seasonal camping

This year will be the first time my wife and i try seasonal camping - which raise a few questions... When you leave the campground for a week or two do you shut down the frig? Do you pull in the slides? - Do you shut down the water heater? or what else I can't think of at this time...I guess it's a personal choice but i just wanted to know what you all think...

Tom

We used to have a seasonal but at the time slide outs hadn't been invented. We would leave the fridge going but turn off the water and relieve the pressure. If I were you, I would bring in the slides just for the heck of it. We would turn off the hot water too. Most of these are for precautionary measures. We kept the electric plugged in.

We did that last year for the first time. I would always bring in the slides,turn off the water,leave the electric on for the refer,turn off the water heater. I think that was all.

Good luck,
Mark

Last year we did the seasonal thing, We would turn off water and the water heater, leave the fridge on, left propane on as a backup for fridge, I would only bring slides if we had severe bad weather in the forecast.

Enjoy your seasonal!!

I see a lot of consistency in this matter. Like the others, on my seasonal site, when I leave the RV, slides come in, water goes off and power and LP remain on. I leave food in the ref and the battery switch on, hence the power and LP remaining on.

That all said, I do see a lot of 5ers with slides left out all season long. I am guessing they have their furniture, decorating and "stuff" all set and don't want to disrupt it - so they leave the slides out. Just a guess.

Jim

My only concern about leaving the slides out is all that dirt that collects on top of the slide. yes I regular clean the top but just the thought of bird bomb up there doesn't do anything for me. I always pull the slides in when not in use to help keep them a little cleaner. I agree with everything that everyone else has committed about H2O, etc.

This is my first full year as a seasonal. Did half the season last year. I asked a Heartland factory rep at the Detroit camper show I bought my Sundance at. He said there is no harm in leaving the slides out, as far as the structure is concerned. He recommended bringing them in then out about once a month, so the mechanism can lube itself. But since I have slide awnings, I'll be bringing mine in every time so they don't get damaged and faded.

A lot of seasonals at my campground leave their slides out all season.

I leave the frig and propane on but turn off the water heater and city water connection.

mrcomer said:

We did that last year for the first time. I would always bring in the slides,turn off the water,leave the electric on for the refer,turn off the water heater. I think that was all.

Good luck,
Mark

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we did the same. Also learned the hard way to roll the awning up, no matter how good you think the weather will be

This may be a bit off topic, and Jim, feel free to relocate. But why are all of you doing the seasonal thing and what criteria are you using to select a site for the season? I am not critisizing, mind you, just inquiring. Marcia and I like the travel aspect of the RV lifestyle but have considered a seasonal site in the past. We have found a number of very nice parks, and a like number of why bothers. We just haven't found someplace we would consider spending an entire season. So, what is it that you have found to draw you to a seasonal site and would it preclude you from taking a road trip also?

Joe

jpjulian said:

This may be a bit off topic, and Jim, feel free to relocate. But why are all of you doing the seasonal thing and what criteria are you using to select a site for the season? I am not critisizing, mind you, just inquiring. Marcia and I like the travel aspect of the RV lifestyle but have considered a seasonal site in the past. We have found a number of very nice parks, and a like number of why bothers. We just haven't found someplace we would consider spending an entire season. So, what is it that you have found to draw you to a seasonal site and would it preclude you from taking a road trip also?

Joe

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We found our seasonal site before we even had our own trailer. It was a beautiful spot right on the water but they had a huge waiting list and no one ever left so we didn't really think that much about it. THEN the owners changed and lots of seasonal folks left and we had an opportunity to try it. We always knew we would only do it once, just for the experience, since we also want to travel. So we put our 'travel' plans on hold for a year to enjoy this great place before they built condos on it! Now, we have a 'permanent' site that we can use all year 'round, but we still do lots of travelling.

Hi Joe,

Great question. I think you may get answers that have a range of reasons.

Here was our scenario 4 years ago when we got our first 5er:

• Live in a townhome with no place to store on-site, so we had to find a place for sure
• We both still work (in the Chicago area) - so living in the RV while working was not an option
• Getting a seasonal site versus a storage lot allowed us to use the RV on weekends where we could not travel, yet we wanted to "Go RVing" - we just did it at the seasonal site. We had a lakeside lot too
• Seasonal sites mean you can leave your power connected should you desire. We left our refer on all the time - powered by AC power. So when we were ready to pull-out and "Go RVing", the refer was ready to go
• With AC power on-site, I could go to the RV anytime to work on the RV
• Often times, to maximize our RV time, we would go to the RV the night prior to departure, after work and get the RV ready to roll, stay the night in it (power/water connected) - drop the utilities and head out with the RV early the next morning. This saved us hours and allowed us to get to our camp site on the road much earlier

