RV campsite space holder

[Kimber45]

My local state parks put out orange traffic cones on the sites that have reservations when the office is closed and you check your self in. Maybe a orange cone with be a Farley universal sign?

[ActionJackson]

Here's a good one for you. Camping at Florence Marina Georgia State Park. We were the ONLY ones there (about 50-60 sites) during the week. Went out for the day so I just left my water hose connected to the post. Returned for the day and a MH was in my site!!! I asked him why he picked that site as there was a hose still hooked up. He stated that he just thought someone forgot it. It wasn't a problem to move to another site, but I immediately bought a "Campsite Occupied" little sign and use it whenever I need to and take a picture of it on the site. Why the guy had to take that sight, I never figured out.

[Wobbles]

In Illinois state parks, you find an unoccupied setup and then go pay for the site. At a local park nearby I know most of the hosts. I saw I guy come in and setup. Seems he never went to pay. For two days I saw the hosts knock on his door to have him get right. He would never answer. At some point he needed to go dump his tanks in the class A. So he went to dump. While he was gone another tribe friends of those parked next to him for a few days arrived and took his spot. Everyone knew he was freeloading. He came back the screaming was on. A host showed up and the freeloader now wanted to pay what was owed and keep his site. End of story, he paid and the police followed him out of the park.

Drama that you have no part in makes for great dinner entertainment. Lol...

[RverAnn45]

When registering for a campsite, we often drive around to find a suitable site (once the registration desk gives us a list of available sites). We put an orange traffic cone at the entry to the site and drive back to pay.

[Iwannacamp]

All good ideas...

I use this at work...
http://www.stclaire.com/safety_sign_.../ssb-panel.php

Build your sign. Print and use at will. You can have fun with this at work. Used to be called ansisignbuilder.com

[ProfChuck]

Well, it hasn't happened in a long time (the 1970's), but, when we were camping in our VW van conversion in the National Parks, we would go out to get breakfast and come back to find our site taken by someone else. This happened twice in two different parks and in one the ranger told us to just go to another site - not much help when you have selected a site you liked and were pushed out of it. Finally, after it happened the second time (they moved our chairs and stuff to the side and set up their stuff), I bought about 60 ft of chain and some padlocks. Put our chairs and occupied sign up, as usual, and ran the chain across the lot from around the trees. Came back an hour later and there was another camper trying to get the padlock and chain off the tree and set up on the lot. I went to the other side, opened the lock and dropped the chain and drove in. The guy was actually mad I had come back to reclaim my already paid for - and marked - lot! After that, we got a pop up camper we could leave in the sites, and after that a TT. It never happened in our state parks, or in private parks, only the National Parks, and has, of course, never happened again, but, the experience really was indelibly burned into my memory. Now, it is pretty hard for them to move a 35 ft TT with wheel locks and take the site, but I still think of the guy trying to take down our chain (which had a sign attached as well). We pretty much stick to state parks and private parks for full hookups, but, in our state parks they would have made a site stealer move or leave.

[Phinias]

You would think. We returned after a long day of visiting to find our power cord, water hose (including filter) and one chair GONE. It was late at night. I called security. They said that they thought that I left do they threw it in the trash. They returned with a completely different set-up. They could have waited until the next morning to be sure. Something fishy was going on. They had our cell, no call

[elchilero53]

Originally Posted by ProfChuck

Well, it hasn't happened in a long time (the 1970's), but, when we were camping in our VW van conversion in the National Parks, we would go out to get breakfast and come back to find our site taken by someone else. This happened twice in two different parks and in one the ranger told us to just go to another site - not much help when you have selected a site you liked and were pushed out of it. Finally, after it happened the second time (they moved our chairs and stuff to the side and set up their stuff), I bought about 60 ft of chain and some padlocks. Put our chairs and occupied sign up, as usual, and ran the chain across the lot from around the trees. Came back an hour later and there was another camper trying to get the padlock and chain off the tree and set up on the lot. I went to the other side, opened the lock and dropped the chain and drove in. The guy was actually mad I had come back to reclaim my already paid for - and marked - lot! After that, we got a pop up camper we could leave in the sites, and after that a TT. It never happened in our state parks, or in private parks, only the National Parks, and has, of course, never happened again, but, the experience really was indelibly burned into my memory. Now, it is pretty hard for them to move a 35 ft TT with wheel locks and take the site, but I still think of the guy trying to take down our chain (which had a sign attached as well). We pretty much stick to state parks and private parks for full hookups, but, in our state parks they would have made a site stealer move or leave.

