Please talk me out of this.

So Cal spots … beaches often crowded on weekends … duh. Yet during the week opportunities are there. Post schools starting even more sofor openings. Heat is on now so many cancellations. Post Labor Day things loosen up too. Look at state camp grounds central coast. If ex military many bases have some availability. Just depends on how long in and rank. Been to both Pendleton sites, very nice and on the beach. Seal Beach weapons station has spots also, Vandenberg too. State camp grounds central coast San Mateo is good and in San Clemente. Solvang and Ojai areas have many places. Check out the Elks lodges, many member spots around the area and nation. Dirt road cruising check out XOffroad. Ratings and public trails to be experienced.

 

I’ve never understood the appeal of this. I’m going to leave my air conditioned house in my neighborhood to go park a smaller air conditioned house in another “neighborhood”

Make it make sense

I am of course a total backpacking snob

 

Im sure that's going to happen haha. Though we still will do tent camping at times since we love to go offrosding to remote areas and the camper wouldn't be able to go.

Thanks for those sites/apps, I hadn't looked into things like that yet.

 

Definitely the second one....I dont even know where those neighborhood style parks are. I feel like that's more for full time older couples.

 

I've been reading good things about Anderson hitches for small campers like mine. The weight, cost and ease of set up are appealing. Anyone have experience with these?

 

Yes. Even when we had ours, I still would get out about a dozen times or so with the tent, depending on work schedule. With the tent, as you said, you are able to get out to some pretty remote places. Are you using the Tundra in your bio, or do you have a dedicated rig for the tighter areas?

You're welcome. I know it can be a lot to work through up front, but if I can help, I want to. If you make it over here to the east coast, I can point you into some amazing places in PA, WV, VA, NC, ME, VT, etc. . In the meantime, as you start traveling, there are a lot of different camp sites and some you may want to book that are already booked. There are some good website that can keep looking to book for you for a small fee. But for the prices, the ones I shared in the other quote are the best that I have found at least.

 

I'll bite.

And full disclosure, that's essentially my backyard, so I may be more lenient here because I don't have this "got to get out of the city - back to nature - ground - reconnect - whatever" vibe going.

The RV neighborhood thing put me off when we were shopping for ours and right before our first trip. Now, nah, don't care. We go basically to give the kids a fantastic time. In the south, we tend to hit the locations which have waterparks within the park. We've gone to three different ones this summer alone. In addition, those types of places have a metric sh*t load of other activities for the kids - glow parties, foam cannon slides/parties, dances, group hikes, park/coloring/playground activities, movie nights, on and on. Alongside that is a strong communal sense of security. They're often gated, and everyone there knows to watch out for kids. Example: once, my oldest fell off her bike where she was "a block" over. Another mom helped her back to us.

Pair the activities and increased safety/alertness with another family(ies) with their own RV(s), and then it becomes a mini-gang thing. Hard to beat letting your kids run around with 4-6 of their besties.

 

The Tundra is our main adventure vehicle, we use it for everything except errands around town and stuff. I have never had an issue getting where I want to even though the trucks a porker lol

 

I hear you. Tundras are not small for sure. I went a different direction. I went from a 2010 SR5 CM, and now have a '20 Ram 2500 with 8' bed. My small trail trips are now limited, LOL!

I have not tried to get into some of the old areas yet, but looking forward to trying. Heading out camping next week. Just me and a couple of buddies.

 

Yeah that makes sense. Higher trust situation than maybe even your own neighborhood.

So maybe it’s like Costco…there’s a minimum price of entry (truck and trailer) that generally bars the lowest quintile of society from access?

 

Lots of places have age restrictions on your RV, so those locations it's a bit gatekeepy, but what we've been experiencing this year is that regardless of social status (have seen pretty average trucks with kinda junk RVs to high dollar rigs) the quality of person tends to be higher. So in that regard, yeah, the quantile of society I wouldn't interact with isn't present. Not sure if that's a monetary or personality entrance barrier.

 

I have the exact same Springdale (2019 model) but with a dinning slide. I recommend that. Makes a lot more room and comfortably fits four at the table. Especially when it gets cold, or if some rain comes through, you can all chill inside not stuffed. Either way, it pulls amazing well. No WDH needed. Pulls super straight properly loaded. Never seen / experienced any sway. Truck sits level when hooked up on stock height suspension.

 

Thanks for that info. Any idea on your weights with the trailer attached? Is the advertised tongue weight accurate?

