FYI Campground etiquette

[Neal]

Feel free to add....

If you are leaving the campground and pull out your diesel Class A to connect your TOAD and you stop in front of other sites, turn OFF your engine! No one wants to listen to your diesel engine for X minutes while you connect and run checklists.

I mentioned this before when on another site that when checking in to also shut off your engine if near sites to keep the noise level down. Some I know like to keep dash A/C running for pets, etc. so yeah, differing scenarios. Just be cognizant of the noise you create for campers nearby.

I realize some do not have the gene to be considerate of others, we all know these types exist. Hopefully this thread can bring some awareness to be considerate of others and in this case with your engine noise.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Feel free to add....

If you are leaving the campground and pull out your diesel Class A to connect your TOAD and you stop in front of other sites, turn OFF your engine! No one wants to listen to your diesel engine for X minutes while you connect and run checklists.

I mentioned this before when on another site that when checking in to also shut off your engine if near sites to keep the noise level down. Some I know like to keep dash A/C running for pets, etc. so yeah, differing scenarios. Just be cognizant of the noise you create for campers nearby.

I realize some do not have the gene to be considerate of others, we all know these types exist. Hopefully this thread can bring some awareness to be considerate of others and in this case with your engine noise.

I don't find the noise to be the problem, it's the fumes, plugs my head up immediately.

 

[Mr. Miscellaneous]

Feel free to add....

If you are leaving the campground and pull out your diesel Class A to connect your TOAD and you stop in front of other sites, turn OFF your engine! No one wants to listen to your diesel engine for X minutes while you connect and run checklists.

I mentioned this before when on another site that when checking in to also shut off your engine if near sites to keep the noise level down. Some I know like to keep dash A/C running for pets, etc. so yeah, differing scenarios. Just be cognizant of the noise you create for campers nearby.

I realize some do not have the gene to be considerate of others, we all know these types exist. Hopefully this thread can bring some awareness to be considerate of others and in this case with your engine noise.

Underneath the moon's soft glow,
In the hush where whispers grow,
There erupts a grumble, coarse and loud,
A diesel beast, breaking night's shroud.

Its growl invades our tranquil sphere,
A discordant note in the night, so clear.
Arriving late, without regard,
Disturbing peace in our campground yard.

With a rumble, rattle, and roar,
Peaceful dreams are no more.
In this quiet sanctuary found,
The diesel engine's the only sound.

Oh, how we cringe, and roll our eyes,
As the monstrous RV rolls by.
Its thunderous voice, a startling pound,
Resonates through the sleeping ground.

Silence waits with bated breath,
For the engine's noise to meet its death.
In our canvas retreat, we sigh,
"Quiet, diesel beast, oh my!"

 

[Kevin D Pem]

If in after dark use low beams or parking lights. No one appreciates being awakened after a long day traveling.

Goes for slamming doors as well. If you need to slam it, consideration starts maintaining it before the trip!!!

 

[Rosy]

Feel free to add....

If you are leaving the campground and pull out your diesel Class A to connect your TOAD and you stop in front of other sites, turn OFF your engine! No one wants to listen to your diesel engine for X minutes while you connect and run checklists.

I mentioned this before when on another site that when checking in to also shut off your engine if near sites to keep the noise level down. Some I know like to keep dash A/C running for pets, etc. so yeah, differing scenarios. Just be cognizant of the noise you create for campers nearby.

I realize some do not have the gene to be considerate of others, we all know these types exist. Hopefully this thread can bring some awareness to be considerate of others and in this case with your engine noise.

What if my gas engine truck sounds like a diesel?

I generally shut off when checking in, even though the gates of the places we go are far from the campsites. When I'm leaving, I'll also shut the truck down after I'm hitched up and doing the last few tasks before leaving. However, when I arrive, I like to keep my truck running while I get the trailer situated, leveled and unhitched. Otherwise, I'd just turn the truck off and on several times in a short span.

 

[Joe Hogan]

If traveling solo it is understandable to unload, load close to the campsite. We typically unload the toad at check in or checkout waiting area if reasonable.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

What if my gas engine truck sounds like a diesel?

I generally shut off when checking in, even though the gates of the places we go are far from the campsites. When I'm leaving, I'll also shut the truck down after I'm hitched up and doing the last few tasks before leaving. However, when I arrive, I like to keep my truck running while I get the trailer situated, leveled and unhitched. Otherwise, I'd just turn the truck off and on several times in a short span.

Not really an answer here! A change in noise is more annoying than a steady noise level. An example is the touted "quite generator " started at 6am for that morning cup of(clear my throat) Joe. Typically the generator changes pitch and decibel level at least twice!