Some people think everything is about them and what they want. No shame and pure, unmitigated gall. When DW & I were first married, we had a small teardrop trailer as our first RV. We pulled into a State Park and saw a really nice site that had a couple of law chairs and a rope with a sign saying "Occupied". My wife wanted to move the stuff out of the way and move in. I told her no, that someone else had the site and that they would be back soon. She got mad and said "So what! They left! What does it matter?" I said that being respectful of other's things matters to me. About an hour later, a VW bus pulled in, took down the chairs and sign and pulled into the site. I went and told them the site was occupied by someone else. They thanked me and said that they were the ones occupying the site and had left the chairs so no none would move into the location. They thanked me for my concern and consideration. Needless to say, I made a new friend and my wife never did that again. Being a polite, respectful neighbor who is considerate of others and just following the Golden Rule will avoid so much conflict and hard feelings. Unfortunately, that seems to have been cast aside these days for some folks. Sad.

[Wolverine 1945]

Buy a bicycle lock,,, and lock your chairs to the picnic table,,, with a tablecloth on it !!!

[geoff270ssf]

Originally Posted by Jmkjr72

At least every public camp I’ve been too. When you pay there is a thing to hang on the post that marks the site saying it’s been paid for and who paid for it

And your check-in and check-out dates should be (are usually) on that "hangy thing" so anyone looking for a site knows if it's available.

[JimMorrell]

That's a big reason we have stayed with a TT for many years. "Home" stays on the site, while we play.

[dmarlo]

We use an orange cone with "occupied" down the front and a neon green bicycle flag in ctr.

[Finch]

Originally Posted by formerFR

no campground is going to allow someone to 'steal' your site, if you already PAID for it. If you are at a place that allows for 'pick your own site', then they will provide you a receipt/marker to put on the post in front of the site.

no worries. site 'stealers' are very, very rare : )

We paid for a site in a National Park, left a chair at the entrance to the campsite plus a table cloth on the table as well as the paid campsite sticker on the hook outside of the site. When we returned some other people had moved in, broken our chair and thrown it just outside of the campsite. They would not move, claimed there was no sticker on the post, and that they thought someone had just forgotten the chair. Despite out receipt, the ranger told us he would not get into a confrontation with them and we had to move! We had to drive 20 miles to find another vacant campsite in the dark. Very disappointing and disturbing. Thankfully this only happened to us once - but I won't soon forget it.

[Wolverine 1945]

Hard story to believe !!!

[ManlyMan]

Originally Posted by Finch

We paid for a site in a National Park, left a chair at the entrance to the campsite plus a table cloth on the table as well as the paid campsite sticker on the hook outside of the site. When we returned some other people had moved in, broken our chair and thrown it just outside of the campsite. They would not move, claimed there was no sticker on the post, and that they thought someone had just forgotten the chair. Despite out receipt, the ranger told us he would not get into a confrontation with them and we had to move! We had to drive 20 miles to find another vacant campsite in the dark. Very disappointing and disturbing. Thankfully this only happened to us once - but I won't soon forget it.

Very hard to believe this story. Are you sure it was a Ranger and not just a seasonal park employee? If it was a Ranger and he didn’t want to get involved I would have asked for him to call his supervisor into this situation. I also would have written a letter to the National Park Service.

At what national park did this happen?

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by ManlyMan

Very hard to believe this story. Are you sure it was a Ranger and not just a seasonal park employee? If it was a Ranger and he didn’t want to get involved I would have asked for him to call his supervisor into this situation. I also would have written a letter to the National Park Service.

At what national park did this happen?

It would not have been any Park Ranger I ever meet !!!

[elchilero53]

Originally Posted by Wolverine 1945

It would not have been any Park Ranger I ever meet !!!

Exactly, but you never know, especially these days.

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by elchilero53

Exactly, but you never know, especially these days.

If it was a Park Ranger,,, his ***** should be unemployed !!!

[CedarCreekWoody]

On the flip side of this issue is my pet peeve...that being someone that has a friend stake out a spot in overcrowded state parks for a few days prior to their arrival, thereby preventing people from using a badly needed and unused campsite. State parks around here require sites to be occupied so the friend just sets up a small pup tent and leaves it as a sign it is occupied when it really isn't. Granted the site is paid for (I presume) but it is very inconsiderate of families wanting a campsite.

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by CedarCreekWoody

On the flip side of this issue is my pet peeve...that being someone that has a friend stake out a spot in overcrowded state parks for a few days prior to their arrival, thereby preventing people from using a badly needed and unused campsite. State parks around here require sites to be occupied so the friend just sets up a small pup tent and leaves it as a sign it is occupied when it really isn't. Granted the site is paid for (I presume) but it is very inconsiderate of families wanting a campsite.

I agree !!!
But if it is paid for,,, what can we do ???