Security Precautions

I was recently asked while traveling in our R.V. with our grandchildren. How do we know the R.V. parks we stay at during our travels are safe? I did not know. So I started to ask around. In california you can go to the MEG--- L-W web site (free) use zip code of the park, search and scroll through looking for the parks street address. This way is time consuming but affective.The other way is to search by street address. Type in street address hit search then click on blue squares close to the red star. This method is a little more complicated but much quicker when mastered. PLEASE COMMENT ON ANY OTHER SECURITY PRECAUTIONS THAT CAN HELP.


A.D

 

Maybe I'm a bit uninformed and/or niave, but I'm not quite certain what you are talking about with the zip codes, adresses, blue squares, and red stars. What sort of "safety precautions" are you refering to? I'll be curious to see what kind of replies you get because I just don't understand what you are asking for.

 

When traveling, the only security precaution that matters, IMO, is situational awareness. If it doesn't feel or look safe, move on. In a transient situation lists like you are talking about are probably useless (I guess you are talking about the California Megan's Law list?). Again, JMO, but unless you are staying in really low rent, rundown places I think you are worrying excessively. Bug bites, slips and falls, poison ivy, too many smores, and spoiling the kids with overindulgence are typically the kind of dangers to watch for when traveling with grandkids. If you read the statistics instead of the headlines you will see crimes against kids are really pretty rare. Of course if you are uncomfortable you could stay home with the doors locked.

 

I feel the same way at Jerry S. and joez. We have never been in a place that we had a problem with anything. I would add lighting, tornadoes, fires, heavy rain storms, snow and ice, and other items higher on my list to keep an eye on over who lives in the park. All the list on the web sites will not show you the correct information. People move around all the time so the information would never be correct. I check six different websites here at home and found all had different addresses on sex offenders, useless information to me. Keep your eyes on the kids and you will be OK.

 

I agree as well. I've camped at a couple hundred RV parks and campgrounds and not had safety issues. I sometimes leave things out, but take precautions on anything too valuable. For example when camping in state parks where I need to use the generator I chain and padlock it to the trailer.
I tend to avoid RV parks that look too bad, but have been in some that were not the best, and find the year round occupants tend to be workers not criminals.

The one "safety" exception was about 3 years ago when staying at a city park in Kansas It was raining fairly heavily, and I just had "a feeling" that I should return to camp and check the RV. I'm glad I did as the campground was on a river, and the dike broke flooding the campground. That was the quickest that I have ever hooked up my trailer and departed. I could see the water level rising as I prepared to leave. By the time I took off there was about a foot of water on the ground and the roads were under water as well. I threw it in to 4-wheel drive and guessed where the road was. No damage, but I was fortunate. At the time I debated on whether I should post an emergency phone number on the outside of my RV in the future.

I went to another city campground by a lake a few miles out of town, and the caretaker insisted on collecting the fee, even though I had paid at the first campground. I stopped at city hall the next day, and was given an apology and a refund.

 

At any campground, or anywhere else, the children should always have an adult outside with them. Kids are kidnapped right from their own front yards so it could happen anywhere if they are unsupervised. You can check lots of websites for criminals or predators but no one can harm your property or the kids if you are on the alert.

We had a couple here that had a beautiful, outgoing 8 year old girl. She came outside one Sunday, mid morning, without her parents. My husband and I sat outside with her for over 4 hours before the parents even knew she was outside. That kind of carelessness is uncalled for.

At our campground I watch every vehicle that comes in (we are small) and if I see a vehicle I don't recognize I stop the driver and ask why there are there. We don't let people just ride through without stopping at the office so we can protect the rights and privacy of our campers. In the 20 years my employers have owned this place there has never been a theft.

 

I think here a little common sense gos a long way. Camp grounds, beach, park, any where you take the little ones. Safety is more than just bad people.Getting run over falling in a lake or pool or what ever.

