RV Park thoughts, suggestions & ideas.

[EddieWalker]

Was not thinking ADA but you certainly must.

I would eat the elephant one bite at a time, and would rather have high quality picnic tables then plenty of cheap broken ones. I think you may be able to find someone though to build them at cost.

What if instead of a 5 gallon bucket it was a decorative flower pot?

My limited experience is that no matter where you put it, it will be in someone's way, and you will be REALLY pissed when they move something that should not be moved. (ie plan on how to replace those permananently mounted Picnic tables someone will remove one with a car etc.)

Alan,

You hit on my delima. How to make everyone happy.

ADA is probably of minimal concern to me with most guest being able to get in and out of an RV. Some will have scooters to get around and won't be able to walk very far, but it's rare that an RV park gets sued for not being ADA complient.

I will make one bathroom that way in each of my bathroom buildings. It's not too complicated, but it will be more money. I'll also have one stall for each ADA compliant in my resturant along with the doors and parking lots. They have good information online with diagrams and dimensions.

The National RV Park Association did a survey on guests that covers allot of things. One that I thought was very important was that after somebody sees two things wrong, they start to look for more. If it's only one thing that bothers them or is wrong, they are perfectly willing to ignore it.

I'll have allot more than two things wrong, and with some peole, I expect they will find dozens of things they wont like, but my goal is to make as many happy as I can. My favorite saying is "I want to hit them with happy thoughts and keep them that way!"

Do you think picnic tables are something that will cause me to loose there happy thoughts? I'll keep it in mind before I do anything, luckily I'm very slow and there's no timetable to stop me from changing my mind on this.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Bird]

Eddie, a couple of places we stayed in Arizona, one in Tucson and one in Phoenix, which have large numbers of snowbirds who stay all winter, had separate areas for those with pets and for those without. That got all the dogs at one end of the campground.

I have no idea what the demand would be for RV storage in your area, away from the big cities, but when I bought the 5th wheel about 6 months before we sold the house and went to full time RVing in '89, there was one of those self-storage places nearby. I've forgotten the name, but it was similar to the Public Storage places you see. In addition to the storage buildings, they had a couple of long "sheds?" They were open, roof only, and the posts separating each "site" were set so RVers could back into their site at an angle instead of having to get it squared up. They had a dump station and water available, so it made it pretty convenient to get it out when we wanted, dump and flush the holding tanks when we returned, and put it back into its parking spot.

 

[rox]

Alan,

You hit on my delima. How to make everyone happy.

ADA is probably of minimal concern to me with most guest being able to get in and out of an RV. Some will have scooters to get around and won't be able to walk very far, but it's rare that an RV park gets sued for not being ADA complient.

I will make one bathroom that way in each of my bathroom buildings. It's not too complicated, but it will be more money. I'll also have one stall for each ADA compliant in my resturant along with the doors and parking lots. They have good information online with diagrams and dimensions.

The National RV Park Association did a survey on guests that covers allot of things. One that I thought was very important was that after somebody sees two things wrong, they start to look for more. If it's only one thing that bothers them or is wrong, they are perfectly willing to ignore it.

I'll have allot more than two things wrong, and with some peole, I expect they will find dozens of things they wont like, but my goal is to make as many happy as I can. My favorite saying is "I want to hit them with happy thoughts and keep them that way!"

Do you think picnic tables are something that will cause me to loose there happy thoughts? I'll keep it in mind before I do anything, luckily I'm very slow and there's no timetable to stop me from changing my mind on this.

Thanks,
Eddie

I do think picnic tables are something that will "loose happy thoughts" jsut look at me, 10 years later, I still remember that the picnic tables were to wide to fit under my awing and that the ratio of seat height to table height was too great. When you set up one of the first things you do is grab the picnic table and put it where you want it. I do totally LOVE the idea of a lantern holder (in our case patio lights) holder attached to the picnic table. The T idea is excellent. The only thing about paint is, then you ahve to re-paint. I would say if you could get some pvc pipe as a lantern holder that would be ideal. Might want to consider white PVC so that you can find them laying around. I would vote to have them removable. People will want to take them out to put on a table cloth. Why not jsut drill 2 holes, one at an end and one in the center, and let people put the pole where they want it. i really do think this would make people really really happy. At all the campsires I have been at, people always have to jerry rig something to hang a lantern or patio lights.

