Walmart and Sams Club camping

YanmarFever · Dec 30, 2003

The reason they let folks use the parking lot overnight is that since they started doing it crime has dramatically dropped for them.
I spoke with an employee about this over a year ago,and he said that rv. folks do not steal what they have outside the store or break the windows, and its good for security to have people in the parking lot all night some of them awake.

It started out with truckers at first, then the motorhomes joined in.
I dont shop at walmart, but its nice for folks to scratch each others back when in a pinch and they came up with a good one.
Tractor Ernie

rdam · Dec 30, 2003

( It doesn't matter to me, but if I owned a campground/RV park, I'd be burning up the phone lines.

What good would that do ? If I was passing through a town and did not want to go through the hassle of driving in an RV park,I would gladly park on a Walmart/Sam's lot for the conveinance of it. )

Maybe I wasn't specific enough. I have a pop-up camper. I too would probably "camp" in Wal-Marts lot if I did not want to go through the "hassle" ($) of driving into an RV park.

What I said was "if I owned a campground/RV park, I'd be burning up the phone lines"; as in explaining to the county/city commision that their failure to enact an ordinance preventing overnight camping in parking lots was adversely affecting my ability to prosper ($) in a business from which the county/city required me to obtain permits ($)and meet certain requirements necessary to be designated an RV park....as opposed to a parking lot.

Again, it does not matter to me...but it does matter to the many mom and pop campgrounds who find it hard to compete with a free campground with a 24 hour camp store.

I LOVE Wal-Mart. My wife and I travel extensively in the Southeast and it has become our comical routine to immediately determine where the closest WM is in case we need something...which is about every 6 hours. However....Like I said above....Mom and Pop...

Old_Hickory · Dec 31, 2003

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

5030 · Dec 31, 2003

Bird:

I think you are aware that Amy and I have a Lance truck camper that we go to horse shows with and when we visit out-of-town friends so as not to impose, we always take the camper. Anyway..

The year before last, we went to a horse show in Virginia. We got a late start and decided to stop overnight on the way down. Being a trucker, I stopped in a rest area on the interstate. What a mistake. We got very little sleep with the noise of the truck exhaust pipes at the same height as our upper bunk. It just so happened that a Wally Mart was at the next exit. (I didn't know it). The next morning, we got off at the exit to have some breakfast and stopped at the Wally Mart because Amy needed some toothpaste (she forget her kit). There were 3 RV's in the lot, still sleeping soundly. I learned my lesson. Bought a Wally Mart road atlas, with all store locations and now we also use Wally Mart while in transit.

On the subject of campgrounds. The Wally Mart thing is for, like I said, in transit.

I would never think of setting up camp in an asphalt parking lot. We always reserve our campsites ahead of our adventures. Besides, you need to stay in campgrounds to dump you black and gray tanks as well as fill your fresh tank.

Egon · Dec 31, 2003

We have spent many a night at truck stops. The engine noise didn't bother us but the air dryers switching was a darned nusance.

Egon

Bird · Dec 31, 2003

( Some of the local campgrounds are getting a little peeved at Wal-Mart/Sam's for allowing RV's overnight )

Several years ago, we were going from Dallas to West Virginia and one of my brothers was going with us. It so happened that I needed a part to fix our washer/dryer in the motorhome and my brother was working at the Camping World store in Denton, TX; however, that part was not in stock in that store. He called and found that the Camping World store in Nashville had the part in stock so we decided to just stop there to get it. We got there about midnight and found a sign that it was illegal to spend the night on their parking lot, but we spent the rest of the night there anyway, and no one bothered us. Then the next day we were told that the campground owners (there were 3 within sight of Camping World) had gotten that city ordinance passed because they thought they were losing money by campers staying in parking lots instead of their campgrounds.

5030 · Jan 1, 2004

Egon:

That irritates me too. Especially when I am in my truck and another truck passes me on the E-way and the dryer is fast cycling. That means that the air system is leaking somewhere.

That also means that the truck won't pass a DOT inspection. The law states that with the service brakes fully applied, the air pressure won't drop more than 10 pounds in 1 minute.
/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

rdam · Jan 1, 2004

( If I remember correctly, the Kissimmee Walmart has signs up that says overnight camping there is prohibited. Are these signs just ignored or are they no longer up? )

I looked last night...
"RV Parking Only/No Tractor/Trailer Parking"

I believe any reference to "overnight" is omitted...But, I may have missed it...it was a busy night.

Bird · Jan 1, 2004

Rick, sometimes you have to know the background to understand laws and/or rules and regulations (whether public or private) and sometimes little details are important. For example: I've been in some highway rest areas with signs prohibiting "overnight camping" with no details on the sign and an attendant told us that meant no pitching of tents, building a fire, etc., but parking overnight in any vehicle, RV or otherwise, was permissible. And while I don't know what the current law is in Louisiana, I remember a time when signs posted in rest areas were pretty detailed and prohibited staying overnight, even in an RV. However, I had a friend who was a Louisiana State Police officer and he said it was because an older couple traveling in an RV went to the restrooms in a rest area one night, were robbed and murdered, and their family sued the state, so the state legislature passed that law with enforcement specifically limited to the state police (local and county officers could not enforce it) and the state police had a policy of not enforcing it. It was simply a hoped for means of limiting the state's liability. We've also been in rest areas which had signs posted limiting the length of your stay to 4 hours, and again an attendant told me to not worry about it if we wanted to spend the night, it was just so they could easily run off anyone who caused a problem.

On the other hand, in 1965 in Oregon, my parents tried to spend the night in a rest area and an officer came along and told them they had to move on; weren't allowed to park overnight in that rest area. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

And I know of a WalMart Super Center that has overhead barriers preventing any vehicle over 7' tall from entering and signs prohibiting truck parking. However, those barriers are at the entrances at the front of the store from the Interstate service road. No such barriers exist at the entrance and exit on the side street and I don't believe I've ever been by there that there weren't RVs in the parking lot. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

DUMBDOG · Jan 1, 2004

I must have misread it then. That or my memory is going, /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif it has been six months since I have been down there, but heading back down again in two weeks.