Owning your own RV campsite

[Davydd]

Is owning your own RV campsite a growing trend or not? This video by the Wendlands of RV Lifestyle on Facebook illustrates what I am getting at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkNYv_HBEn4

It is kind of extreme and probably or seemingly limited to big rigs. I thought it ironic one Class A called a Sunseeker is sheltered in a huge open shelter to block the sun.

The long shot of the Kentucky Lake in Tennessee (really a river) shows the development of contiguous permanent shelters like the one I mentioned. I wonder if that is no different than the private RV parks they pan at the beginning of the video.

I met "Winter Texans" in a private campground in Mission, TX on the Rio Grande River behind the border wall of mostly all big RVs in a campground like they panned, where it appeared they had a lively, active community of friends with events and clubs on the calendar daily. I went there for two nights because it was adjacent to the Riverside Club Restaurant where I was seeking a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, a hobby pursuit that has grown to 65,000 members on Facebook that I created.

I've mentioned in another thread that we go up to Camp 400 in our Class B, a private lake and over 400 acres of woods, once a year for a family gathering but I can't see where I would like something like that any more than once a year.

Two to three night stays is mostly our limit. South Padre Island stay of 3 weeks is unique for us in keeping us interested with the miles long sand beach, birding center, turtle rescue, kite flying, sand castle exhibit, free bus to get around and the many seafood restaurants. We got itchy to move on.

That's my thoughts. Is owning your own campsite a Class B desire?

[mloganusda]

Unless you are trying to stay in a southern area thru the winter, had WIT members that owned lot in south Texas, I would say no for you. The lots they owned, about 10 years, they constructed storage building, paved part of lot, and added amidites to suit their needs. They traveled there to spend the winter away from the colder climate. They had to pay property taxes just like their brick home. Later they had to become Texas residents to get lower tax breaks on property taxes. Later sold lots as not needed to meet their needs.

[Punkinhead]

My parents traveled full time in a Class A for 20 years. When my father's health failed to the point where they could no longer travel they bought a lot at an Escapees park. They wanted to be near all the people that they'd been meeting up with all over the country for years. My father has passed but my mom still lives there and loves it.

I can't see doing it if you're healthy and active enough to keep exploring but different strokes for different folks. How many parks do you see along the interstate with what look to be permanent 5th wheels? I can't imagine wanting to stay in one place, not to mention that place being near a noisy highway. But people do it. Mostly sedentary, obese people from the looks of it.

The ones I really don't get are the 55 and older parks. I can't imagine ever being so old and bitter that I don't enjoy the sights and sounds of children playing. We met up with my parents at one when our kids were young and they had all kinds of restrictions like not being able to take a walk without an elderly person along. I let them know that I'd never step foot in one again and if they wanted to see their grandkids they needed to find different places to stay.

[avanti]

I think this model is not crazy for people with certain tastes (not the tastes that most folks around here have, though). I think it is closer to "A lake house on a budget" than it is to any kind of "RVing", though.

A few thoughts:
--Those TVA dams generated a LOT of shoreline--much of which is undeveloped, which is what makes these kinds of developments economically feasible. But if you visit any of them, you will discover that they don't have the "silvan lake house" vibe that you might be looking for. As you can see is the video, any reservoir that involves flood control is going to have fluctuating shore lines. This means that there is always a "no build" zone (except sometimes for docks) with non-trivial setbacks and almost always a significant drop-off between you and the lake--ranging from steep riprap to a cliff-face. This limits water access, often feels more like a perpetual construction site than a wooded lake property.

--If you are looking for a highly-private "mountain camp", you are not going to find them this way. There are good reasons why developers are involved in such properties. Lots of people think that they can just buy an undeveloped lot on a lake, add a pad and shore power and park their RV there. But, in most of the country, you will find that county building codes (and often lakewide covenants) forbid building anything that doesn't involve a permanent structure. And this is not to mention the difficulty of getting septic tanks and other utilities to a lake shore. The developers deal with this stuff, but they are typically building a "community", not isolated properties.

None of this is damning for a lot of people. I think it is a fine model. It's just that it is probably not what many folks picture.

[Davydd]

I asked the question in the context of owning a Class B. I recognize we are about 5% of the RV market so are probably not like other RVers.

Tennessee would not solve any cold weather mitigation desires this past winter. Southern Texas was partially miserable as well with cold weather. If I couldn't travel in a Class B any longer I probably would just hang up RVing all together.

[InterBlog]

A year and a half ago, I hatched an Air Forums thread called Buying your own boondocking land.
Pros, cons, ins, outs, hopes, dreams, etc. are described therein, in this context.

Here's my own "RV campsite", if that is what they are to be called:

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Punkinhead

...
"The ones I really don't get are the 55 and older parks. I can't imagine ever being so old and bitter that I don't enjoy the sights and sounds of children playing. ........

"Old and bitter"? Can you perhaps imagine being so "legally-attuned and financially aware" that you realize that many campgrounds could never afford to support the type of infrastructure that a single family residential neighborhood requires to meet both codes and logistical demands?

I have a membership in a very modest 55-and-older campground, and that is why I know that it would cost us approximately an extra **$15,000 PER MEMBER** (or about $30,000 per membership couple!) to upgrade to the caliber of private roads that would be capable of carrying multiple school buses for two hundred days out of every calendar year.

That is simply not compatible with the vision agreed upon by the membership. It's not the kids that anybody objects to - a large majority of members have grandchildren and the park is hardly ever free of visiting children, nor would we want to prevent them from coming. It's the enormous expense that conversion to full residential status would trigger - that's the problem.

55-and-older venues are a necessary evil, from a legal perspective. As soon as a campground opens its door to full-timers, if it does not define itself as 55-and-older, then it must by law accept ALL full-timers, or it will risk civil lawsuits, among other legal problems.

