Van length - what is too big for van parks?

How long is a piece of string?

There are that many varying length caravans about, so most or should I say nearly all cater for all that turn up.

you would be pretty right as long as you pay your rent.

safe travelling
96

If you ring to make a booking, always include the total length including the draw bar. Most parks (mainly council) measure their sites from the rear of the site to the roadway. My wife and son come across this problem all the time at their park

Steve

Gooday,
We have a 21ft & never had any trouble, some sites can be a bit of a squeeze.
Personally I would be reluctant to go much over 22 ft, if you need more room than that you might as well fly or drive to your destination & go to Hotel or Motel.
There are plenty of larger ones about, but it's an individual thing in the end. Just beware of your Tare weight B4 you put anything in it, and what your Tow Vehicle is capable of. Don't take the sales Rep for Gospel.
Cheers,
Boroma604

GDay jdbb. I cant speak about van park problems with large vans as ours is 17.5 ft but I tow a 20ft+ catering van for our Lions Club and there are lots of issues with big vans behind even large 4wds. The first is probably weight and the big van weighs close to 3 tonnes with all the gear in it. The next is shear bulk, it seems to be about twice as big as our 17ft van. Next is height. You need to be so careful under trees etc. I believe if you dont need a big van dont get one. I tow it with a petrol / gas patrol with plenty of power and it certainly knows the big van is on the back esp. on a hot day. I had a earlier model landcruiser and patrol they were no better. We have had a number of vans over the years and about 16 - 17ft seems to be the most popular. Look around your local van park. All the big vans are set up as permanents. They are simply too big to tow with anything less than a truck. If you own an oil company outright go for it.

Perhaps not a huge (pun) problem in off season but picture school holidays on the popular east coast or even up north in winter. Most sites filled already. Narrow road between van rows. Cars parked near vans and the roadway. You have to back it into the last site - between other big vans.
Its great entertainment to watch the cursing couple trying to back it in? But a bit stressful and embarrasing for them it seems.

And as said - watch out for those overhanging trees everywhere.
Bigger is certainly not always better. Unless you are weeks/months at the one site.

jdbb,
also a lot of parks cater for the over nighter and have a drive through set up, so if you don't have to, is un hook your van.

Makes it easy for the travellers and ones that are not used to backing into caravan bays.

You can also check with the parks when booking.
Cheers
96

FYI we had a 30ft Chesney Sheraton years ago and towed it up and down the east coast of Aus.
We had a new van built in Melbourne and was a tri axel, it had shower / separate toilet reverse cycle air con rear bunks for 3, main bed Lounge and front kitchen, it was 38ft cabin size and we towed it across to Perth from Melbourne, where we sold it at Mandurah and built.

Being in the building trade I helped from the ground up build a mobile home / caravan park in Melbourne at Frankston.
I was the main building contractor.

it was on the corner of Sky road and Mclelland dve in Frankston.
Called the Log Cabin Caravan Park.

jdbb,

i found it odd that i was asked this year by a park in southport QLD how long my van was?told them 18'4"-- yeh that will be OK was the response.previously we had a 22' franklin and never had park issues or had been asked how long it was.cheers Paul

Have had a 22ft,and now own a 19ft 6" internal. Not sure what the metric equivalents are.
Main problems I experienced was confusion after pre booking about actual length. We found a few park employees had just booked a site for us without taking into account our actual size.

But a site inspection prior to trying to park will reveal all. Most problems we ever had occurred with our camper trailers. For some reason we were always shoved down the back somewhere,even though we were paying full fees ie; powered site.
But we soon got over that con and demanded a powered site with concrete pad and so on if they were available.
Jim

Thank you all for your replies.

I have spent the evening talking vans with a friend who returned home this week after a ten month lap. His van is 19'6" and had no problems. Other vans travelling with him were larger - at some parks they had to park in different areas but never were refused a site. He did say however that there was a park on the Gold Coast that a bigger van would not get into.

I might end up with the 20'6" option. Well within the capabilities of the LC100TD and it has the creature comforts that I've grown accostomed to.

We dont use c/van parks much but on the occassions that we do we always ask for a " large " site with a min width of 20ft and min length of 30ft , and thats for the c/trailer !!! is 21ft x 14ft under canvas , never yet had a problem.

My wife and I have only just completed our trip around OZ in our camper trailer which when opened out is approx 9 metres or the good old 27 feet long. We have had no trouble to get into caravan parks. They can usually find a spot. Usually phone ahead to check is the best bet. So measure the overall length of the van plus the draw bar. This day and age some of the 5th wheeler caravans are much longer than the van that you are considering.