# Corp Of Engineer Campgrounds



## Kyoutbacker (Apr 26, 2006)

Upon recently making a reservation at a Corp of Engineer campground, I discovered that a "trailer" is now considered under the same designation as an "RV" or motor home. Under this designation our OB is now considered as being under the same designation as a "motorized vehicle". This might not seem much, but it changes:
1. A motorized vehicle can no longer be parked upon the gravel portion of a campsite if the campsite has a paved surface. (This interpetation is another new item by our Corps of Engineers). Don't let your trailer wheels leave the pavement onto the gravel. 
2. Since the OB is considered a motorized vehicle now, you can only have 2 "vehicles" max on your campsite. If your spouse works and drives another vehicle to the campground, well, you get the point. They might now be able to charge extra fees for that vehicle or even not allow it.

Discussion anyone?


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## GoVols (Oct 7, 2005)

I'm not sure I follow your issue. Given the typical length of trailers these days and the vehicles that tow them, you can rarely get two vehicles on the pad/driveway on a camp site. Then you are left with the 2nd vehicle being parked sticking out in the road or parking on the shoulder of the road. Vehicles parked on the shoulder or sticking out limit sight distance and hide little kidos playing in the CG. More vehicle congestion on the already narrow CG roadway and kids playing in/around/on them add up to a dangerous combination.

Case in point, last fall we camped at Cades Cove CG in the Smokies Nat'l Park. That CG is old and most of the sites just were not designed for longer campers, plus there didn't seem to be any enforced rules about the number of vehicles per campsite. Cars were parked parallel all along the CG roads, making it difficult to ride bicycles in the CG without constantly stopping to allow a car to pass in the one lane that was now available (due to a parallel parked car). Sight lines were limited and made me uncomfortable allowing the kids to ride bikes.

You asked for a discussion, so I'll have to say I agree with the Corps attempt (if indeed this is the reason) to keep cars off the CG roads. If there is a second vehicle, it should be parked in a parking space designated for such.


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## Kyoutbacker (Apr 26, 2006)

I was not discussing parking on the roads or the shoulders. Everyone knows this blocks traffic and creates hazards for the kids.

In my case I tow the OB out to a campground and set-up so when my DW gets off work she can go straight to the campground.

Many corps campgrounds are paved for a portion of the campsite and then change to gravel for the back end. In this case you could no longer park your OB tires on the gravel, or your TV either. In many cases, none of us could park their TV and OB in the site anymore, since OB (26) + TV (20) = 45 foot long area needed.


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Its all about the money these days, how much can you squeeze out of the public.


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## luv2camp (Mar 9, 2006)

I used to camp at Raystown Lake here in PA and was thinking about going back. Their sites are all gravel (so no pad to deal with) and often the sites are 50' long and easily 25-30' wide so fitting a large camper and two cars was never a problem before.

I'll have to look into this closer. Thanks for the heads up.


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## the eubies (Sep 7, 2006)

Here in CA State Parks, where we usually camp. Entrance fee covers 1 vehicle and 1 legally towed vehicle. So I have always considered the trailer a vehicle. Not surprised the Corps of Engineers in doing this. Probably to collect more money or to cut down on extra vehicles.


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## Mgonzo2u (Aug 3, 2004)

Land is not free and running a campground is not free.

Running a campsite, public land or not, costs dollars to maintain.

As THE EUBIES noted, in CA, you are only allowed 2 vehicles per site (TV and RV) with paid admission. If the site has a double wide driveway, you can usually park one more motor vehicle at the expense of another $10 per day.

I don't get the beef nor the rant but it appears as though the info helped another user so in a sense, its all good.


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## B&J_GAKampers (May 22, 2007)

Kyoutbacker said:


> Upon recently making a reservation at a Corp of Engineer campground, I discovered that a "trailer" is now considered under the same designation as an "RV" or motor home. Under this designation our OB is now considered as being under the same designation as a "motorized vehicle". This might not seem much, but it changes:
> 1. A motorized vehicle can no longer be parked upon the gravel portion of a campsite if the campsite has a paved surface. (This interpetation is another new item by our Corps of Engineers). Don't let your trailer wheels leave the pavement onto the gravel.
> 2. Since the OB is considered a motorized vehicle now, you can only have 2 "vehicles" max on your campsite. If your spouse works and drives another vehicle to the campground, well, you get the point. They might now be able to charge extra fees for that vehicle or even not allow it.
> 
> Discussion anyone?


Is this change something fairly new?
We do a lot of camping at several of the COE CG's close by us (nice for just weekend camping). The COE's we go to have concrete barriers (or what ever it's called) at the end of each site parking pad, so backing in far enough where your trailer wheels are not on the pavement is not even an option. We've never run into any problems parking our OB and TV, and most of the sites we can park a second vehicle in the drive too. There are a few that I would question if we could get our OB and TV both in, but most of them have pretty good length concrete pads/driveways.

The COE CG's we go to has never allowed you to park anywhere but on the paved surfaces. They will let you, if there is space around your site, park your boat trailer on the grass/dirt as long as the boat is not on the trailer. They also have extra parking areas through out the CG's and an area outside the gates.

We haven't looked at the regulations lately, but we've camped a lot with the OB and 2 vehicles. If the OB is now a "motorized vehicle"...then it will put us as having 3 motorized vehicles. Might need to check into this, since most of the time we take an extra vehicle to pull the boat. We don't really want to pay for an extra vehicle.

I can see where the OB now being a vehicle would cause concern if a spouse comes over later in another vehicle...we do that sometimes too. But, in our case it still wouldn't be a problem...DH has to leave to go to work before they open the gates (camping & work are in different time zones) so he has to leave a car outside the gates.

Thanks for bringing this up...I know we'll be checking into this when we go again in a few weeks.
Juleen


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