RV Park thoughts, suggestions & ideas.

[Bird]

be sure that the electrical outlets are installed right side up. I have taken to stashing a roll of duct tape with my electrical stuff. That way when the outlet is upside down, I can tape the cord to the pole (hopefully). But this is a real hot button for me.

Of course I agree, but even more important for RVers is whether the electric service was installed properly. As a full time RVer, I carried my own test equipment (cheap stuff works just fine). We found one park in Indiana that was right on the verge of being low enough voltage to damage appliances, one park in Pennsylvania said they had 30 amp service, but I discovered his electrician had simply installed a 30 amp outlet; still had a 20 amp breaker for it, one park in Arizona and one in Oregon had reversed polarity (and in each case, the park management had no idea what I was talking about until I showed them how to fix it).

 

[EddieWalker]

Eddie- If you ever get down toward Johnson City, there is a small wildlife park maybe 5 miles north of Johnson City on hwy 281. I have passed by it many times but never stopped. I don't think it has RV parking. But from the highway you can often see several different kinds of antelope and some zebra. Stopping in to talk to them might give you some ideas or head off some problems.

Bill,

I've been to three wildlife drive through parks in the hill country, but don't think that is one of them. Kerrville had a great one right at the edge of town, but the last time I was there, it was closed down. North of Fredricksburg was another one that was fun. They had a few cabins, but no RV sites at that time. Right next to them was a very large, thousands of acres type ranched owned by the guy who owns the Pitsburg Steelers. They said he just comes out there to hunt. The other one is called Natural Bridges and is over a thousand acres.

I've met the owners of the last two and sort of got the cold shoulder. They were friendly enough when I complimented them on there places, but when I told them what I wanted to do and ask for advice, they changed. It could be just me, but I've met allot of RV Park owners and never had a single one who wouldn't stop what he was doing and take some time to tell me about his park. Some will even spend a few hours walking around there park with me showing different things about there park to me.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Eddie, this is a link to the best Campground in the Traverse City, Michigan area. It is pretty impressive now, but they did start small and added new features every year. The big draw (other then all the lakes in the area) is the "sense of community" IE: social events and activities for all ages.

Traverse City campgrounds, Traverse City resorts, Traverse City camping, Traverse City

Thanks Turbo.

I like to do searches for RV Park websites and see what they look like. It's always a great way to steal others ideas and take advantage of there hard work. hahahahha

If anybody else had a website of an RV Park, I'd love to see it.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Of course I agree, but even more important for RVers is whether the electric service was installed properly. As a full time RVer, I carried my own test equipment (cheap stuff works just fine). We found one park in Indiana that was right on the verge of being low enough voltage to damage appliances, one park in Pennsylvania said they had 30 amp service, but I discovered his electrician had simply installed a 30 amp outlet; still had a 20 amp breaker for it, one park in Arizona and one in Oregon had reversed polarity (and in each case, the park management had no idea what I was talking about until I showed them how to fix it).

Bird,

Put me down as one of those who don't know what your talking about. I know they have to be wired a certain way, but it's not something I remeber how to do and plan to look up when I get to that point.

One advantage I have is that the electric wholesaler I'm using will do the engineering for free when I buy from them. I just give them my plat and tell them what I need and they will figure out wire size and loads for each meter. I'll be putting in a bunch of 1,200 amp meters!!!!

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Marlowe]

Good golly Miss Molly, is this RV park thing a popular thread or what?

Eddie, many years ago a co-worker was planning an RV park on 300 acres of land. He had a good site on a navigable salt water creek with easy access to a major north south highway. The best advice I heard him get was from our boss.

"Go first class with everything."

I'll give that same advice to you.

I've been in the RV business in the past, and frequented RV parks as part of my sales pursuit. The clubs I was a part of gravitated to the upscale parks. We wanted services and amenities. We wanted recreational outlets. Hardly ever did we simply want to get away from it all. People want to be entertained Eddie. Going camping is simply a means to the end.

Good luck with it. Maybe I can get out to camp with you one day.

While I'm giving advice, let me relay an experience I had a while back to you. The wife and I were on the road one weekend and looking for a campsite. We stopped at a visitor's center and gathered brochures. One of those brochures suggested a quaint campground called 'Apple Orchard Campground'. Sounded OK to us. Wife gave them a call to see if they had a vacancy. They did, and told us if we could get there by 7:00pm they had a covered dish dinner, and the band would start at 8:30. Sure enough, they had a hoe down on Saturday night and lots of the campers had a blast.