 

Know your neighbors...introduce yourself, if they are up to no good, they might just leave if they think you are watching. BTW, much of my adult life has been spent in situations where security consciousness is a matter of life and death... Be prepared is more than just the Boy Scout motto.

 

If you stay in family oriented RV parks and avoid those full of permanent residents it should not be a major issue. A little parenting is required, but that is nothing new. We have only been RV travelers since 1972 and so far security has never been an issue beyond using good judgment and basic parenting.

 

QUOTE(Kirk @ Feb 13 2012, 12:35 PM) [snapback]28771[/snapback]

If you stay in family oriented RV parks and avoid those full of permanent residents it should not be a major issue. A little parenting is required, but that is nothing new. We have only been RV travelers since 1972 and so far security has never been an issue beyond using good judgment and basic parenting.




Our campground is almost all permanent residents but we very often have over nighters. The current owners have owned this park for over 20 years and have never had a theft. If you pulled in today you would never know that these RV's are permanent. We also have less trouble with bad behavior than parks we have stayed in that are mostly travelers. Telling people to avoid parks full of permanent residents is a bit off kilter in my opinion. I think it makes more sense to tell people to always be aware of their surroundings than to put campgrounds down that have permanent residents.

 

QUOTE(dalsgal @ Feb 13 2012, 03:00 PM) [snapback]28774[/snapback]

Telling people to avoid parks full of permanent residents is a bit off kilter in my opinion. I think it makes more sense to tell people to always be aware of their surroundings than to put campgrounds down that have permanent residents.


I'm with dalsgal on this one. I have both permanent and overnight guests at my park. I'm careful about who I allow to camp here long term. I do not accept payment for more than a month at a time and if someone manifests unsavory traits while here, I will not allow them to stay. Being here long term allows us to get to know the permanent residents better than we do someone who is only here for a night or two. Our long term guests get to know each other and tend to look out for one another more than folks who live in stick and brick neighborhoods. For example, in the subdivision where I live, we hardly ever see or get the chance to talk to those who live beside us or across the street, but here at my park, we often see guests who were otherwise strangers, visiting with one another under each other's awning, or meeting up to take their daily walks together. Quite frequently I hear about how someone had a problem with their RV or vehicle while staying here, and a fellow RVer from two sites over helped them take care of it.
Do as much research as you can about where to stay, and use good judgment no matter where you are.

 

I actively avoid parks with long term residents. I feel an RV park full of long term residents is just another name for a mobile home park or trailer park. When I travel, I want to be around others who are on vacation and are tourists, not amongst people who are pounding out a daily living. Nothing against people who are working, but their interests and schedules do not mesh with the interests and schedules of people who are on vacation. It may be an elitist attitude, but it is what it is.

 

Not to be rude but you do sound elitist. I bet if you came to our campground you would not be able to tell which campers are permanent and which are over nighters. We are very strict about the sites not looking "lived in". We make everyone feel welcome, even if they turn their noses up at us.

 

QUOTE(dalsgal @ Feb 14 2012, 06:46 PM) [snapback]28789[/snapback]

Not to be rude but you do sound elitist. I bet if you came to our campground you would not be able to tell which campers are permanent and which are over nighters. We are very strict about the sites not looking "lived in". We make everyone feel welcome, even if they turn their noses up at us.


You may be correct. But read the bad reviews and a large number of them are about parks with long term residents with decaying rigs, junk all around and a general feeling that you are one bad step away from having a Ned Beatty kind of day.

 

QUOTE
I bet if you came to our campground you would not be able to tell which campers are permanent and which are over nighters. We are very strict about the sites not looking "lived in". We make everyone feel welcome, even if they turn their noses up at us.


I believe that yours is the exception to the rule. After more than 250 nights per year in our mh for the last five years, our experience is that commercial rv parks with a preponderance of permanents are either low income trailer parks with roaming dogs, unsupervised children and rusty appliances outside, or villages of semi permanent construction/oil field workers with multiple vehicles per site, or, in a few cases literally havens for real undesireables.

