It Never Ceases To Amaze Me!

Ever since we found the RV Park Reviews site and joined, we've been using it as a guide when we make our trips. I check out the various parks along the routes we will be taking and read the reviews. My take on them is I add them up all the ratings and the divide by the number of reviews to get an "average" rating overall. Then after looking over the park's website I go to Google Earth and try to see as much of it as possible from both overhead and at street level, which unfortunately is not available for many of the" off the main path" parks. But at least I can get a fairly good look at the layout of the park and the nearby businesses like cafes, Walmart, hardware stores and even Camping World if one is nearby. What I get a kick out of, is when there are 12 reviews of which 11 give the park an average rating of 8, but there is one reviewer who gives it a 2 because he can't back his 22 foot camper into a space. And yet several of the other reviewers who have much longer motorhomes and 5th wheels all say how easy and convenient it was to back into the back in spaces........... :blink: Perhaps that one reviewer needs a refresher course in backing up....? Anyway, we have found RV Park Reviews and this forum to be most helpful and we will continue to use both and post on both in the future...................

Good Rv'ing ahead to everyone...............BankShot

 

QUOTE(BankShot @ Aug 27 2014, 03:47 PM) [snapback]37972[/snapback]

Ever since we found the RV Park Reviews site and joined, we've been using it as a guide when we make our trips. I check out the various parks along the routes we will be taking and read the reviews. My take on them is I add them all up and the divide the by the number of reviews to get an "average" rating overall. Then after looking over the park's website I go to Google Earth and try to see as much of is as possible from both overhead and at street level, which unfortunately is not available for many of the" off the main path" parks. But at least I can get a fairly good look at the layout of the park and the nearby businesses like cafes, Walmart, hardware stores and even Camping World if one is nearby. What I get a kick out of, is when there are 12 reviews of which 11 give the park an average rating of 8, but there is one reviewer who gives it a 2 because he can't back his 22 foot camper into a space. And yet several of the other reviewers who have much longer motorhomes and 5th wheels all say how easy and convenient it was to back into the back in spaces........... :blink: Perhaps that one reviewer needs a refresher course in backing up....? Anyway, we have found RV Park Reviews and this forum to be most helpful and we will continue to use both and post on both in the future...................

Good Rv'ing ahead to everyone...............BankShot




Good post. That is the way we used to do it. I would look and someone would give it a low rating because they didn't like somethi8ng in the bathroom and we never used a park bathroom. I have stayed in parks with a 5 rating that were just fine for us.

 

" What I get a kick out of, is when there are 12 reviews of which 11 give the park an average rating of 8, but there is one reviewer who gives it a 2 because he can't back his 22 foot camper into a space. And yet several of the other reviewers who have much longer motorhomes and 5th wheels all say how easy and convenient it was to back into the back in spaces.........."




There could be 2 sides to that coin.... It may not always be the guy with the 22' camper who can't back in. It could be a wrong size site assignment and maybe the customer doesn't try to get a site re-assignment .....but just complains about it ?

 

I can understand the discrepancies that are bound to happen when 10 different people review the same campground. The reasons for this could be attributed to:

1) people look at and attach various degrees of importance to the rating criteria. Some folks don't place much importance on the washrooms because they never use them. Others, like myself, think of the washrooms as very important and will downgrade a park if the washrooms aren't up to scratch.
Others, who use pull-throughs, will assign a lower value to the park if they aren't long enough or harder to get into. The list goes on.

2) a person who has had a long, tiring and "bad" day may come into the park in a grumpy mood and to him/her, the park was no good - no matter how good it really is.

3) the fact that some people are more fussy than others. Intolerant folks will not give a park a decent rating because a dog barked, the grass was too long, the water wasn't hot enough, the check in person wasn't at all friendly, the neighbour's kids were too noisy, etc.

4) people just look at things differently - some like classical music, others like western. Our tastes vary.

If a park is an excellent one in all areas, usually there will be agreement and will receive high marks. If it is a "dump", it will receive low marks. It's the ones in the middle that differences exist and you will find some low ratings mixed in with the highs.