 

No, never weighed it. Specs on paper are well within the Tundra limits. Never felt the need to, sits fine and pulls fine; it just feels good. Only outside storage is up front, so that’ll raise tongue weight a little. We don’t carry a lot of extras to camp besides what’s needed and bikes / skateboards, so the bed isn’t really weighed down much. I did add Sumo to rear (and cut the top ring off leaving 4) to mainly help dampen high speed compressions such as big transitions on freeway where the back dips fast. I didn’t need it for leveling. But anything to help on long hauls to help reduce driver fatigue keeps my family safer.

 

Weather was too nice to stay home. Camping this weekend for Labor Day, went online and extended for all week through Monday. Not a soul here yet

 

Looks awesome! No hookups i presume?

 

Im hoping my RAS will have the same effect as the sumos.

 

Fill the water tank on the way in, 30amp post at each site.

 

Nice, electricity is what matters most. How do sites typically charge? Flat fee or as used?

 

$22 a night. We pay $11 a night sometimes with my FILs discount.

 

Does that include unlimited electricity?

 

I have a generator question for fellow RVers, is saving 50 lbs and 200 bucks worth downgrading my predator 5000 dual fuel for a pulsar GX4000 dual fuel? The predator is supposed to be quieter and better on gas and it has a remote and electric start, and higher power of course.

I don't really care about the money difference as much as the 50 lbs....

 

Ditch the obnoxious generator and upgrade your batteries to 300-400ah of LifePo4. You won’t need it. Only thing we can’t do is the AC (never needed / used) and the microwave. I removed it from the tongue and put them in that front storage space. More secure there too.

 

Yeah, most seem to be family-oriented.
The only weirdos I hear about at RV campgrounds are the ones with pineapples hanging off their camper doors…

 

Well, we go camping pretty often when its hot out and the camper and ac is a huge part of getting my wife to come with us more than once a year. I have all the other power covered with the battery and my jackery.

 

A campground will charge a flat rate per night. That includes all the electric you can want to use. We have been in places where our camper AC was running all the time to keep our camper at 70ish and it was hot outside.

I have not run across a campground where they charge by usage. If I did, I would move on because there are too many better options.

When looking for a campground, if you are going for full connection, look for something called "Full Hookups" or "w/s/e" (Water/Sewer/Electric). But here is a caution. Just because a place says "Full Hookups" does not necessarily mean w/s/e. We went to a "full hookup" once, got everything set and then looked for the water. There was none. Their full hookups did not include water. Some back and forth ensued and we just re hooked, filled, and went back. It was a fun campground, but not a place we ever went back to. The website did not fully disclose that. If there is doubt, before you book, call and ask about the site you want to have. Ask if they have everything. They will tell you. Usually, on the websites, they have a map that shows their open spaces. You can look and see what you want and where you want to be. It gives you the space number.

For example: https://www.campspot.com/park/yogi-bear-jellystone-mexico-ny/map?location=Mexico, New York&latitude=43.497607&longitude=-76.251147&checkin=2025-09-18&checkout=2025-09-24&adults=2&children=2&pets=0

This should come up as the Jellystone park in New Mexico. If you look, it will show you the map layout of the park, and it will give you a filter by option. Select RV sites, and two openeings will come up (based on the random dates I put in). The two are located, either near the pool and playground with the ameneties, or right on the river. If I select that, it tells me it is R25 and it goes for $98.91 a night. So for the week I put in, $593.48. That is high because that is only E/W. No S.

But those kind of things do come at a cost. The more amenities at your site, the more your site will cost. Some of the most expensive places have been KOA's, Jellystones (down in Golden Valley, NC), and a few nearer to home. These are often marketed as resorts. They have the full paved parking that is already leveled, w/s/e, and some trees...possibly. But you will be paying upwards to $80-120 a night, depending on the time of season, and location as well as amenities in the campground. The less you have, the cheaper you can go, but the less you will have for the family to do, if you do a lot of pools, and whatnot.

If the campground is not the destination, then save some of the money, find the full hookups that does not have a lot of amenities. If it is the destination, then I'd say get what you want at the park.

That is a tough call because YMMV has a lot here. Having the remote start is awesome when it is stormy. Hit the button and it, should, start up. But what is more, you need to account for the start up amps. That is when things start up, like AC, and there is a major hit to the power. I am not expert, but a 30A camper needs 3600 Watts of power for continuous run. But that is maxing out the generator. Your 5k run amps is good, but my question would be what is the start amps it can take for the load? If it covers the start, and the run, and you can power everything without going over that 5k watts, I would not downgrade at all. To me, the 4000 watts is too close to the bare minimum. But then if you take into account your next statement

I would say to stay where you are at, or upgrade to bigger, if you feel you need more power. While you may have the power from the battery, unless you have a converter, all that power is going to do is run a few lights, fridge, and perhaps one of your plugs in the camper. It will not run your microwave, all your electrics, or your AC.

