Hi! I posted this in the community discussion but this seems like a better place and more active. New to this and feeling a bit discouraged. We purchased a wonderful trailer with a model number starting with a 33 and assumed it was a 33 foot trailer. We have come to realize it really measures 36. We have made some summer reservations and many places we want to visit are 35 ft. maximum--some are CA state beach campgrounds that are pretty much parking lots and those reservations were hard to get! Now this seems like a silly question but does that foot really make a difference and should we cancel all our reservations? We don't want to show up and get turned away! Thank you for any insight from those more experienced then us.
A lot of RVs are somewhat longer than would be expected from their model designations. I seriously doubt that anyone will measure your RV and the chances are that the difference between 35' and 36' won't make a significant difference in your ability to use the sites you have reserved. I sure wouldn't cancel my vacation because of this.
We've stayed in sites a number of times where we were up to 3 feet over the listed maximum length and have never felt particularly crowded. And we've never been measured at a park.
You have made an honest mistake. Relax and enjoy. A couple of feet are not going to make a difference. Darrell
Well it depends on the site size. Get a kick out of campground owners/manager who say the site they are putting us in is XX ft.. long. No problem all your stuff will fit on it. Get there and no not all our stuff fits on it. Guess their measuring is different from ours.
Just to give you an idea of how accurate those length limits sometimes are, here's a photo of our 34 ft motorhome "crowded" into a Florida State Park site (Manatee Springs) with a 35 ft length limit. The post on the left is the front edge of the site. Good thing we had that foot to spare!
We have found over the years that many parks have lengthened either all of, or most of, the sites within their park so as to be able to accommodate and not have to turn away today's larger rigs. We have never had a problem with length of the site but we have run into situations where the sites have been situated so close together it makes it near on impossible to open our full length slide all the way. Many, if not all manufacturers of RVs don't state the actual outside length of their units correctly and in some cases will tell you, for instance, that a certain RV is 34 feet long when in actuality when measured fromt bumper to end of hitch it is more like 35.5 feet in overall length. When making an advance reservation we usually will tell the park that we are a foot longer than we really are just to be on the "safe side". For the most part however I agree with what the others have said, just keep the reservations you've already made and I doubt you will have any problems. And if by some remote chance you do, then chances are the park will be able to move you into a longer or wider site that will suit your needs better. Happy Rving and welcome to the forum. Be sure to post some reviews of your visits to all the parks and campgrounds you will be enjoying shortly.......................... Regards, BankShot (aka Terry)
This was a 25' site at salisbury beach reservation in MA. I had my back wheels of my 20' TT almost to the back edge of the asphalt. No room to park my mid size truck in front , sometimes I did T up the truck to the site. I have had similar experiences, just wish when getting a 25' site for a 20' TT that the site length would include the TV. Mike
One more bit of info on site lengths. In CGs where there are tire stops at the back in sites, you will find that the posted length is usually measured to the tire stop. Meaning that there is usually a few feet of overhang past the tire stops. The classic example of this is in Corp of Eng campgrounds.
The numbers usually refer to the "box", not the overall length. So I always tell the park its ball to bumper length.
We were just recently at another beach front campground (assateague state park, MD) I was very impressed with the length of our site. Our site was listed at 45' but it seemed I had much ample room to spare. I did a quick pace and found our site about 100' long. While we did several bike rides through the campground noticed most sites were the same length or even longer! Wow! this place has got it right! Thinking back now about Salisbury beach state park and remembering our many other trips to the campground that all our parking was tight on past trips... seems Salisbury beach might be one of those exception type campgrounds where I wouldn't risk squeezing in a slightly oversized RV on most sites. Mike
We recently "upgraded" from a 25ft TT to a bigger one. The designation on the side of our new trailer is 277RL which usually means something is 27 feet. From tip to toe ours measures out at 34'10"! I have no idea where they came up with 277. Manufacturers don't have a standard across the board so be sure to measure it yourself and get an accurate idea of how long your rig is. On a side note, we recently had to cancel a reservation at Waterton Lakes National Park when we were honest and edited our rig size to the new trailer and were denied! Bummer.