The promise of quite is a misnomer. I sometimes think starting the truck and using the inverter would be more considerate!!!

 

[Trav_lr]

Campground etiquette? No such thing, long gone! We're currently at a Thousand Trails park visiting with friends and have witnessed stuff that common courtesy tells us not to do. Idling diesel engines at 6 am, adults and kids walking/running, riding bikes through sites, dog turd land mines, drunks with loud music all day, all night. Sitting in cars after dark with headlights on, windows open, conversing loudly for all around to hear using hands free phone.... I don't get that one. Finally, to end my rant, the bathrooms/showers are absolutely filthy..... I wonder if that's what some people do in their own homes? I really feel sorry for the staff who need to pick up the garbage and dirty diapers and clean the feces off the floors and shower walls. I think what we knew as etiquette is now called entitlement.

 

[LMHS]

Try to live by the golden rule and the "Leave No Trace" guidelines and things will be better all around.

Treat others like you would like to be treated yourself.

Leave a place in better shape than you found it.

Most of us work in my current (and last) park. I have neighbours who leave for work at about 4AM. Someone picked them up a couple mornings last week. They announced themselves by beating on the side of their RV, which woke my dog, and us, from a sound sleep. My dog started barking and had to go outside to see what was going on. Needless to say, I could not go back to sleep and the dog "percolated" for a couple hours before finally going back to sleep. I understand having to leave for work early. I used to leave the park at 3:30AM to start work at 4AM. I put a space heater in the Jeep on a timer so the windows were cleared of ice and fogging without having to leave the Jeep running. I never had my radio going and also only turned on my parking lights until I was out at the highway. Most of our neighbours never heard me leave.

Most everyone here goes to bed by 10:30PM. My daughter drags in from work anywhere from 12:30AM to 2AM, depending on her work shift and if she takes a co-worker home. She comes in with parking lights on and the radio turned down to where she can barely hear it.

The overnighters have no kind of consideration like that. But then we are mostly working class AND "permanent RVers" so they look down on us anyway. Must be nice to have been born with enough money to never have to work. Otherwise, why would they look down on people who work? Also, why do they have to use their air horns before leaving? The garbage trucks are quieter when they come in to dump the trash bins.

 

[GypsyR]

I've noticed this everywhere, it's a diesel thing. Because semi trucks often sit idling hours at a time everyone with a diesel of some sort thinks they need to also. It's weird. I've looked into owner's manuals of a couple of one ton pickups (Dodge comes to mind) and about all of them somewhere mention that "extended idling" is not recommended.
Another fun fact people ignore is that in the state of South Carolina there is a law against leaving a vehicle unattended and running. Though it doesn't focus on diesels they are the worst offenders. I can attest that even if the general populace isn't aware of this law the highway patrol definitely is. Wasn't me, but I've seen it enforced. Generally if there aren't children in the car a warning is given.

Me, one time I asked a fella if his starter was broken. When he asked why I said because he seemed afraid to turn his engine off.

By the way, I own a diesel-engined truck. I do not leave it idling. I do have my coach (gas) running a bit when getting ready to leave. Everyone does, right? But every time I do it I recall the time we were trying to sleep in with our old pop up camper next to what I swear was the loudest diesel pusher driver I have ever heard. Such was the slamming, banging, hissing, engine roaring, etc that I actually got up to see if a couple of garbage trucks were fighting over a dumpster while our tow vehicle was getting dragged up onto a flatbed or something. If your coach has a dozen cargo doors you don't have to open and slam EVERY single one of them at 6 AM. Seriously, some people have no couth at all.

On the flip side last time out we had a fifth wheel right next to us with some much stuff out it looked like they had moved in. All sorts of chairs, extra canopy, bicycles, dog fence, etc. Went to bed and all that stuff was out. Got up the next morning and they were gone. How on earth they packed all that up and left without making any noise that we could tell I do not know.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

My bride read the Freightliner manual - it explicitly states that idling should NOT be done over a few minutes.
Apparently idling tends to create more diesel particulates, clogging up the DPF, and requiring more DPF regens.
The only time we idle more than a couple minutes is after getting off the highway. Manual states it needs a 3 minute cool down period to allow temps to cool, to avoid damage to the turbo and cylinders.

We tend to use the quiet gen to run the A/C while getting setup. The quiet gen is much quieter than the rig’s engine, but it puts out more smell.

Generally, courtesy in society seems to be a thing of the past that we can sit around and reminisce about.