That all said, our situation has changed and I traded our seasonal site (it was a rental) for a site in another section of the same CG. In the nightly rental section actually. This allows me easier access to the unit to pull it out and put it back very frequently and with no turf damage. When I come off the road, I NEED to park the rig. If it has been raining at home for a week solid and the turf is saturated, I would tear it up backing it in (deep site). Now it's no worries

Best of luck,

Jim

jpjulian said:

This may be a bit off topic, and Jim, feel free to relocate. But why are all of you doing the seasonal thing and what criteria are you using to select a site for the season? I am not critisizing, mind you, just inquiring. Marcia and I like the travel aspect of the RV lifestyle but have considered a seasonal site in the past. We have found a number of very nice parks, and a like number of why bothers. We just haven't found someplace we would consider spending an entire season. So, what is it that you have found to draw you to a seasonal site and would it preclude you from taking a road trip also?

Joe

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Joe,
Being this is the 1st time we considered it in the 20 plus years we have been camping (RVING), we are still on the fence... Our main reason is to be closer to our grand babies... We found a nice place between where our G-kids live so we can have them in for visits on the weekends... We are not retired, don't know if we will ever have the chance, so most of our rving was and is done on the weekends and a few vacations during the year... Now with the 5er being located approx 1:15 away, on friday we can throw a few things in the car and be there in no time... The real nice thing is on Sunday we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, pack it up then clean it up, and be out of the park by 11:00 or 12:00... This way we just shut it down after dinner on Sunday and then drive the hour home without unpacking it and then taking back to where we store it... Hopefully we enjoy it... The place we chose was a very clean small park, with a couple of lakes and a nice pool - maybe about 135 sites, I'm not sure of the cost of other parks in other parts of the country but we are getting a full hook-up site with a full pad and patio for a cost of $1900 from 4-15 thru 10-15 excluding the cost of electric... We did some calulating and last year we went to NC. for a week and spent over $2000, that was including the fuel, which was almost $600...

Thomas

We have been seasonal for about 5 years now. We found a c/g that was doable for the comute to work and back for the wife and I. We leave our unit on site all year long, we do close it up in late October and go back to our stick house for the winter, we would come out during the winter start the furnace bring a bucket of chicken and a movie and enjoy our rig during winter time, it's kinda like a cottage up north for us. Now that we both are retired and full time in our unit we will stay at our home campgrounds all summer( except for a few side trips) and then head south for the winter in our rig. We have loved the seasonal camping and have met many good friends in the process.

Bobby
I see you live in MI, What type of Camper do you own? I take it it's a 4 season if you can enjoy it in the winter... I own a BigHorn 3385 It's a great unit but I don't have double pain windows so I doubt i could use mine all year round -- I live in Ohio and I know the winters we have here can be fairly rough, and yours can even be worst.

Tom

Well we did it.... This past weekend was our 1st trip out to the new seasonal camp site... The DW and I spent the weekend setting it up and enjoying our 1st weekend of the camping year, yeah!!!. everything went great (knock on wood)... One problem, it broke my heart to leave her behind, it just didn't feel right leaving it there... I was used to being able to check on it every few days, it was being stored inside about 5 minutes from my home, now it's "outside" (can yoyu beleave it) and about 1 1/2 hours away... One cool thing was, putting the awning up turning off the water, locking up and heading out... It only took about 15min to close it up and head home... The weird thing was when i got home I didn't have a camper to clean and put away, I just sat down put my feet up and took my napNone...

imchud said:

Well we did it.... This past weekend was our 1st trip out to the new seasonal camp site... The DW and I spent the weekend setting it up and enjoying our 1st weekend of the camping year, yeah!!!. everything went great (knock on wood)... One problem, it broke my heart to leave her behind, it just didn't feel right leaving it there... I was used to being able to check on it every few days, it was being stored inside about 5 minutes from my home, now it's "outside" (can yoyu beleave it) and about 1 1/2 hours away... One cool thing was, putting the awning up turning off the water, locking up and heading out... It only took about 15min to close it up and head home... The weird thing was when i got home I didn't have a camper to clean and put away, I just sat down put my feet up and took my napNone...

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And THAT is one of the biggest benefits of having a seasonal or, even permanent, site.

I noticed that you have younger children 10 & 5None. When our boys were younger the seasonal site was great. The kids made friends (who's names the actually knew) and looked foward to seeing them every week. It was comforting to know that when they were out and about, someone was still looking out for them as the other seasonal parents were our eyes and ears while they were at play away from our site. It was also great that the seasonal parents could plan a nite out and we would care for each others children. Our seasonal site was about 15 minutes from Atlantic City so catching a Saturday night show or concert was easily done.

That being said, now that they are grown we're not letting any grass grow under our coach. The average season is about $3000 around here usually from April 15 to Oct 15. We can purchase many a nitely site and fuel for less of an annual cost. To each their own, but with kids it's a great opportunity for them.