WOW! what and eye opener, I jsut googled plastic picnic tables and they are like $700 & $800 Home & Garden: Recycled Plastic Picnic Tables & Patio Tables - The Builder's MarketPlace @ NorthWest Builder's Network, Inc.

That idea of having a vocational school or tech class make your pipes for the legs sounds like a good idea. Plus with the plastic tops and seats, you don't have to re-paint.

As I said earlier form a user perspective, i would really not have happy thoughts if the picnic tales were non movable. You may see this in parks in picninc areas, but peopel are not there for more than one meal, it is transient. If I am going to be at a site a few days or a week, I seriously want to move my picnic table under some shade.

What did you think of my idea of building a few sites that were fenced in for dogs? In this way people would not have to leave their dog on a leash, you could charge more for these sites. Advertise it as fenced in sites for your dogs (even for people with toddler children would like those sites) i know that idea is kind of 'way out there' and if you don't care for the idea my feelings will not be hurt.

My happiness factor will go way up if I had a picninc table with a built in lantern holder and two posts half way down the side lot lines so that i could string patio lights. the thing is if you string the lights from your camper all the way to the back of the lot, without support half way down, the run is to loong and the lights droop.

Possibly you could jsut dig a hole, pour in some cement and put in a pipe level with the ground so that the lawn mowers can mow over them. Then you provide a long pipe that slides into the holder pipe that is in the hole. I guess what i am trying to say is that the pipe in the cement is like a casing. If people don't want to use the upright pipes they jsut slide them out and lay them on the ground. Plain unpainted pipe is just fine I would think.

just imagine how pretty it will be to walk through the campground at night with patio lights framaing the sites. It is a way to have your site lit with low lighting that is away from your camper. Unles you get lucky on a site and there are existing trees, the only other place you can hang patio lights is from your awaning and that is not lighting the 'site' it is jsut providing additional ligting in an area that already has lights. I prefer to have lighting on my site, i always ran patio lights over to the fire pit. I jsut had another thought. The same pipe, sticking up on the lot line, can be used by both neighbors, if it had a T in there somewhere. That would reduce the project cost by half and also is is a very good indicator of where the lot line is, so people don't get into issues about it. It is a way to mark the lots as well.

 

[bmac]

Hey Bmac, glad to see you here.

Eddie

Oh, I've been reading this thread. As you can tell from my last reply, I just haven't had anything useful to offer. Looks like you are getting a lot of good suggestions. I'm thinking that, once the park is complete, it might be worth buying an RV just to come visit. Then I can say that I've stayed at "Eddie's Place".

 

[gemini5362]

Eddie I did not mention the verizon type service because to be honest I have never had it I know someone that is trying it out now but from what little bit I know about it I would think not enough bandwidth by far for your use. But I dont really know anything about that medium.

Fiber optics if you could get someone to run that out there and they MIGHT do it if you gave them enough buisness that could be cable or phone. That is the cadillac of bandwidth everything else is slowwwww in comparison. I worked at a place that used fiber optics to connect computers to 750 horse motors that had a varying load on them and they ran them in real time off of computerized controllers mounted in a different room. but getting someone to run it out there is the hard part I suspect you might try calling the nearest cable company or the phone company again and ask about that specifically.

My experience with running a T1 line was about 7 years ago. I had a buisness with a bunch of empty space and i wanted to run a t1 line so i could open an internet cafe. My experience with the phone company was a lot different than what you describe. They had me talk with a buisness engineer that went over prices on full T1 lines ( by the way a t1 line is a pair one for transmission one for recieving) and prices on fractional lines. They talked about the cost of leasing a router. ( back in those days a decent router was over 20,000.00 ) and basically talked me through everything I would need. Due to a change in marital status I sold my buisness before I set up the internet cafe. I am just guessing here but did you just talk to your phone company and is it a local company ? T1 lines are usually from Sprint or MCI or Bell etc. That is why I was asking the distance to the nearest POP. Let me know how your research is coming along and if you need me to look up anything for you

 

[CurlyDave]

...My plan was to use three PT 2x10's 12 feet long and cut them in half to 6 feet...

Eddie:

You might want to check before you use PT for picnic tables. It is treated with arsenic or copper, and while the toxicity of copper is lower than arsenic, it is still toxic to humans. I know I wouldn't want to eat from a PT picnic table.

- - - - - - - - -

A second question: Have you looked up the copyright on "Wild Kingdom"?

