started full timing this past August. We own property in TX and WVa. Winter in TX , Summer in WV. We'll be doing more traveling once we get settled in from these two locations. I'm OCD about my property, 5er and truck.... so no mess.....a place for everything and everything in its place. I believe there are exceptions to all examples of types of campers given in this thread. This Memorial Day weekend we were surrounded by holiday campers...loud, obnoxious, litterer's and some not even cleaning up after their pets... there ARE those types. I agree on permenant resident campers, they seem to be the ones who accumulate more "stuff" and tend to be messier.. not all of them, but I believe all these illustrations given by me and others is an example in how people were brought up and how they live/lived.. being OCD, I take pride in my campsite or properties and I try my best to keep them looking immaculate at all times.... it'sjust the way I am.... again, there are exceptions, good and bad to every perceived rule. I also, like Rosie, try not to judge.. it's none of my business, unless they infringe on my property or campsite.

Jim

[ro_sie]

You know, this issue of permanent residents , full timer or part timers doesn't bother me at all. It is NONE of my business. If I need a place to park, I don't ask what kind of clientel they serve. If they have the offerings that I need, that's where I stay. We have made some good friends of all sorts and far be it from me to judge them and their life style.

[LifeInsideJack]

Our decision to live in our RV full time has many factors. We're currently in an RV park which is loaded with full timers. Each space has the renter's personality. Some are hoarders, some gardeners and then there's us with nothing outside but two chairs and a bar-b-q. We leave from time to time to go have fun.

There is a dump station in the back. We get the big buses, fancy class A's and an endless stream of toy haulers. We don't care that you choose to live in a house loaded with your ****, so get over us living in our coach surrounded by our ****.

Live life in your own lane.

[TechWriter]

TechWriter wrote:

down home wrote:

In effect Local and Rvers from places like Detroit and Chicago have a low cost Summer residence, no taxes.

How did you find out that they were from these two cities?

Buehler? Buehler? Buehler?

[docj]

One thing that I find interesting about this thread is that, depending on who is posting, the definition of "permanent" or "long-term" changes.

To many the word "permanent" connotes people who use their RVs as lodging while working at jobs in the local area. For example, my home base ownership park has several renters who will be here for years working on a major bridge/highway project. I can understand why "vacationers" with families may not feel they have anything in common with such neighbors but the lack of common interests shouldn't necessarily be a pejorative comment about these folks or how they maintain their sites.

However, I was more surprised to read in some of the posts, this same hostility being addressed towards RVers who I think of as "seasonal campers" who rent a site for an entire vacation season (either winter or summer) and who may choose to use it only when convenient. Somehow, because they are "taking up" sites that could have been rented to others they are doing something wrong. That logic would essentially make FL or TX snowbirds who go home for Christmas unfair to others who want to take holiday vacations?

There was a third perspective voiced by someone who posted that permanents were Ok as long as the RV park wasn't a "destination park" where he wanted to vacation, but, rather an along-the-way park which he used only as a hotel. But, over the years, I've come to realize that a place that might be only a hotel to you might well be a vacation spot for someone else.

My totally personal view is that I am most concerned about the appearance of a park. I fully understand the long term resident--tenant issue, but regardless of how long someone stays, IMHO the park has the right to promulgate and enforce its rules. In my experience, many parks tend to "bend" the rules with respect to their permanent residents. "Sure, he's not supposed to have all that stuff under his RV, but he's been here for so long......" Once that sort of thing starts it's a slippery slope and there's no going back.

My suggestion is that parks that absolutely don't permit stays longer than 14-30 days ought to post that on their websites. I think there are plenty of RVers who would consider that a big plus. But if you say that then you have to mean it. I used to think of KOA's as parks like that because you couldn't make reservations for stays >1 month on the KOA website. But now, there are lots of KOAs with large percentages of long term residents.

I don't think this problem is going to change anytime soon so we all need to learn to deal with it. Not making negative assumptions about the family in the neighboring RV site might be a good way to start.

[TechWriter]

down home wrote:

In effect Local and Rvers from places like Detroit and Chicago have a low cost Summer residence, no taxes.

How did you find out that they were from these two cities?