 

[Rosy]

Campground etiquette? No such thing, long gone! We're currently at a Thousand Trails park visiting with friends and have witnessed stuff that common courtesy tells us not to do. Idling diesel engines at 6 am, adults and kids walking/running, riding bikes through sites, dog turd land mines, drunks with loud music all day, all night. Sitting in cars after dark with headlights on, windows open, conversing loudly for all around to hear using hands free phone.... I don't get that one. Finally, to end my rant, the bathrooms/showers are absolutely filthy..... I wonder if that's what some people do in their own homes? I really feel sorry for the staff who need to pick up the garbage and dirty diapers and clean the feces off the floors and shower walls. I think what we knew as etiquette is now called entitlement.

Last trip we were on, I noticed that the kids staying in other sites were quiet all day then, shortly after quiet hours started, the hooting and hollering and running around like banshees would start.

 

[TheLooks]

Most of you sound like the people that move up to quaint fishing villages.(check my avatar) and as soon as you move in you bitch about the lobster boats you thought were so quaint starting up at 3:30 in the morning. Can't you fish later? Can't you put mufflers on them? Can't you just leave now that I am here? The best one was, "This would be a great place if it weren't for the locals".
I built a house for one particular bieatch that was feather white over clam diggers on the flats in front of here house. She would not stand for that! As a former digger myself, I advised her she had no legal rights on the flats below high water mark and if she pitched to big a bieatch she would be picking raspberries. She asked what that meant and I told her raspberries grow where there has been a fire. It was not well taken but I did finish the house.
Etiquette is in the eye of the beholder. Camping in the old days when the campgrounds were not crowded was probably very nice. But now that the general population is involved, you will get what the general population brings. And in my experience, city dwellers do not give a rats a$$ what you or anyone else thinks.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

@TheLooks summed it up nicely, so rants do have a place in teaching us how our actions are viewed by others! But!!! Unless we are looking inward, we only see what we don't like others do!

So the lesson should be "we can only change the world, one person at a time, and we start with ourselves!"

 

[Neal]

Bringing up points such as not idling your diesel coach in front of other sites on a cool morning where people have their windows open raises awareness. Some people, hopefully reading comments such as this, can learn from this and think "oh yeah, I didn't think of that, oops." Keeping your mouth shut and not helping others to learn some basic etiquette is not a way for others to learn. Imagine if no one ever mentioned that cutting across people's sites was a bad thing. It's not a written rule, it's something we learn from others. Want to know what annoys me...cutting across my site multiple times. We learn how to camp and share the experience among others. If you go by the rule of "self" you will never learn from others. Open your ears, you may learn something.

 

[Wemustrv]

Feel free to add....

If you are leaving the campground and pull out your diesel Class A to connect your TOAD and you stop in front of other sites, turn OFF your engine! No one wants to listen to your diesel engine for X minutes while you connect and run checklists.

I mentioned this before when on another site that when checking in to also shut off your engine if near sites to keep the noise level down. Some I know like to keep dash A/C running for pets, etc. so yeah, differing scenarios. Just be cognizant of the noise you create for campers nearby.

I realize some do not have the gene to be considerate of others, we all know these types exist. Hopefully this thread can bring some awareness to be considerate of others and in this case with your engine noise.

This proper etiquette for all vehicles. In todays world many come with very load gas and diesel pickups. Also you have to remember that this is a transient place you where people come and go at will. On some vehicles the engine must be running in order to operate some systems. This is true of some of the hydraulic leveling systems. My recommendation be aware of your surroundings and considerate of those near by. Keep all noise to a minimum not just engine noise.

 

[Bigblockyeti]

I think what most of this boils down to is common sense, which unfortunately isn't all that common anymore.

 

[Mr. Miscellaneous]

I think what most of this boils down to is common sense, which unfortunately isn't all that common anymore.

In the world of RVs, where wheels are homes,
Folks roam far, across the earth's domes.

But common sense often seems quite rare,
As if caught in some strange headlight's glare.

With slides out at gas stops, in the traffic's stream,
Acts that make you wonder, if it's all a dream.

Grey water dumping in public, oh, what a blight,
In the midst of nature's awe, such an unsightly sight.

RVs parked skew, on a downhill slant,
Leaning like Pisa, a sight so quaint.

In this RV world, we can only hope and pray,
For a dose of common sense, to brighten our way.

 

[Buc]

Tent camping with my oldest son last night was an utter joy. Everyone else in the campsite was behaving, and my kid was in bed early enough for me to read a while with no distractions other than pausing every so often to put another log on the fire.

The one that bothers me the most is people who can’t shut up during quiet hours.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

I left a park around 9 this morning and according to the instructions for my year and make Newmar, I need to retract the jacks and build up air pressure before I bring in the slides. I know it doesn't take very long but it seems it takes forever to build up air pressure.