 

Well,I will say have stayed in campgrounds that get poor reviews. Fishing bridge is an example. It works for us when we stayed there but now I am too big. But the weak reviews were spot on. I think if you stay somewhere and agree that in comparison to other places it is weak you should say so. Liberty harbor us another place that gets mixed reviews. If you have a cheaper unit without double paine windows you might be bothered by the canvas nightclub next door. It is super close to NYC though but I would rate it down as it is a parking lot. I think that letting the person make up their kind but being accurate is still important. I would not rate either of these places highly and will point out the negatives and benefits in the writeup. I know of one small park who will not let in big rigs since they are oddly shaped so they do not get bad reviews. If you tell then you can drive and it s not a big deal then you can get in. Oh they are almost always booked and no kids around either. Great adult park that people book in by the month. So that us on the other side for me. Good review number and writeup but notification that it is tight.

 

QUOTE(RTA @ Aug 29 2014, 12:31 AM) [snapback]38011[/snapback]

I can understand the discrepancies that are bound to happen when 10 different people review the same campground. The reasons for this could be attributed to:

1) people look at and attach various degrees of importance to the rating criteria. Some folks don't place much importance on the washrooms because they never use them. Others, like myself, think of the washrooms as very important and will downgrade a park if the washrooms aren't up to scratch.
Others, who use pull-throughs, will assign a lower value to the park if they aren't long enough or harder to get into. The list goes on.

2) a person who has had a long, tiring and "bad" day may come into the park in a grumpy mood and to him/her, the park was no good - no matter how good it really is.

3) the fact that some people are more fussy than others. Intolerant folks will not give a park a decent rating because a dog barked, the grass was too long, the water wasn't hot enough, the check in person wasn't at all friendly, the neighbour's kids were too noisy, etc.

4) people just look at things differently - some like classical music, others like western. Our tastes vary.

If a park is an excellent one in all areas, usually there will be agreement and will receive high marks. If it is a "dump", it will receive low marks. It's the ones in the middle that differences exist and you will find some low ratings mixed in with the highs.



If someone gives a park the highest rating or the lowest rating, I check out their other reviews. If they consistently rate 10's or 1's, then I pretty much discount the review of the particular park I'm interested in and go on to the next reviewer. I prefer reviews that simply state what they found on their visit, not their opinion of what they found because, like you said, sometimes it's just a bad day or sometimes what's important to others may or may not be important to me. For example, I'd rather a reviewer simply say a park is close to the highway and there is road noise rather than it's a bad park because of road noise.

 

One more comment for this thread. It was mentioned a few reviews up that a few parks have Google Earth street views available within the park itself. For those that have never tried this, JGW RV Park in Redding, CA has this feature. You can "drive right in the main entrance" and then follow the roads thru the park and check out any site you wish to. We did that the first time we used that park and found we could stop right at each of the river front sites and check each one out for its own view as well as width, length and amenities, etc. Great feature! It's too bad more parks don't subscribe to this as it sure makes selecting a space easy and convenient. When you arrive you almost feel like you've been there before and know right where to go to get to your space plus you are able to find out where everything is located within the park. If anyone knows of other parks where this can be done, let this forum know so the rest of us can use this feature should we ever be in that area.....................

Regards, BankShot

 

Sometimes you just don't have a choice, Hutch. We are not big on sleeping at Wal-Marts or Rest Areas and, doing two cross-country Maine-Arizona trips each year, there are locations along the way at which we are yet to find decent parks. This happens most to us in New England, where some states (e.g., Connecticut) have surprisingly few parks to begin with; and NE parks often close early in the fall or open late in the spring. If you travel at these times, we have found choices to be rather limited. It was under these circumstances that we stayed at a truly dreadful park south of Worcester. We had read the reviews and had an idea of what was ahead, but it was October 15th and there was nothing else available. Likewise, we often hit an area in PA where we have yet to find a park we like (and we are not THAT fussy....just like clean restrooms, services that work, and quiet sleeping conditions). So we have stayed at a KOA there (more than once) that we don't really like, but after surviving the traffic around Boston, through Hartford. and across lower New York, we are usually too stressed and exhausted to drive on an extra hour or two. I have reviewed these parks on this forum, and have tried to note in my reviews that I was forewarned about conditions, but wanted to add my voice to those of others that these are parks to avoid, if possible.