To do that, off the battery, you will want to do a full solar upgrade. Add several major panels to the roof, run the wires down, as someone else said here, to your storage pass through. Load up about four or five lithium ion batteries, put in the converter controller, and park in the sun to make sure you get full solar power. It cuts down on the generator (if you have enough solar), and you can run the whole camper. But as it is set, you need shore power or a generator to run everything.

If A/C is vital (it was for my wife), you will want to have a great generator (but some places will cap when and how long you can run that, and you may have some neighbors who are not happy with the sound), or you need shore power. We just went with shore power, and now that we changed and are camping in tents, I'm glad we did not invest in solar or the generator.

The Surveyor Legend does come with one solar power and controller. The nice thing about that was it powered our fridge. So we could boondock (going without any hookups), and as long as we had sun, the fridge would stay charged and we just went when it was cool (so no AC needed). but, that was a very, very rare occurrence as there was a want for full hookups for sewer. Even with that solar, and no sun, we could get about a day or so off the battery (because it had the inverter).

Perhaps someone on here is an electrician and can speak better to the watts and amps, but that is what I found in my research.

Last point, I do wish to stress the sound of the generator. It will cause noise, no matter how quiet it is. While it is tolerable, I went camping once and the neighbor, unbeknownst to me and a friend, decided to run his camper on the generator all day...while he was gone. Then he came back at night, topped off the gas, and ran the generator...all night. It was one of the worst nights I had because it ruined the whole experience for us. We left early the next day to get away from it. My friend was disappointed as well, as he had planned to get away and enjoy nature as well.

So, if you do go with the generator, that is something to think about for the neighbors. But there are MANY campgrounds where generators are not allowed. There are a few that allow it, but it is limited on when it can run, and how long it can run.

If you are boondocking, and you have no neighbors, then, you are good to go!

I hope this all helps.

ETA: Forgot to add, pay the money for a good surge protector. Shore power has been known, in many campgrounds, to not be the best. And you could be denied warranty if you have an electrical issue that fries your camper and you do not have a surge protector. There are some good ones, then there are some great ones.

We had one like this, but this was not it:

$43 GEARit RV Surge Protector 30 AMP - Circuit Analyzer Voltage Protector/Monitor with Surge Protection (2700 Joules) Weather Resistant 30A Extension Plug for RV Trailer Travel Outdoor Camper

https://www.amazon.com/GearIT-Surge-Protector-AMP-Protection/dp/B0BL25Y5XD. Ours was a yellow one. It is good and the lights tell you if there is an issue. You will want to plug that in first before hooking up to make sure the electric is good.

But if I had to do it over again, I would buy this one: https://www.powerwatchdog.com/shop/p/neutral-set-y43ls-4tffr-mcywg-jc38p-z5drg.

That emergency power off is worth its weight in gold. If something happens, after you are hooked up, this thing will cut power to the camper automatically and will protect your camper. They do have some general ones that are cheaper, and they now have a Gen II that is $30 more but includes a wifi and mobile app so you can see what is going on, but this Gen 1 would be my go to since I don't have a traditional smart phone.

Lastly, you will want to get some adapters. They have some 50A to 30A, and then 30A to 120V. This allows you to park in any campground you go to, including a 50A one. I only used the 120V at my house but be aware, the 120V does not run the AC. This is just to get your system running, with the fridge so you can start loading up. But that 50A has saved me many times because that is all the campsite had left were the 50A slots. Well worth it. They are also known as dog bones because they look like dog bones. Here is an example (again, mine was a yellow one) https://atielectrical.com/products/...-tt-30r-straight-blade?variant=44574572511413.

 

Thoughts on loadstar (kenda) karrier trailer tires? These come on the Springdale.

 

I was planning on getting the bulldog protector for when we plug into shore power. Might as well use it on the generator too I guess. I did get many adapters already for various combos.
I have only been to one non primitive campsite that didn't have water but it was close to a water source so a couple jerry cans would work fine. I guess the one downside of this camper is the 21 gallon fresh tank but I dont think it'll be a problem. The bathroom will mostly be used for middle of the night #1s only lol.

 

I have that one. Got it for $100 when I bought my current camper. Had Bluetooth for monitoring power consumption. I mainly use the Bluetooth when plugged in to standard 110 outlet to watch the voltage. Has a replaceable “fuse” in it if it gets hooked up to a bad post. App is cool.

 

Our trailer has an 18 gal fresh, 20 grey and 20 black.

We carry an extra 24 gal or fresh water so we just fill it on the fly.

We have gone for weeks and use the water sparingly, capture shower water and put it in the black tank. Same with the dish water.

Maybe next time we will get bigger tanks on a larger trailer!