I know there is a TV show by that name, and someone might not take kindly to you using it for a wildlife-themed RV resort. I would look into this before I made up signs, brochures, logos, and did any advertising.

I bet "Lake Marabou RV Resort" would work just as well, and you could own the trademark & copyright.

 

[mjarrels]

I know this has been brought up before... dogs, dogs, dogs. I know people who have dogs that bark 24/7 and the owners must think its "cute". Have been to RV parks where dogs bark, grow, snarl at people walking by... owners just say he won't hurt you when in fact this is an act of aggression.

mark

 

[BTDT]

Can't wait to come visit. We've camped at the Tyler State park several times (actually it's a Texas state park at Tyler). Anyway, lot's of things for you to think about. I know it's nice to have a place for the lantern, but I would want it away from picnic table because light draws bugs, and I don't like sharing my food with flying critters. For maintenance, seems like the picnic tables made from pipe, or angle with the fake wood (recycled plastic) would be better in the long run. I don't own any, but have seen them in some parks. Maybe some of those little tiki lights (cans of lamp oil with a wick) would work for a jungle effect. Have the poles in place, (corners of picnic table pad, down "property lines" between camp sites, etc) then sell the cans with fuel in your store. As for the garbage, the dumpsters or compactors should be out of the way behind a tall pile of dirt (levee) with access from road for trucks to empty. Being behind a dirt wall will keep the noise down, they will be out of site, and the lids could be left open so whoever is emptying the trash cart could just drive up levee and walk out on a platform that is over the dumpsters and throw the trash "down" into them. As for your lake and the swimming issue, put up signs saying "Please don't feed the gators!" Maybe have your image imposed next to a nice gator pic like you killed it and hang in your check in area. There is a museum "Dallas World Aquarium" in Dallas that is built inside an old abandoned building. It is like a rainforest in there, and one of the neat things they did is in the floor, they have animal tracks, leaf prints, etc. right in the concrete walkways. Pretty neat looking. Don't know if you could do this sort of thing with your concrete pads for picnic tables or not. Also, maybe you could have maps of park made into top of tables so buildings, trails, etc. would be readily available at each site.

 

[Bird]

I noticed, in the state park at Ray Roberts Lake, each campsite has a steel pole that's obviously bent or shaped at the top to hang a light on. I think they're all at the very back of each site. I agree that I would not want one on, or really close to, the table.

 

[EddieWalker]

Eddie, a couple of places we stayed in Arizona, one in Tucson and one in Phoenix, which have large numbers of snowbirds who stay all winter, had separate areas for those with pets and for those without. That got all the dogs at one end of the campground.

I have no idea what the demand would be for RV storage in your area, away from the big cities, but when I bought the 5th wheel about 6 months before we sold the house and went to full time RVing in '89, there was one of those self-storage places nearby. I've forgotten the name, but it was similar to the Public Storage places you see. In addition to the storage buildings, they had a couple of long "sheds?" They were open, roof only, and the posts separating each "site" were set so RVers could back into their site at an angle instead of having to get it squared up. They had a dump station and water available, so it made it pretty convenient to get it out when we wanted, dump and flush the holding tanks when we returned, and put it back into its parking spot.

Bird,

You bring up another thing I've been thinking about. My plan was to allow guest to pick there own sites. Close to the pool or close to the lake or maybe more in the middle with less traffic. IIt's there choice on what site they want. If I tried to put all the pet owners in one are and not pet owners in another, then I'm assigning sites that might not be what they want. If you have been on the road for a week, being close to the laundromats might be more important that having a dog in the RV next to you? This is where I think I'll have to be flexible and adjust to the demand.

There are two places in Tyler that I know of to store RV's. One has roll up doors and is a big metal building. He charges $200 a month and has plenty of empty spaces. I think the building is big enough for ten RV's but I forgot for sure how many doors he had. With empty spaces and the fact he's had the building there for years tells me he's not doing very well.

The other place has three walls and a roof. They are fairly new and filled up right away. They charge $110 a month. It's been so successfull that they just doubled the size of the building and it looks like it's almost full too!!!

This looks like the way to go. Covered parking for less money. It's easier and cheaper to build for me, and the demand seems to be there. I'm out of town about ten miles, so that will be the big difference. I am right next to the Interstate, so it's not like I'm out in the boonies. It could go either way. I'll have the public dump station for anybody to use, so that will help bring people in. I'll also have potable water availabe for free also. And to realy add something different, there will be the RV wash.

Thanks,
Eddie