Dump Fees?

Local state park charges the daily campsite fee as their "dump fee" - $30. Although, it may be 20 something dollars since there are no "reservation fees" involved.

Local private campground charges $15 dump fee for a non-campground person to dump.

Another campground does not allow outsiders to dump.

Still another one only allows outsiders to dump during the week when it isn't busy - with a fee... $15 maybe.

Dump situation varies greatly from campground to campground. If I need to dump my black tank while traveling, $20 fee is worth every penny to me.

 

sanidumps.com has an app to find dumps.

 

Augusta, Maine has a free dump station but other sites nearby charge $20 including the State Park where one can camp and dump for $21.80. So I guess camping should be $1.80 if you don't dump!

 

Having been a host a a few RV parks, I have to side with the owners. More than a few people that simply want to dump their tanks leave an incredible mess behind. Guess who gets to clean it up!!!

One park I hosted at charged a $25 fee, with $20 refunded if the dump site was in the same condition as before you dumped.

 

Our camping fee include free use of the dump station by guests. Non-guests can use the dump for a $10 (includes tax). We are owned by a registered non-profit, it all goes back in to the community that we serve.

 

We are a full hookup park. No concrete splash pad like you may find at a state park. We stopped allowing drivebys after observing a guy shove his sewer hose onto the water hydrant at the site to flush it. He was ready to rinse the hose on the lawn but we put a stop to it. We use to charge $8 which I thought was reasonable as an RV owner with a 40 gallon black water tank. Water fill up was free. Today no drive by dumps allowed. Registered guests have more respect for the process.

 

Wal Mart likely you have never worked for The Evil Empire, 22 years here, hate em. Thankfully we live in the country and dump in the front yard, mixes well with the chicken doo doo. We are state park types and can find free places if we have to but seldom stray far from home. Have used city treatment plants and major highway rest stops in the past. We camp Walmart overnight and hang our name badges on the mirror.

 

My wife and I usually stay in campgrounds with hookups, but when we attend rallies they're often held in fairgrounds or open fields that were not designed to accommodate RVs. Depending upon our activities, we can usually wing-it for three or four days if we started with a full water tank and empty waste tanks. Then we need to refill water and dump waste. Many Pilot/Flying-J truck stops have dump stations and potable water available for a modest fee which we use. If I need gasoline for my motorhome some service stations will allow me to fill my water tank and use my macerator pump to empty our waste tanks in one of their restroom toilets (if their restroom doors face a parking area) after I've agreed to purchase fuel and sometimes propane from them.

 

I have no problem with private campgrounds charging high fees or not allowing dumping to non guests . We stay at a lovely campground near Wisconsin dells and a Walmart. One day we counted ten revs driving in asking the owners to be able to dump. These people had parked at Walmart. As paying campers why should we have the constant traffic from these people who are too cheap to pay for a camp spot. This park charges only 25-35 dollars a night!

 

Hi Sold on the road.
At an RV Park in Ventura, California it will cost you $25 to use their dump and full your water tank. If you want to spend the night, $85.

RVing in California in not cheap. RV Parks on the beach can run from $50, at a city park, to $125-$150 at a private park.

If you go down to San Diego area, by the ocean or the bay, it will cost you $85+ and your RV can not be over 10 years old.

The California private RV park realize a family of 4, or a retired couple, will have to spend $250 a night for a hotel on the beach + meals out. If they have an RV, $85 a night and cook your own meals is a steal for them. There is one park in Long Beach we go to every Christmas (to see our kids) and we have to book a full year in advance. The place is full every time. It is a 12 month RV season in CA and RVing is big business. People will pay whatever to dump - they have no choice.

 

As a park owner myself we charge $15. Does it cost $15 for us to process the waste, no. However we must make it worth our while to offer this service. Most cases the camper stayed at Walmart down the road then calls us at 9 pm at night after closing and wants to dump. We are in the business of making money to pay our employees and business cost. At some point its not worth the trouble. We have set what we feel is a fair price and really never get any complaints. I mean really $15 for 3-7 days of sewage, that's pretty cheap for those trying to conserve.

