Can’t stay at some private RV parks?

[wooly]

Learned something new today. Was trying to book a camp site with electrical hook ups for my E350 conversion and was told if I didn’t have RVIA certification that we could camp at that site. Also called a KOA location and was told the same. Apparently it’s an insurance issue for them.

I’m sure most of you were aware of this. My wife and I are new at this as we got our van about a year ago and this will be our first trip. Any suggestions on locating sites with electrical hook ups that will let conversion vans camp out connected?

Here’s a pic of our van. Last of the work was just completed and we’re exited to get on the road.




Thanks!

[marret]

Might try national, state, municipal and other public parks, forests and campgrounds. Not all will have hook ups, but a fair number do.
An app like UC Public CG is a tool to help find them along with state websites, and for national, recreation.gov.

[Scalf77]

As more and more of the DIY campers have been popping up, actually a lot of these new builders are not RIVA certified, this is unfortunately starting to become a norm. It is also getting harder to insure a DIY van conversion

I don't really hold a lot of esteem for the RIVA standards, but if you have see some of the stuff people are doing in their home built campers I can see why. My insurance agent was balking at propane installations. I told him not to look at the electrical then.

Many guys go out of their way to make their rig look stealth, I am trying to make mine look as official as ever. Now if I could just find a counterfeit RIVA sticker, not that I would use it.

-greg

[Lunatickn]

While I'm sure it actually *is* an insurance thing for them, it's likely more than that. I'm no longer full-timing but back when I was every time there was any sort of economic downturn (or a pandemic :rollseyes) and there was a resulting spike in folks living in RVs the parks crank up their "standards" to filter out the undesirables with older and self-built RVs.


I suppose whether that's a good or bad thing depends on the side of the "respectability" line which you inhabit.


You can kinda forget it if you are in a schoolie but if I were in a van I wouldn't call ahead. I would just show up in my clearly nicely kitted out van. My observation is that they are a lot more lax with "standards" if they see a nice rig without a sticker. From the picture, I think you'd be let in more places than you might expect given the stated rules.

[Twoxentrix]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

Now if I could just find a counterfeit RIVA sticker, not that I would use it.

-greg

Mine became somewhat worn and could barely read the numbers so I called Field Van a year and half ago (They have records from the Sportsmobile builds) and reordered a RVIA Sticker through them - It was a simple process.
If I recall, all I needed to provide was original owners name and Vin number (could have been just the Vin & RVIA# - depends on which voice in my head I listen to). There was a fee involved in the neighborhood of $150 or $200.........I know .....Just saying.

@wooly; Great looking Van!

[BrianW]

I have never once had a campground ask about the RVIA sticker (although I do have one as an SMB build). I’d hit up an RV junkyard and try to pull one from an old RV.

[dhally]

I haven't seen a sticker requirement, but have seen some parks with age limits, "must be newer than 10 years old".

[The_Vermonster]

It's all BS and most likely an excuse to prevent "undesirables" from staying. An RVIA seal only means it was built to that standard (lets be honest too, that's a pretty low standard). It has no bearing on the repairs, upgrades, or changes that get done.


The 10 years and newer thing is pretty much the same deal. They just want to be able to turn away the sketchy guy in a beat up 80's conversion van. Have you ever seen an Airstream turned away? How about those large Class A or C motorhomes?

[wooly]

Thanks for all of the feedback. May just have to visit a junk yard [emoji57]