Hi Guys New to this site but have a thick skin so not worried about flaming but looking for your members advise or expertise on using a USA motorhome around the country.
The Rig is a 30 foot or just over 9m Coachman Pursuit 30fw. Lenght is not to much of a worry but the width is at 8.5 ft or 2.6m
Looking for advise on dumping tanks and filling FW tanks. Specialist sites for large motorhomes wild camping etc
I don’t fancy driving a bus myself! I don’t know of any specialist sites. You’ll have to phone to ask for longer pitches - Mortonhall at Edinburgh gets plenty of big Continental vans, Blair Castle near Pitlochry has almost got a club going because so many go with the ‘pull-out side’ vehicles, but I’ve never seen specific pitch lengths in site directories.
Wild camping in a vehicle is just overnight parking (the term has a legal definition that doesn’t apply to MHs & RVs) and you’ll probably be in touching distance of the next MH doing the same thing, at the harbour at Brora for example. But it’s free. There are apps that review these car parks.
Width ok: parking spaces are 2.4-2.5 wide. Length - car parking spaces are 5m so you’ll need to pay for 2 spaces, and you won’t be allowed on many of Mull’s roads (limit 6m) - but that might not be somewhere you want to go anyway. Not advisable on the North Coast 500 where (like Mull) many roads are very bendy single track with passing places that might be too short for you. Overnight parking by the road or in the dunes is a massive problem up there too.
Drive-over waste water dumps aren’t available at every site, so you may want to limit yourself to sites with a more expensive “serviced pitch”, with its own water tap and drain. You’d put your Whale on for constant water & run a pipe to the drain. You’ll still have to trundle your toilet cassette to the CDP or Elsan.
I have a feeling American motorhomes don't have cassette loos, the one we hired in Canada did not, you had dedicated drains on the pitches or drove to the dump point.
Could be a problem on our sites which normally have a separate chemical toilet point.The drive over drains are normally for grey water.
Maybe empty into a waste container to take to the chemical point.
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Quote: Originally posted by 664DaveS on 08/2/2022
I have a feeling American motorhomes don't have cassette loos, the one we hired in Canada did not, you had dedicated drains on the pitches or drove to the dump point.
Could be a problem on our sites which normally have a separate chemical toilet point.The drive over drains are normally for grey water.
Maybe empty into a waste container to take to the chemical point.
Not long been to a large CAMC site that has just put in a number of NEW MH service points last year, AFAIK no Black water (toilet waste) disposal, only grey water disposal drive over drains and fresh water taps. Think toilet cassette (if you had one!) had to go to regular service point CDP. If you had a tank, then I guess decant into container and carry to CDP. I do believe some sites have a lift off manhole cover that can be used for drive over toilet/grey waste, but suspect that's as much coincidence of manhole location than true design intent! Why would sites have drive over toilet waste disposal facilities when the vast majority of UK/EURO MHs have cassette toilets?
As to general use of a large US style MH, think you will exclude yourselves totally from quite a few sites with smaller pitches and difficult access, I just had to discount a site I liked the look of that would not accept even my 22 ft caravan! Friends have commented on other sites that SHOULD have size restrictions as entrance difficult to negotiate and insufficient room to manoeuvre (again a 22 ft caravan) onto/off pitch with ease. Used a few sites where even my 22ft van overhangs the pitch and/or is hard against a hedge to squeeze on! Sites are not always good (or honest!) at describing their access or pitches, and it becomes a shock on arrival.
Quite a lot of sites, especially CL/CS sites are down quite narrow single track lanes, even my 7ft 3in wide van brushes the hedges, plenty of parts of the country (arguably some of the best parts) only have narrow roads, no chance of getting two truck sized vehicles past each other AND because they are two cars wide roads, there are NO regular passing places, so a lot of reversing for somebody! I choose my routes and sites carefully with roads and access in mind, but even so I've had to squeak past oncoming vehicles more than I would like!
You certainly can make use of a giant US MH in UK, but it limits your options rather a lot IMHO, personally I'd rather sacrifice the extreme space/luxury for the versatility and opportunities opened up by something smaller and built with this country in mind, but that is very much a personal view and not a judgement.
I didn’t realise American RVs have no toilet! So big but without the smallest room?
If that’s true in this case, the OP will have to buy a Porta-potti or use site toilets or take a shovel several yards beyond any footpaths & watercourses to bury their waste.
Emptying raw sewage toilet waste (black water) down a grey / rain / tap water drain / stream is a pollution incident, no excuses. It’s “dirty camping”.
They do have toilets etc. The one we hired in Canada which was about 25 ft long had a ceramic bowl loo with electric flush.Shower etc.
The pitches had a drain you connected a big waste hose to. You then opened a valve to drain the loo waste, then the second valve to drain grey water and clean out the pipe!
If the pitches were not fully serviced you drove to the dump station and carried out the same procedures.
We toured in Australia with a hired camper,they had cassette toilets like we do. You emptied them at a chemical point like here.The van was a Mercedes Sprinter conversion. Diesel auto, aussies don’t go for manuals!
Canadian (Ford based) MH had a 6.0 V8 petrol which liked fuel!
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Fiona it does have a Toilet, fully flushing unit that drains into a 45 gall tank. In the US most parks have a dump station that it can be emptied into by connecting a 4 inch plastic hose. We even had a connection at home where we could connect to the sewer system.
I would like to convert it to one of the incinerator toilets but need to save for that. Until then i will have to look at getting a portable and empty as others do.
It looks like camp outs will have to be planned with a bit more detail. We will be doing a bit on the continent as well
Thanks for the clarification.
Your parking up in free designated Motorhome places at harbours etc will need to be interspersed every 3-4 days with one night at a site where you can empty the grey waste & the toilet legally, and fill your fresh water tank. Some sites (but not all) let you pay a fee (£10 or so) to do this without staying.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: American MotorHome.
via mobile 07/2/2022 at 10:31am
