Motor home Lengths

The bigger the motorhome the more limited your campground options are, there are even ones that my sub-30 foot coach will not fit into. The thing you will likely find is that it is not only the size of the rv site, but also the ability to thread your way through the winding access roads that limit your options.

There is also a question of the percentage of RV sites in any given campground that can accommodate that size coach, as well as the TOAD car you will likely be pulling behind it. An example that comes to mind is a Forest Service campground I stayed at a couple of times a couple of weeks apart last summer in Wyoming, 18 RV sites plus a few tent camping sites. Some of the sites would barely fit a 25 ft coach, most would probably fit a 30 ft, a few might fit a 35. When I was there the second time someone had a 40+ tag axle diesel pusher towing a Jeep shoehorned into a pull out space, how they made it around the loop to that point I don't know, but I can tell you to fit in there meant there opposing corner tires were dangling half off the pavement.

there are also potential differences in types of licenses involved. also they will require a special license in some states due to weights.
bumpy

Many state parks all over the country have very limited sites available for an RV over 35'. That's because so many of them were designed when few of the larger RVs were common. Most federal parks we have checked have the same problem. Many privately owned RV park that we have been in over the past 40 years we have been on the road have less than 50% of sites that could accommodate larger rigs - and too often these are occupied by smaller RVs because the owners want more room.(Rarely will a CG have rules restricting how small an RV can be to use particular sites, they just charge more for the larger ones). Same reason, although many private CGs are trying to increase their availability. We own a 32' MH and almost always have our toad attached. It is unusual when we do not have to unhitch to fit, even in pull thru sites. The previous post also mentioned interior roads too tight for larger rigs. We often have this problem. Forget about turning around! Unless the need for a larger rig is imperative, Don't think we would ever be much bigger than we are now. Too many times we just wouldn't be able to fit.

Pretty sad that our government can't/won't/doesn't care to upgrade the government parks that we own that it controls.

I've never had any length issues in a private park.

azdryheat wrote:
Pretty sad that our government can't/won't/doesn't care to upgrade the government parks that we own that it controls.

I've never had any length issues in a private park.

I'm sure that that is not at the top of the list of infrastructure that needs to be improved with govt. spending.
bumpy

The longer/larger your RV, the fewer sites it will fit in. It's not as though there's generally a hard cutoff at 40' (or any other particular length), but bigger does mean fewer sites.

States and parks do vary quite a bit in how well they accommodate large rigs. Even a 35' RV is fairly limited in what Vermont state park campsites it can fit in, for instance; many of the campgrounds were laid out and built by the CCC and so date from a time when tenting was the norm.

The smaller your rig, the better your chance it will fit everywhere.
The US Govt has been building campgrounds since the 1930s. The big years for construction were post WW II and the CCC days. People tent camped in those days. RVs have become much more popular in the last 25 years. Many campgrounds need to be updated but it takes a lot of money that the Govt claims they do not have. People resist rising entrance fees and camping fees.

I never had a problem going to where I wanted to go in any parks with my 45 footer. But I'm a veteran RVer.

We full-timed 8 of our 16 years with a 40' motorhome and 8 years with a 33' 5th wheel. Our #1 choice of camping was always in public parks or boondocking on public lands (not WalMarts). We did this 95% of our stays in 16 years. We made very few reservations even down the Oregon coast staying in the state parks. We only moved on Monday-Wednesday or Thursdays and got to campgrounds in the mornings when folks leave. Some places don't even accept reservations and there are always cancellations to be had.

We had absolutely no problems fitting in and many of the places we used with the 33' & the 40' and stayed in many with both sizes. This includes national parks such as Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce and many more. It also includes national forest campgrounds and many, many state parks.

Get what you'll feel most comfortable living in. I see you're from Alaska. We've been there, too - staying on public lands. Plus, the only reservations we made in Alaska for the whole summer were for the July 4 weekend as we found out that Alaskans enjoy camping also, and for 5 nights in Denali's Teklanika campground and for those we just made reservations about 2 weeks prior when we could better judge when we'd be there. It turned out that we were in the Denali area earlier than planned so on a whim we boondocked at a lovely spot closeby and drove into Denali early morning. We easily secured an additional 5 nights at the front campground - Riley Creek.

So yes, it can definitely be done with a 40'! No, you won't fit in all campgrounds but there will be plenty nearby that you can use.

You are probably more limited to Federal and State campgrounds but we have not found a problem in private campgrounds as long as you call ahead. We start booking a year in advance for the best spots. Another concern. There are some sites that only have 30 amp. We look for the 50 amp. You can use the 30 but will be restricted to what you can run. Maybe only one AC.