Vans and State parks

[Addie]

After a van is converted into living quarters, is it now considered an RV? I have an opportunity to travel only 10 minutes from the barn I'm staying at to a really nice State Park maybe 2-3 times a week to take advantage of shower houses, campfire ring, etc., some of the things I can't do by the barn. With my old lady discount included, it would be 11.00 a night. They have designated spots around the campgrounds for tents or rv's but what do you tell them you have?

 

[waldenbound]

I always sign up for a tent site when I go to a state park. I'm not an RV because I don't have anything to hookup.

My very first night in my van in a start park campsite, a ranger knocked on my door at 12:30 in the morning to ask if I was "safe."
Good grief, when I went back to that park, I told them, "no visitors tonight."

Going to National Parks, the rangers at the gate don't even bat an eye.

 

[WalkaboutTed]

Even if we were sleeping in the van, we always bring a 2 or 3 person tent. That way we can get a cheaper tenting site. And it is nice to have the tent as a place holder if we take off with the vehicle for many hours. More than once, though, we dragged our Thermorest from the van into the tent if was too hot or buggy (this is the first vehicle with which we'll have window screens).

No one has ever checked if we were actually sleeping in the tent vs in the van.
Ted

 

[Addie]

Until I get my van, I have a Kia Soul that I have to temporarily camp with and I'm  thinking I could get the tent that attaches to the back of it for now. Good way to try out the camping ordeal with my dogs anyway!

 

[Stargazer]

I tell them I have a van. It's not an RV without all the hookups, plumbing etc. I, too, ask for a tent site (NOT a walk-in site). Never been questioned or had a problem.

 

[eDJ_]

I agree with all above.  I see this all the time when I'm around the campgrounds in my area.  And around here Sunday Evening through Friday Morning are Seniors Discount Days.  By Friday noon on the family campers are
setting up to bring in the kids for the week end.

You can find tents new for as little as $20 bucks new and in yard sales even cheaper.  A tent site would see your Van (even if fixed up as a "rig",  a poor mans class B) as your car.   But you'd have access to bath houses, perhaps laundry machines etc. 

If you are at the Barn,  you could get a 2 gallon garden sprayer and splice the hose to a kitchen sink sprinkler to make a "campers shower".   The garden sprayer could be painted dull black and set in the sun to warm the water in it for awhile before you hose yourself down in the barn.

Look at how this one is put together

See the kitchen sink sprinkler (for rinsing dishes) spliced to the garden sprayer hose.   I'd suggest a 2 gallon size one which you may find at a Harbor Freight store for around $10 bucks.  The kitchen Sink Sprinkler
would be scrounged at a plumbing shop or a building material recycle shop for a couple of bucks.

With one of these you could wash up each day.  Not like a real shower,  but still you can keep clean and feel fresh.

 

[Addie]

Great idea! Simpler is better! I also have the camp shower enclosure!

 

[TrainChaser]

I have always had either a car, a pickup w/camper shell or a van, and I always get a tent site, with no issues. The only exception (twice) was in a regular campground, and all the tent sites were filled, so they charged me for a tent site and put me in the RV section. A van is a van; what is in it doesn't really mean anything -- they're not going to search it.

 

[Addie]

Ok I get it, it's just fee-based, according to what you have? I was worried that they wouldn't accept you sleeping in your van

 

[Almost There]

Every state or provincial park that I've been in does not classify sites by 'tent' or 'RV'.

They are classified as: 'no hook-ups', Full Hook Ups and some have water only or water and electric only (no sewer connection).

Some also have walk-in tent sites. 

Some parks have premium sites - the one I'm in right now - all the river front sites are premium with no seniors discount available....guess where I'm not...lol.

I've only ever run in to a couple of parks that caused me problems because I had a van - some county  park system in Florida had one park for 'tent's only'....they wouldn't let me stay there because I wasn't planning on pitching a tent. Their other park was RV only and they wouldn't let me stay there either because I didn't have an RV...I was travelling in a Plymouth Grand Voyageur at the time. I went on down the road to someplace that didn't have so many rules.

I also had one park system in Texas that was county run that had 2 campgrounds - one was no hook ups and the other had full hookups at 3 times the price. The no hook up one was lovely but it was all 'walk in sites'...they had this enormous parking lot fenced off from the grassy area. The system wasn't working too well since the no hook up park was completely empty on a Saturday night!

I've never been turned down at a state park because of what I was camped in.

 

[rvpopeye]

I've seen it all in varying degrees at CGs I worked or camped in .
Ask what kind of sites they have and pick one that comes closest to your needs.
No matter how pricey the place is I've never seen one that charged for asking questions....

Bringing a tent even if you don't sleep in it , it will help for those places that do require it and who knows it might be better than sleeping in your car.

Have fun !

 

[VanGrrl57]

Hi.

I have never had a problem staying in my van in any state park in South Dakota nor do I have any problem staying at any of the CGs in Yellowstone National Park where I'm living/working for the season. I do have a tent that I can set up if I think I will encounter a problem, though. However, there are certain CGs in Yellowstone and in Shoshone National Forest that let you know that your rig has to be "hard sided." However, that's because of the potential for black/grizzly bear encounters. While I have been to Grand Teton National Park, I have not camped there yet. Next week, maybe. 


VanGrrl57 

 

[karl]

I've never been refused a space in either a van or my step van at a state campground.
I've stayed at close to 100 cg's (mostly state/fed) all along the eastern states and the one time I was refused was at a private cg between Rockland and Camden ME.

 

[TrainChaser]

A tent site is one that doesn't have hookups, and an RV site is one that does. 'Dry camping' is a campground where NONE of the sites have hookups.

Most of my camping was done more than 20 years ago, and they probably had to change the description to 'no hookups' and 'full hookups' because the newer generation couldn't figure out what the older terms meant. Maybe they were looking for tent sites with running water, power and a personal toilet.

 

[exnavyabfc]

As a newbe building my van, I have also been wondering about this. Also I want to live cheap so I was thinking I could maybe get a tent site with power that I could drive in to , maybe put up my tent, then sleep/live in the van. Sounds like that will be OK at most places.

 

[gargoyle]

Tell them you got a tent. They just need to check a box on the entry form.
If they come by your site and ask "wheres the tent?", tell them you forgot the poles. Oops.

I hang in a hammock and they get a confused look when I mention that. So I tell them "TENT".