From a google hit:

"The federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the federal Fair Housing Act Amendments Act of 1988 prohibit discrimination on the basis of the following criteria (called "protected categories"): race or color; religion; national origin; familial status or age—includes families with children under the age of 18 and pregnant women; disability or handicap, or sex."

Don't blame the inhabitants and owners of such parks - blame the regulators and the lawyers. They are the ones that forced our hands on this issue.

[folivier]

We've had a large property before and put a camper trailer on it for weekend use. Eventually connected to electricity for running the AC in summertime. This was about 20 years ago and had tons of fun with our kids there. We had a 10 acre lake and river frontage. I would have retired there but the DW said no. Too remote for her.
A couple years ago during covid we bought a lot in the mountains in a development that is about 25% RV lots and 75% cabins, remote in a wooded area surrounded by ranch and BLM land. Some of the lots have full hookups as ours had, others had only water, and maybe electricity. The subdivision has a dump station available for land owners. We enjoyed the area so much last year we sold the lot and bought a cabin, sold our DP and bought the B for the 3 day travels back and forth. We are remote, our lots have a nice separation between adjoining lots with about 1500 acres of undeveloped green space. They're actually circular lots and have green space separating each lot. We have a community up there and even if we hadn't bought the cabin we'd still have the DP and lot. But with the cabin we have winter access. RV's have to leave for winter. Unimproved lots are inexpensive there.
We do what works for us and what we like. Having the lot or cabin puts us in a beautiful area for the summer. And having the B still gives us a comfortable ride and ability to take short trips. We're still planning a northeast leaf trip one fall. And Nova Scotia some day.

[Davydd]

Interblog,s campsite is what I dreamed of once. I had a chance to buy a 10 acre site on the Gunflint Trail in the Arrowhead region that is a 60 mile dead end road that stops on the edge of the Canoe Boundary Waters. That was over 20 years ago when I bought a vintage 1971 Airstream trailer. Since then I go up the Gunflint Trail frequently but camp at my favorite campground, a National Forest campground right at the end of the Trail. It looks like Interblogs campsite.

Meanwhile, the 10 acres I almost bought had other trailers parked on it or an adjacent or nearby plots over the years, but suffered the Ham Lake Fire and a wind blow down. It doesn't look that desirable today. There is still a lot of vacant property in that area.

I've mentally sobered up on this issue but I still have my grandfather's genes I guess. He had properties in Brown County, Indiana, Bean Blossom and Indianapolis and other areas. He grew corn on th Indianapolis property but the Brown County properties were all forested and unused. My dad and I went searching one day and found one on a very steep wooded north slope in Brown County and wondered what the heck you would do with it. My favorite was his 48 acres of old growth woods south of Mooresville where we would go out to play. Just land he had accumulated. I harbored thoughts of inheriting that 48 acres but moved to Minnesota after I got out of the Navy. I never learned what happened to that property.

[Punkinhead]

My wife had thoughts of buying 50-75 acres of woods and leaving a camper on it. The problem with that is vandalism and theft. A friend had some hunting land in WV and tried leaving a trailer on it. It was trashed every time he visited. You could probably get away with leaving a trailer on a small site with neighbors, but a large lot hidden from the neighbors would be a target for thieves and partying kids.

[NAZCamperVan]

Interblog, It's good to hear from you again.

[ilmor]

if you own it then you’re tied to it then you mostly stay there and then you’re not camping anymore you’re just at home.

[Davydd]

I had never thought in terms of leaving an RV on a site. I was thinking more of a nice place to stay as in boondocking. Campsites are so precious in northern Minnesota that you have to plan ahead. My wife was trying to do that yesterday for this coming summer and the state parks on Minnesota's north shore are all booked up.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I had never thought in terms of leaving an RV on a site. I was thinking more of a nice place to stay as in boondocking. Campsites are so precious in northern Minnesota that you have to plan ahead. My wife was trying to do that yesterday for this coming summer and the state parks on Minnesota's north shore are all booked up.

Which is exactly opposite of what the Park Service said would happen when they put in the new reservation system when I contacted them before it was in. All the folks that actually camp a lot have seen that issue many places with similar systems in place.

[Rusczyk56]

Wendlands are a “marketing machine”. Once upon a time they produced good, informational content. Most of the content today is one way or another “soft selling”. They are not alone. I truly wish YouTube and other video content distributors required disclosure of “any” renumeration or other “quid-pro-quo”. Pay close attention to who they interview and connections. Just my opinion, but based on my close observations….

[Rlum]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I had never thought in terms of leaving an RV on a site. I was thinking more of a nice place to stay as in boondocking. Campsites are so precious in northern Minnesota that you have to plan ahead. My wife was trying to do that yesterday for this coming summer and the state parks on Minnesota's north shore are all booked up.

If you think Minnesota state parks are booked up, try getting a reservation in California. All of the national, state and county parks are booked as reservations windows are open. Fortunately, we have lots of nice places to camping without having reserving a commercial location. Just have to be self contained and not need electricity, water, etc.

Finding going to Arizona and Nevada more lately. Did you know Nevada State parks do not have a reservation system. All of these state facilities are first come first get space.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by Rusczyk56

Wendlands are a “marketing machine”. Once upon a time they produced good, informational content. Most of the content today is one way or another “soft selling”. They are not alone. I truly wish YouTube and other video content distributors required disclosure of “any” renumeration or other “quid-pro-quo”. Pay close attention to who they interview and connections. Just my opinion, but based on my close observations….

They put out something every day and they are getting desperate for new material. Today the posted "the 4 best fishing sunglasses."

[booster]

As soon as sites start doing the "the best #XXXX" so called reviews, you no they have sold out.