RV sites

[lloyd]

We were talkiing with a friend the other day about travelling south to places like Arizona, Nevada. He was saying that some places will not allow older conversions. We have a 1965 MC-5 and are starting to wondering if there are places that will allow us to park for a few months at a time. Have any of you run into this?
Lloyd

[prevost82]

If your bus looks good you won't have a problem in most RV parks (highend RV resorts will reject you). If you drive in to a RV park with a beatup-rag-tag hippy bus there will be a problem.

I've never been turned away

Ron

[loosenut]

My guess is that any park you feel comfortable paying the nightly rate won't give you a problem.  I live in San Diego and haven't been turned away nor have I heard of anyone being turned away from local parks.  I have an 85 chassis and the conversion was finished in 90.

Mike

[luvrbus]

I live in AZ the owners of RV's park here never turn away buses only school buses still painted yellow and a few real bad motor homes.FWIW mine is a Eagle 1974 model and I have never been turn down by any RV park or resort in our travels all over the USA and Mexico even when they have a sign posted nothing over 10 years old      good luck

[Sean]

We've discussed this pretty extensively here before:

http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=1327.0
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=11879.0
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=3628.0
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=2038.0

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[WEC4104]

In the nine years I have owned my 4104, I have never, ever, ever, been turned away. Not one campground has even shown any hesitation at letting me stay there. My 1959 turns fifty years old this year, and while it looks fairly presentable, it probably could use some fresh paint on the exterior.

We have stayed at a wide range of places, including KOAs, state parks, private "mom & pop" campgrounds, Disney's Wilderness, and many others.  Admittedly, we don't venture into really high end resorts very often, or the places that "sell" their lots like condos.

I am not saying that there hasn't been an isolated case somebody has encountered, but we have slept in 26 different states, and I have yet to run into problem #1.   I also have to believe that in today's economy, the campgrounds would be even less inclined to turn somebody away.

Having said all that, I do have a few tips:

1) We generally telephone ahead and make a reservation. I think that if a bus just pulls up outside the office, it would be easier to deny them.  

2) When we make the reservation, we state we are a "35 foot motorhome", which is what my registration and tags say.  I have instructed my wife NOT to use the word bus when making the reservation.

3) When we show up at the office, my wife goes in and takes care of registration. Sometimes one of my kids goes in with her. If you portray the image that you are a nice family here on vacation, you are golden. If you look like hard core partyers that are going to cause problems at 2:00 am, like the bunch of 60's throwbacks with the schoolie last month, you will meet resistence.

Because of our bus, my wife does run into one problem registering sometimes.  Every so often, she completes the registration but a guy in the office notices the bus and starts asking questions. He's the chatty type who won't let her out of the office until she rattles through the answers:   "1959."  ....   "Detroit 6-71 2 stroke"....    "Spicer 4 speed"  .... "No, not a Greyhound, but it was a seated coach in California."    ---- she's getting pretty good at rattling off the answers.  

[lloyd]

Well thanks for the good info and tips. I will make sure it is in top notch condition and we should have no problems, thanks again.
Lloyd

[belfert]

The 10 year rule is often there only for use when someone pulls in with a ratty old RV.  As others have mentioned, you usually won't get turned away if your motorhome is clean and well kept.  If they don't like you for whatever reason they'll point to the 10 year rule as long as your RV really is 10 years old or older.

Probably the only types of places that really enforce these rules regularly are places like the Monaco resorts where all of the tenants own really high end diesel pushers or Prevosts.  I suspect a lot of the folks on this forum would not want to go to one of these places anyhow.

[Airbag]

No worries as the unemployment rises, already at 9.1 and 11.1 in Calif. they will be glad to have our business. A bit of a silver lining. I am working at making mine more presentable just ordered some baggage door skins.