As has been said, the bigger you are the fewer places you can fit. I’m going to assume, maybe incorrectly, that with a Class C in the 30’ area you’re an “RVer” and for the most part will want hookups in well developed sites. Commercial parks should pose no problem even with a 35. 30’ will fit in most state parks I’m familiar with but you may find restrictions if you go bigger. You’ll be able to get in some campgrounds in national parks, but many will be off limits. And most will be dry camping without hookups.
If you were a “camper” and wanted to get off the pavement, say in national forests, I’d say you need to stay way below 30’. Not saying you couldn’t stay there, but you’d have to stay close to the pavement in an area with a lot of maneuvering room. Driving down a dirt road would be inadvisable unless one had scouted it out and was sure they had room to get in or turn around if they couldn’t. But again, hookups are not common in those places.
So in short, 30’ plus should work fine in commercial parks and I‘d stay at 30’ for the state parks. Public land, like national forest campgrounds, wouldn’t be a good option for the most part but you may get in some.
rfryer wrote: As has been said, the bigger you are the fewer places you can fit. I’m going to assume, maybe incorrectly, that with a Class C in the 30’ area you’re an “RVer” and for the most part will want hookups in well developed sites. Commercial parks should pose no problem even with a 35. 30’ will fit in most state parks I’m familiar with but you may find restrictions if you go bigger. You’ll be able to get in some campgrounds in national parks, but many will be off limits. And most will be dry camping without hookups.
If you were a “camper” and wanted to get off the pavement, say in national forests, I’d say you need to stay way below 30’. Not saying you couldn’t stay there, but you’d have to stay close to the pavement in an area with a lot of maneuvering room. Driving down a dirt road would be inadvisable unless one had scouted it out and was sure they had room to get in or turn around if they couldn’t. But again, hookups are not common in those places.
So in short, 30’ plus should work fine in commercial parks and I‘d stay at 30’ for the state parks. Public land, like national forest campgrounds, wouldn’t be a good option for the most part but you may get in some.
couldn'tt agree more national forest camps are usually pretty tight on space to maneuver a bigger rig.
1988 Class C Minnie Winnie acquired in April 2011
1986 Class C New Horizon Motorhome (retired. as in "sold")
Just runnin' footloose and fancy free
We bought a 27' with twin beds in the back 5 years ago. Now the kids are 13 and 16 and I am really glad to have those twin beds for them.
The adults sleep on the over cab and we do not have to make up the dinette, unless they have a friend along.
I love the size of our C for our family and the camping we do, both in Provincial Parks and full hook up resorts. We are both comfortable driving Mobi (the name of our C) in cities and can park in two stalls on the street or in a parking lot.
We have travelled with another adult (grandma) and she had one of the twin beds with DD and DS slept on the dinette. 5 adult sized people is enough in 27 feet.
Tothill wrote: We bought a 27' with twin beds in the back 5 years ago. Now the kids are 13 and 16 and I am really glad to have those twin beds for them.
The adults sleep on the over cab and we do not have to make up the dinette, unless they have a friend along.
I love the size of our C for our family and the camping we do, both in Provincial Parks and full hook up resorts. We are both comfortable driving Mobi (the name of our C) in cities and can park in two stalls on the street or in a parking lot.
We have travelled with another adult (grandma) and she had one of the twin beds with DD and DS slept on the dinette. 5 adult sized people is enough in 27 feet.
We have 5 in a 24' this week end, it's too many, but we are getting by.
We have a 31ft and really haven't had any problems. We still fit across 2 parking spaces when we aren't towing. We can get into almost any campground. Some of the state and national campgrounds are more tricky as they were build long ago and some limit you to 28ft. We however love the layout of our rv and to us that was the most important. Only once were we turned away from a state campground in New England because the max the took was 28ft. Get the rv that fits your family best and then go enjoying!
If you know where you will be camping, area wise go to the web and do a 'survey says'. How many of the sites are shorter than 30'?
If you plan on doing the NPs circuit or a lot of Mountain Camping, do a survey on sites and size 'limitations'. in some NPs. There aren't many for size and most that I've seen do have 'Tour Buses' available.
Some of the places I used to Camp are now out of bounds because of ground clearance as well. I'm at 28'.
It's all a balance, that's dependent on Your usage.
Hoppe
2011 Dodge 1500 C'boy Caddy
2000 Jayco C 28' Ford chassis w V-10 E450
Doghouse 36' or so Trophy Classic TT
Have never had a problem getting into a site or CG with our 30' Class C, but I have heard that Ca. has quite a few SP's with smaller sizes, (unless those are the ones that they closed).
I have seen a few here with shorter size restrictions in certain loops of a CG, but have also seen 40 footers in a different loop of the same CG.
2007 Forester 2941DS
2005 KIA Spectra
Zamboni, Long Haired Mini Dachshund
You can have my RV, when you pry my cold dead fingers from the Steering Wheel
You should have no problem at most campgrounds. We stopped at one with our 31-32 foot class C and was told the only site left was for maximum 30 footer. Did I think I could manage. After I backed in and got out I had over 8 feet of room left! Sometimes (more often than not) CG owners give smaller estimates than the site can tolerate. We have camped in 38 States and never had a problem.
Old Man of the Mountain
"The Old Man has fallen and can't get up"
rfryer wrote: As has been said, the bigger you are the fewer places you can fit. I’m going to assume, maybe incorrectly, that with a Class C in the 30’ area you’re an “RVer” and for the most part will want hookups in well developed sites. Commercial parks should pose no problem even with a 35. 30’ will fit in most state parks I’m familiar with but you may find restrictions if you go bigger. You’ll be able to get in some campgrounds in national parks, but many will be off limits. And most will be dry camping without hookups.
If you were a “camper” and wanted to get off the pavement, say in national forests, I’d say you need to stay way below 30’. Not saying you couldn’t stay there, but you’d have to stay close to the pavement in an area with a lot of maneuvering room. Driving down a dirt road would be inadvisable unless one had scouted it out and was sure they had room to get in or turn around if they couldn’t. But again, hookups are not common in those places.
So in short, 30’ plus should work fine in commercial parks and I‘d stay at 30’ for the state parks. Public land, like national forest campgrounds, wouldn’t be a good option for the most part but you may get in some.
couldn'tt agree more national forest camps are usually pretty tight on space to maneuver a bigger rig.
A few years back we got the last site in a Forest Service campground. I had to jog back and forth to get a 21 foot RV in. The site would take nothing bigger than a pickup camper or short C. I have been in many other sites that will not accommodate big rigs. One reason we kept the size down is to provide maximum flexibility. Part of that decision process was helped by an owner of the 30 foot RV.
Offline