Moral of this story is to give them not only a classy place to stay with lots of amenities, but give them just a bit more than they expect. We all like surprises.

They held the last campsite available based on a phone call, by the way. Campers love that kind of old fashioned trust.

Tom

 

[Bird]

Bill,

I've been to three wildlife drive through parks in the hill country, but don't think that is one of them. Kerrville had a great one right at the edge of town, but the last time I was there, it was closed down. North of Fredricksburg was another one that was fun. They had a few cabins, but no RV sites at that time. Right next to them was a very large, thousands of acres type ranched owned by the guy who owns the Pitsburg Steelers. They said he just comes out there to hunt. The other one is called Natural Bridges and is over a thousand acres.

I've met the owners of the last two and sort of got the cold shoulder. They were friendly enough when I complimented them on there places, but when I told them what I wanted to do and ask for advice, they changed. It could be just me, but I've met allot of RV Park owners and never had a single one who wouldn't stop what he was doing and take some time to tell me about his park. Some will even spend a few hours walking around there park with me showing different things about there park to me.

Thanks,
Eddie

Have you visited the Y.O. Ranch? I see they had an exotic game auction in October. I found it to be a fascinating place, but that was almost 30 years ago. In fact, "Charlie three" (Charles Schreiner III) was the owner and was a very nice fellow. I see now the managing partner is Charles Schreiner IV.

 

[RobS]

Hey Bobby,

My mental block is in how to hide half a dozen dumpsters?

When full and built out, I'll have well over 200 RV sites, 30 plus cabins, two dozen tent sites, 3 laundromats, 5 meeting areas with kitchens, dozens and dozens of garbage cans, a resturant, a store and a large storage rental area with space for 30 RV's and a couple dozen individual units.

I'm going to have a MASSIVE amount of garbage. hahahaha

Thanks,
Eddie

Time to think about a compactor Eddie. There is a huge campground at Indiana Beach (hardly a "resort", but fun). They have these trash carts they pull around to collect the stuff and then they pull up to the compactor. It picks up the cart and tips it in, then packs it into a standard, enclosed roll off. It's gotta be more space efficient but of course, more costly.

Oh yeah, in case you didn't pick up on it... I'm a real stickler for clean, neat and tidy. To me, those are the things that can make any campground stand out.

 

[Bird]

Time to think about a compactor Eddie

That's a logical recommendation. When we worked in the RV resort in Virginia, the owners were quite tight with money (maybe that's the reason they were so wealthy), so we just had 3 dumpsters. The garbage collection company charged by volume instead of weight; i.e., made no difference what the dumpsters weighed when they were emptied, and 3 was definitely an inadequate number. Their solution was to compact (or just pack) the garbage down into those dumpsters almost daily with the backhoe.

 

[RobS]

Their solution was to compact (or just pack) the garbage down into those dumpsters almost daily with the backhoe.

Hey, we're back to tractoring on this thread!!! Funny how that works on a forum full of tractor nuts

 

[AlanB]

I think the answer to your dumpster question, really comes from the answers to some other questions.

If you are going to regularly drive around (daily I think) and empty small (30 gal) cans into a cart or trailer, then bring them too your central collection point, then hiding the dumpsters is nothing but putting them where your construction equipment is / will be.

However, if you want to have the campers put the trash direct in the dumpsters, then the dumpsters must be very convieniently located. I would think that you would do something like McDonalds and the like do with a concrete wall around them, a fence in the front (non see through) and one of those combination locks mentioned for the bathrooms.

Another idea to consider would be to buy a small very well used 1 ton garbage truck. In our area they are fairly common. That gives you the compactor and all on a rolling chassis. Then just make your dump runs yourself. And it would be small and unobtrusive enough to pick up the trash in the park.

On the waterpark / pool / wading thing, I would put one of those big fibergalss something's (like an elephant or Giraffe) in the middle of the pool with the trunk spraying the water out. I think if you could make it oscilate (sp) somehow that would be even neater.

While I am an off road riding enthusiast, I would think long and hard about linking to a 4 wheeler / ATV park. Matter of fact, I just would not do it.

Bicycle trails, would be an entirely different matter. I would think that could be an attraction unto itself. Marked loops and trails of varying levels of difficulty, much like ski slopes.

Of course I think you should have a motorcycle Trials competition there, cause all trials riders are great folks