 

This is an interesttopic as I have wondered similar things. I always think that people just say it can't be that bad... As I believe others do as well, you can't just go by the number as what one person does not like someone else does not care about. As in, best park ever but they charged 25 cents for a shower so they get a 1. When you read, just trailers as seasonal, bad roads, unlevel sites, bathrooms dirty and falling down, could not breath in office do to smoke, pool or swimming hole terrible etc then yes, I stay away for sure. If negative ratings are fees, wifi or I was told to be quiet after 10 or 11 then I might give it a try or at least drive through if I am in the area. Everyones idea of a great or terrible place is their own and that is what makes it all exciting but I agree with Hutch, if the ratings are 1,1,3,1,4,1,1 then they will not get a look from me even if they are the only campground around.

That said, I have been to one or two places that were not to our liking as we camp with friends sometimes and they like a few places that we do not but sometimes you have to suck it up and go.

 

As a fairly new RV'er (four years), I am finally learning how to "kind of" read between the lines. But, we are what I call funky campground people because we like the smaller "Mom and Pop" type parks with some character. They may be older but nicely maintained with "not always level spaces". The farther from freeway noise the better, and we like to have areas to walk our dog. We could care less about the restaurants in the area because we cook our own meals. For the overnite parks off the freeway, we are a little more concerned about a level space and lack of freeway noise. So, for me, a lot of people's "6"or "7" ratings, may be exactly what I am looking for. Granted that is not always the case as some parks are just dumps. It just shows that we are not all looking for the same stuff, and we all have our "hot buttons".

I look at the location on the map and go to the website after reading the reviews. And, we are always very thankful for this site. We did not know about it our first trip across the country, and we ended up at some really awful parks.

 

QUOTE(mdcamping @ Nov 2 2014, 10:35 AM) [snapback]38844[/snapback]

I agree, nothing evil about a 5,6, or 7 rating.... sites are a little close together, not the most level, maybe some of the roads have pot holes or bathrooms are not sparkling clean.



"not the most level" is of little concern to us. With our Class A I've never encountered a site I couldn't get level on with the push of a button. This should be the case I would think with most Class A's but I get the sense that a lot of people don't understand that many times they'd get better performance from their leveling system if they put it into manual, rather than automatic, mode. If a site has a slant the automatic system may not be able to level on it unless it can go beyond that tilt so it can come back to zero. The control logic in the HWH leveling system isn't satisfied if it can only approach "zero" from one direction; it wants to go past it so it can bring it back to zero. This is not always possible and so the system will flash an error message that it can't get the MH level.

As a result, since most towables lack the ability to level themselves, and so many MH owners incorrectly report that they can't get level, I totally ignore this comment when reading reviews. We've been full-timing for 4 years and haven't yet been bothered by this issue.

 

Hi,

For the many who do not have leveling jacks, this looks GREAT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4JQV15VzBc

 

Personally I like this method of leveling. :lol:

[attachmentid=274]


Seriously though, this product looks great. I think I'll get me some.

 

Wow. Neat product. This link shows the other uses of the product. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jE_x_TjlOI

The only negative would be having to use two for dually tires on a single axle.

 

QUOTE(pianotuna @ Nov 2 2014, 12:49 PM) [snapback]38846[/snapback]

Hi,

For the many who do not have leveling jacks, this looks GREAT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4JQV15VzBc

I have three sets of the Lynx Levelers that I used as levelers for years. Two of the sets are really old and several of the blocks are getting cracked and some of the webbing is missing. Sooo I saw these and was really skeptical about them working as advertised. Welll I have used them twice on this winters trip south and I can attest to the fact that they do in fact work as advertised. I am going to trim one down about an inch on the leading edge to get the one between the tandem tires in the space easier. The note that came with them says you can cut off up to 4" to make it work better. I watched the linked YouTube video and learned that all you have to do is drive off of them. This I did not know. The instructions that came with them didn't mention this or I just missed it. Not exactly cheap but when these fall apart I will definitely replace them with another set if they are still available. They say that they will support 30K pounds.

 

QUOTE(mdcamping @ Nov 3 2014, 08:36 PM) [snapback]38855[/snapback]

I like the idea for replacing a flat tire, would work perfect for my 2 axle TT. But I'm use to my 5/4 boards for leveling... tough to teach an old dog new tricks

Mike

Yes I was skeptical but they do work. I will also be ordering the jack as well.