QUOTE
Being here long term allows us to get to know the permanent residents better than we do someone who is only here for a night or two. Our long term guests get to know each other and tend to look out for one another


In the best of majority permanent rv parks this very quality of "looking out for one another" can present issues for transients, especially if your stay is longer than just an overnight. Residents are understandably reluctant to allow visitors into their circle and management (even subconsiously) cannot help but favor their friends and cash flow providers. In some the cliques have been uncomfortable to be around and very clear in letting us know by comments and actions that we should leave as soon as possible. We have been told that we should not use a laundry on a particular day as Mrs. so and so (a resident) only had that day off work to do her laundry, or not to use our grill as Mr. X (who lived next to our transient site) had COPD and didn't like grill smoke.

Our experience has been that, even in really nice parks, a lot of permanent residents tend to make a transient's stay different from a park that is mostly transients.

 

OK, back to the original post about security. We have been fulltiming nine years and have found a great security system. Guard cats! We started out with my old cat Mikey and he died. Then it was Casey who we lost in Maine. Now we have Bill and Bob our attack trained guard cats and in all this time we have not had ONE security issue. Nothing has been stolen, we have not been attacked or accosted. Guard cats are the solution.

 

QUOTE(kcmoedoe @ Feb 14 2012, 08:06 PM) [snapback]28790[/snapback]

You may be correct. But read the bad reviews and a large number of them are about parks with long term residents with decaying rigs, junk all around and a general feeling that you are one bad step away from having a Ned Beatty kind of day.



I had forgotten that movie; In my opinion, the higher number of long term residents relative to transient campers makes for a less desirable (for the transient camper) environment. I am sure there are exceptions as dalsgal points out, but I just have not experienced it.

 

This thread has already deteriorated from the OP, so here goes again.

Much has been said about the feelings/impressions travelers have for permanent residents at RV parks. Here is another take.

When we were building our house, we lived in our motorhome for 6 months. The park we were at had it all. Many permanent residents in double wides, park models, and RV’s; full timers, seasonal, and part timers in RV’s; and then there was a section for short term and overnighters. The permanent places were very well kept. We used to walk around the neighborhood to get ideas for landscaping our new place. It was that nice. Most of the people had regular “9-5” jobs, and were not seasonal or transient workers. We weren’t there long enough to really be part of any group, but we did meet and talk to some of the permanent people. There’s always another side to each situation, and it was certainly interesting to hear their take on the transients.

First, they didn’t care for the constant movement of vehicles in and out of spaces, and the accompanying noise--someone shouting directions at the driver; the straining of engines to move just an inch forward or onto leveling blocks, the commotion of setting up or breaking down camp, the slamming of doors and storage bins early in the morning and late at night, etc.

Also they believed the overnighters tended to make messes which they didn’t clean up (in the bathrooms and club house and at their campsite), and in general they did not respect the park’s property because this was not their “home” and someone else would clean it up. Along these lines, overnighters let their pets “go” on the residents’ lawns and didn’t pick up after them.

In our time there every member of the office staff was as nice as they could be and always responded quickly to our needs. However, they, too, talked about how demanding and rude overnighters sometimes were, complaining about the least little thing.

Finally, it has been mentioned that permanent residents can be cliquish and not friendly to transients. The people there felt just the opposite. They talked about groups of RVers that came there every year who would have nothing to do with anyone who was not in their group and that they tended to look down on the residents because they lived in an RV park.

Now I am sure that not every RVer acted this way. It was probably just a few bad apples, but this experience was an eye opener for us. We had no idea that permanent residents viewed overnighters (us!) any differently.

Now that we are in our house we are back to being travelers and staying in a park only a few nights at a time. We still prefer transient type parks simply because, as someone else said, our “vacation” schedule does not match well with their “daily living/work” schedule—not that one is better; they are just different. However, when we do stay at places that have permanent residents, I know we now have a much better understanding of how to be good neighbors.

 

The Park itself is a reflection of the management. The management is a reflection of the owner or owners where the buck starts and stops.