 

Last year I pulled into a campground to just dump our tanks and was told the fee was $15.00, I said that seem a bit high. The owner told me that it’s a service they provide for their customers that have stayed at his campgound, one that he said they wish they didn’t need to offer. He said you would be surprised the number of times that people have not hooked up properly and created a mess that they have to clean up. I said doesn’t that happen at full hook up sites, he said rarely people that are using site take their time and hook up properly. I said I see his point and paid the $15.00. I know I wouldn’t want to clean one up for $15-20 bucks.

 

Posted prior in this thread but after reading several posts after mine including the one above from Traveler II, I wanted to add that to hear about and, also be witness to, folks who try to take advantage of everything by being so damn cheap and thoughtless as to arrive late after hours at a park, grab a vacant spot, dump their tanks and trash, refill with fresh water, use the park's electricity, and then sneak out before dawn without paying a bloody cent is about as low as and RVer can go IMHO. We watched a couple do that a few years ago in a park that closed at 5 pm and left envelopes out for any arrivals after that time. We watched them drive in, drive around in what was less than half filled park, pick a space, and do exactly what I just mentioned. They were gone when we got up the next morning. We didn't feel it was our place to go over and confront them but we did take down their license plate and in the morning I gave it to the park manager and told him I hoped he would be able to do something about it and to call us if he needed us to say anything more on behalf of the park. We never heard from him and have never been back to that particular park so don't know what he did. Most likely nothing as it probably wasn't worth all the hassles it would end up being. So I guess if a park wants to keep this from happening they have to hire an after hours guard of some kind to watch for this kind of thing and surprise and catch the numbnuts while they are there. ................

Perhaps a sign could be put up at the entrance and several other areas around park that states that there are cameras on sight that take pictures of all vehicles entering after hours and that "The picture that has been taken of your RV's license plate will be turned in to the proper authorities if payment for the space you occupy is not in that provided envelope before you leave" Of course the park would have to have that camera system up and working or it wouldn't take long for those ignorant wingnuts to figure it all out and just keep doing it.................

BankShot...........(aka Terry)

 

While I'm sure people do stay without paying, how can you be sure that's what these people did? Maybe they went back to the office later that night and you didn't see them, or maybe they paid on the way out.

There have been plenty of times I've stayed at an unattended park and not gotten around to going back to put my envelope in until hours after I arrived, or even the next morning if I thought I might be staying more than one night.

 

The park mgr. knew they hadn't paid as he had left out only a couple of envelopes for late arrivals with space numbers assigned to them before he left for the day. Both of them had requested pull thru sites. When he came in the next morning he had collected only those two envelopes and those two RVs were still there, the one that stayed for free was gone and that space, a back in, was vacant but had been used. It has to be a tough thing to enforce for sure for parks where this happens. I just like to think that in some way it comes back to those that do this, and in spades.......

 

Being a park owner and a winter traveler, I tend to see both sides of the story. We charge $10 for the dump and if they want water, we have to put them in a site as there is no potable water at the dump station - mainly because of the "stupid" people who take the hose we have for rinsing down the concrete pad and their hose and plunge it into their hose yo rinse it. We usually charge an additional $5 for the water.

We have also been victims of the drive by dumpers and campers who are too cheap to pay a site fee - come in late - leave early, etc. We are a small park and cannot be on guard all the time, so this kind of thing happens once in a while. Thankful not often as we still consider the majority of the true RVers as honest. It is the person who does not understand the RV lifestyle that does the cheating. There is always someone out there who wants to cheat the system. If I had the time, oh, the stories I could tell.....

Happy Trails to all

 

We have gas stations here in NM that have free RV dumps. You don't even have to go into the store. I know it's not Ohio but maybe others have them as well.

 

If there were only two envelopes with space numbers left out for late arrivals, and those were used by the people who requested the sites, then there wasn't an envelope for these other people. I don't think that means they get a free site, but it does complicate things for them.

 

One of the issues regarding RV dumping is the toxicity of the Black/Gray water. The chemicals( even if "green") can virtually shut down small wastewater treatment sites. A remote dump station / truck stop / resort / campground with their own treatment site. We stayed in a 500 unit resort in AZ that had to shut down their system shortly after the "Snowbirds" arrived.....massive dumping of tank chemicals upon arrival.

Odor is produced by decomposition bacteria/ fungi.....that are otherwised killed by the chemical treatment. We found "Odorlos"(no advertisement intended) was effective and environmentally friendly.
It is pure ecomomics to discouage dumping that might ruin the treatment system.