Thousand Trails prohibited my entry and worse

[bigred]

You will have to trust me. I have had three Liberty coaches over 27 years and none had the sticker. CC built conventional motor homes so they likely had all their products built to that standard. Liberty only does conversions and likely is unaffected by the lack of a sticker.

O K !!! I figured they hid it like they did on mine. CC sure didn't give it an important place on mine .Matter of fact ,I would never have found it had I not hand waxed they bottom painted part of mine!!

[luvrbus]

You never know where you find a RVIA sticker any longer since for the past 15 or 20 years they are just a peel and stick foil sticker mine is in the friggn electrical panel

[oltrunt]

Think I'll just slap on the gold medallion that used to encircle the door bell button on my once all electric house--let 'em try to figure that out.
Jack

[DoubleEagle]

Jeanine, I think with your academic credentials you deserve to be taken seriously by the management of Thousand Trails. They are part of Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc., based in Chicago. A well written letter to the appropriate manager should get some results.

Regarding making your conversion look more authentic, I would look at the many small RV's by various manufacturers that are very similar in size to shuttle buses. Where you can, copy what has been done by them to achieve an appearance that blends in. Your solar panel might have stirred the most concern with the excess wire on the outside so that you could put it in better positions when parked. I would put the wire in a concealed position when not in use. I would also (for your own safety) ensure that everything in the shuttle bus is secured so that it will not fly around if you stop quick or have an accident. Hopefully, you have a rear exit door, emergency windows, and roof hatches. With all of the hanging objects in the bus, things must swing around a lot.

I see that you did your undergraduate work at Boston University, my brother is an Associate Professor there (Forensic Archaeology). I have 48 graduate hours (ABD) in Environmental Studies/Environmental Ethics, and I find the concepts of Deep Ecology, Ecofeminism, and Speciesism to be very interesting, despite my blowing carbon into the air with my Eagles.

[windtrader]

FYI - An RVIA sticker will not found on 4 of the 5 recommended Prevost converters. Only Featherlite is an RVIA member. What a joke.


Emerald Luxury Coaches

Featherlite Coaches

Liberty Coach, Inc.

Marathon Coach, Inc.

Millennium Luxury Coaches

Also, here is the definition in the legal TT terms.

"Camping vehicle" and/or "recreational vehicle" means any
vehicle that comfortably sleeps one or more persons overnight
on an extended basis. We recognize motor homes, travel
trailers, folding trailers, pickup campers and conversion vans
as camping vehicles and/or recreational vehicles. Camping
vehicles must be operable and in good condition as determined
in our discretion.

What a joke #2.

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

I have called Thousand Trails twice in the past two days to find out what their rules are regarding RVIA stickers but I still have not received a call back from them.  So I am concerned about their Customer Service as I was considering buying a membership myself but I like to ensure I get good customer service before signing up for anything. I will be second thinking this membership now. 

[windtrader]

Hey Gary,

After seeing the post about TT and hearing about it before but not taking time to check it out, I am engaged in a conversation with a sales rep at TT. I explained that my "friend" experienced this reported incident and explained that it would only make sense for me to join up if my converted coach met the terms of "recreational vehicle" as defined in the term sheet.

I'm sending her more pics and details of my coach and she said she has sent this up the chain before, so I'll keep you posted. There are plenty of stated constraints in the details but if you get just one or two stays it pays for itself. Naturally, your journey's route is somewhat dictated by the resorts in their portfolio.

Her email provided decent discounts off the published pricing and the Trails Connection might be a worthwhile add on to expand options.

Will keep you posted, do the same.
Don

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

Hey Gary,

After seeing the post about TT and hearing about it before but not taking time to check it out, I am engaged in a conversation with a sales rep at TT. I explained that my "friend" experienced this reported incident and explained that it would only make sense for me to join up if my converted coach met the terms of "recreational vehicle" as defined in the term sheet.

I'm sending her more pics and details of my coach and she said she has sent this up the chain before, so I'll keep you posted. There are plenty of stated constraints in the details but if you get just one or two stays it pays for itself. Naturally, your journey's route is somewhat dictated by the resorts in their portfolio.

Her email provided decent discounts off the published pricing and the Trails Connection might be a worthwhile add on to expand options.

Will keep you posted, do the same.
Don

Thanks for looking into this too Don.  I will post here what they tell me as the person I talked to didn't know much so a manager is supposed to call me.
Gary

[eagle19952]

I have called Thousand Trails twice in the past two days to find out what their rules are regarding RVIA stickers but I still have not received a call back from them.  So I am concerned about their Customer Service as I was considering buying a membership myself but I like to ensure I get good customer service before signing up for anything. I will be second thinking this membership now. 

they have a FB page..rampant with issues, most unfavorable. misrepresentation the most common.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=306442599366319&ref=br_rs

[Dave5Cs]

Gary they will probably call you back sometime once they have all your info and offer you a weekend for free to stay at 1 of three TT's not very close to you and then if you go they will try and sell you a space. If you want a space go on C-list or similar and look at buying a member sold space instead foe a bunch less and sometimes you only have to pay for the transfer of title.
Some of the TT's are good but most now days seem to squeeze a lot of spots in for a high price.

[B_K]

Gary they will probably call you back sometime once they have all your info and offer you a weekend for free to stay at 1 of three TT's not very close to you and then if you go they will try and sell you a space. If you want a space go on C-list or similar and look at buying a member sold space instead foe a bunch less and sometimes you only have to pay for the transfer of title.
Some of the TT's are good but most now days seem to squeeze a lot of spots in for a high price.

As "connected" as Gary is they should offer him a "comped" visit at the resort of his choice! Shoot he even knows Clifford and Van! 
  BK 

[pabusnut]

I have read quite a few reviews, and it sounds like they will be out of business in a few years.  Contracts are worthless when the company declares bankruptcy.  Class action suit would be the only option, and it should be started now.

I did notice that their website is very scant on details---unless you hit the "BUY NOW" button.

[windtrader]

Still little history here but it seems in years past, TT was like a timeshare scheme and required multiple thousand dollar buy ins. Currently, the offer is no need to buy any share, you just pay annually around 500 for access to the network of parks.

For example, for me living in NorCal and loving Pismo Beach, there is a park backed up to Oceano State Park. With a single 14 day stay, the annual fee is pretty much covered. Any stays beyond that are "free". So, very little risk compared to the timeshare schemes.

There are many of those older memberships for sale and ppl want all sorts of money for a worthless membership share.

That said, I haven't checked out the actual reservation and usage comments. Unless you can get decent reservations, even 500 bucks is too much. If you can fairly easily get reservations at places you want to visit, then it may be a pretty decent buy.

[lvmci]

Hi All,  there's a thousand trails in Acton,CA that's also called Encore, that you can stay at for normal fees, lvmci...

[Ed Hackenbruch]

They have "Zone Passes" for different parts of the country. If you are going to be in one area for a good amount of time and they have enough parks that you want to stay in, it can be an ok deal. You buy it for a year,( be sure to cancel in writing at the end of the time if you aren't going to do it the next year.)  And you can use it as much as you like.....you can stay for up to 4 days and then move to another park for up to 4 days. We used one on the Wa. and Oregon coast one year and just went from one to another for the summer. First 30 or maybe it was 50? days stay are covered by the buy price if i remember right, and then after that it was $3 or $4 a day and maybe a $2 electrical surcharge.