New to Class B

[Slow-Joe]

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing a Roadtrek Agile SS, our first Class B. We have owned and enjoyed several Class A's and a Class C where we had a toad. We're getting a B so we don't have to tow. This may not even be a problem, but we are wondering about renting a space in a RV Park for multiple nights. How do you make sure your space is unoccupied when you return. Obviously that wasn't a problem with a 36' Motor home parked in our space while we drive around in our toad, but when it's just an empty space there while touring, is that a problem? If it is or can be, how do you solve it?

 

[mumkin]

If you are renting the space in an RV Park or a commercial campground, there are no worries. You are assigned a space by the management. In 20 years I only once had an issue. It was during the Covid Camping Chaos. I had reserved the night before... arrived at about 2:30. About 6:00 after the office had closed, a man pulled up and told me that I was in his space. The office had goofed up and assigned him to my space. One of the work campers tried to convince me to move to another space with no power and I said 'no thanks, I had paid for a space with power.' Actually I chose it for the shade as I had no AC. Now if I had gone out for dinner, I would have lost the space due to office error. But that was an oddity of the times... affected by my registering by phone and ending up with no paperwork in hand.

The issue comes up in many state and national parks... or boondocking. People try leaving stuff like chairs or signs which are no guarantee. Some carry a cheap small tent that collapses into an easily storable item.

 

[booster]

We have had one conflict very early in our 15 years and it wasn't an office mess up for us. We have had trouble with our mat disappearing, though, in the past.



We had left our door mat, blocks, and cord and were only gone for a very short time. When we came back we couldn't find our stuff and then saw it mostly thrown in the weeds behind the site.


The camp host said a group showed up and just went in the site and threw our stuff off the site. When confronted by the hosts, they just said they wanted the site and that was it. The contracted a ranger on his phone and the ranger convinced them they had to leave or he would call the sheriff. They did find them a site in another campground in the park.


For the last about 10 years we have used a "spaghetti" mat about 3X5 feet. On the backside I spray painted white lettering proclaiming the site occupied and our last name. We drape it upside down over the picnic table when we leave for a while and never leave anything else.



Firewood is probably one of the most common things that gets taken when the site isn't identified as taken. It has gotten to the point where some of the wood vultures that swoop in at checkout time to snatch any leftover wood even have little wagons they pull around the campground to take it back to their site. We don't make fires, so no issue for us.

 

[phantomjock]

Seems like after the political season is over a repuropsed yard sign that says, "OCCUPIED" might be small enough and simple to carry along. OOPS! There goes a money making idea.

Cheers - Jim

Well having posted I went and looked:

 

[Doneworking]

Think about carrying a roll of this to put across the campsite to mark it. I also carry an occupied sign that says "Occupied" printed on a piece of plastic about 10x12 inches.

https://www.amazon.com/ATERET-Premi...d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&psc=1

OR

https://www.amazon.com/Caution-Barr...t+yellow+occupied+tape,industrial,121&sr=1-20

 

[jjrbus]

Only one incident in 25 years of someone trying to take my space. That was caused by a well meaning volunteer camp host and was easily resolved.

Crime scene tape and chalk to outline a body is my suggestion.

 

[jrobe-ClassB]

We bought a cheap small tent that takes 10 seconds to set up exactly for this. If we know that we will be gone till fairly late, we just pop open the tent and leave it at the campsite.

 

[michaelingp]

As mumkin said, there isn't really a problem with a commercial or private campground, since there you always have recourse to management to resolve the issue if someone is in your site. For state and local government, it's become a lot less of a problem because almost all the parks have gone to online reservations. It hasn't happened to me, but I've seen a case where someone was in someone else's spot. One person has an email from the online system that has the site number and date, so it's pretty easy to resolve. That said, I try to arrive before dark. That helps in backing in, setting up, and resolving potential issues. In the case I saw recently, the person with the reservations said they were leaving early the next morning, so they just arranged a site-sharing agreement. By the way, the reason for the dispute was that the campground hosts had not done a good job of marking which sites were first-come-first-serve and which were reserved, plus it didn't help that the campground used a very non-intuitive system of designating which sites were which.

Anyway, these days, if you have a reservation you should be good. The trickier part is if you don't have a reservation, you need to do due diligence to avoid setting up in a spot someone else has reserved but hasn't arrived yet.

 

[GaryG-ClassB]

Ditto to all the replies. We own a 2011 Roadtrek SS Agile. When you do leave your site for the day, you'll find it convenient to leave the bed down. Also, carry wheel chocks as you have to release the parking brake to spin the driver's seat around. Happy to answer any questions you have on this RV. Although the electrical house stuff has improved, the basic layout remains the same.

 

[GeorgeRad]

...............Also, carry wheel chocks as you have to release the parking brake to spin the driver's seat around. ...............

It is easy to modify the brake lever to a folding one to retract it to the lower position while brakes are still on, I have this option. https://sprinter-source.com/forums/index.php?threads/51114/#post-729739

 

[GaryG-ClassB]

Thanks! I'll check it out.

 

[MsNomer]

Collapsible laundry basket, $2.78 at Walmart.

 

[renegade-ClassB]

orange traffic cone

We bought a 12 inch traffic safety cone without the reflective tape from Lowes. With a black Sharpie pen we wrote Occupied" vertically on two opposite sides and our last name vertically on the other two opposite sides. BUT, have used it rarely as we don't tend to leave the spot after arriving (boondock: we "tour" much, much more than "camp") , and we rarely stay there more than overnight. So far - So good.

 

[KHD]

Great idea!