So You Want to Buy an Rv Park, Huh. Are Ye Daft?

By Mark Douglas

This story is not fiction. My wife and I lived this story for more than nine years. What we relate here is what we saw, felt, learned, tried, "kicked tires", tested, and finally bought an RV Park in Apopka FL in 2002. It was a fixer-upper---Oh, how it was a fixer-upper! We had to rebuild it to 2002 standards and to the burgeoning RV industry that was changing all the previous rules. We have included our personal interests as well as the agonizing methods of rebuilding to park. It had been an "Over-55" park. Ours, renamed Orange Blossom RV Resort, would be a Family Park. That would include swings, monkey bars, and other children's delights, as well as adult delights. The swimming pool had to be rebuilt before it was acceptable for use. We encouraged trips to many historical sites around middle Florida. This was in addition to the many great delights, such as Disney World ands Universal Studios, not to mention several others.
Included herein are many tips for anyone who desires to build or buy an existing RV Park. Several Warnings are spelled out for the unwary. But, listen, there are many humorous stories that you, too, would fall into. Read on, learn, and enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483576138

Mark Douglas

Mark Douglas served as a sailor in the US Navy for twenty years. In his career, he served on three attack transports, a destroyer, a cruiser, and a patrol frigate. He currently lives in Florida.

Book preview

Projects

Introduction

Well now, I hope you like fishin', cause this subject opens a big can of worms! The easiest way to look in that can is by asking questions only you can answer. You gotta like people: RV’ers come in all kinds of dress and lifestyles; their RV's vary from relatively inexpensive, cute Dewdrop trailers---6-to-8 feet long---to the huge, tall, gas or diesel Class-A Motor Homes up to 45 feet long, up to 12-plus feet high, and very heavy, too: really expensive. Regardless, all these folks are just as sensitive about and proud of their rigs as you are about your car or RV.

RV equipment classifications

Let's start here with some titles and definitions: technical stuff. Skip, if you are already familiar with the subject.

Basic RV ‘Shore’ Connections

Every camping rig from Tents—even sleeping bags—to very large Class A RV’s, come into a park and make their shore connections. These are variable; this is the proper place to mention them. We are referring to Electrical (E), Water (W), and Sewage (S). All the catalogs and campground brochures refer to EWS, sometimes Metered, sometimes Phone, and now, WiFi and Satellite.

AC Electrical.

Nearly all camping equipment has some kind of AC electrical need, including tenters who might like to have a light, heater, or music in their tent without wasting batteries. Normally, there is a receptacle providing 10-15-20-amp, or 30-amp, or 50-amp voltage, each protected by breakers (like in your home). Every Rv'er knows which of those shaped receptacles fit her or his RV electric cable plug. The RV Park receptacle is usually set with the proper fused (trip) breaker. Your guests should make sure the receptacle breaker is turned off when connecting or disconnecting their cable. Not doing so could damage their RV equipment.

NOTE: if you appear to have an electrical connection problem, this is usually your problem. Do NOT attempt to rewire the Park’s receptacle.

Fresh Water hose (usually White).

The smart RVer knows to never trust the water pressure provided by the park. Lots of RVers have a pressure gauge they attach to the RV park faucet and check the pressure. If it is over 30 PSI, they attach a spring-loaded pressure regulator in-line between the hose and RV. It’s like ‘tomayto’ and tomahto’: take your pick. That is, attach at the water faucet or at the RV water inlet.

If the water pressure is over 30 PSI, that pressure could blow out an RV's internal water lines, which would definitely upset the RV owner. Notice the ‘white’ hose. This has been a standard for a long time to differentiate other hoses used to wash trailers and clean the RV 3 or 4 sewer hoses before stowing it or them away.

Some folks use an inline clean water filter between the water faucet and their RV.

I can remember staying at an RV Campground in the Big Bend area along the Rio Bravo canyon. The water was yellow and tasted like horse pee! Really ugly!

Sewage hose.

Not every RV has a sewer hose to connect to the park's sewage-system connector. Tents and small RV's sometimes have a portable (wheeled) 20-gallon tank. When it is full, the tank has to be dragged to a sewer receptacle for dumping (inclined to splash when towed to a sewage receptacle).

The norm: what you usually see is an accordian-like 3- or 4-inch diameter hose---usually black or gray---that extends and fastens between the RV and RV park surface sewer pipe.

When the surface pipe is not in use, a cap screws on, closing the pipe to keep water and dirt from entering the sewer system. Sometimes, an Rv'er forgets to replace that cap, (even taking that $10 cap with them) and you need to insure the cap is screwed on top of the pipe.

Prime Mover

A prime mover is a powered vehicle, such as a car, van, pickup, or even a motorcycle, connected behind it to a Recreation Vehicle pulling it from home and place to place along the road into a campground or park.

Ball and socket connection.

A prime mover is connected to the RV by a ‘ball’ on the prime mover frame and a ‘socket’ connection on the trailer tongue or 5th wheel connection (explained later). The prime mover has a steel ball about the size of a tennis ball, fastened to its rear frame, usually lubricated (smeared) with vaseline, light grease or heavy oil.

An RV has a socket that fits down upon the steel ball, also so lubricated, and is snap-locked into position. Without lubricating both male and female parts, it is very difficult to lock them together. (I have seen people jump up and down on the trailer tongue attempting to lock them together.) Safety cables or chains from the RV are hooked to the Prime Mover frame in case the ball-and-socket breaks connection!

Safety chains and cables.

A pair of linked chains or cables are fixed to the RV. These chains are fastened to the Prime Mover's frame on two metal eyes. In case of ball-and-socket or 5th-wheel break-away, the safety chains or cables will contain the RV permitting a safe but harrowing stop!

Anti-Sway Bar.

Travel Trailers, or Tag Alongs, trundling down the road behind its prime mover, tend to sway behind it like a hula dancer, caused by an unbalanced load forward of or after the RV wheels. A special expansion bar can be fastened between the trailer tongue and prime mover, alongside the ball and socket connection, to dampen any swaying. The bar is adjustable in length and rigidity to further reduce swaying. Even so, it is important to balance the load, front-to-back on the trailer.

Umbilical Electrical/Signal cable

A multi-wire signal cable connects the prime mover and RV; it contains several signaling wires or leads. These leads pass information from the prime mover to certain portions of the electrical body of the RV. They are:

Electrical Brake.

The Prime Mover driver has a brake control, within hand’s reach, mounted somewhere on the dash, called a modulator. It is a slide switch to set how much brake pressure and time-delay is applied to the RV brakes. When the Prime Mover brakes are applied, the signal is sent to the RV to apply its brakes and turn on its brake lights. The modulator can be set for country or rural areas, or anywhere in between, to provide hard braking at highway speeds, or to provide light braking in slow traffic in cities—so the trailer doesn’t ‘hop’ when brakes are applied. Also, the driver can reach down and apply the trailer brakes, lightly or hard, for a moment or longer, depending upon the emergency situation.

Silhouette Lights.

When the Prime Mover night-lights turn