RVs and Cultural Restrictions

It’s becoming more and more common for RV parks to ask us the year//make/model of our rig before accepting our reservation. A large (and growing) number of parks have a “10 year restriction” on RVs, meaning they won’t permit you to camp there if your rig is over 10 years old.

This is, of course, ridiculous. The idea that nobody should keep an RV for more than 10 years is absurd. Considering all the resources that go into making an RV, and the cost of new and newer rigs, such restrictions are environmentally, economically, and socially irresponsible.

Nonetheless, some parks have this restriction, and more and more parks have started adding it. The rationale is that they don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of “trailer trash” rigs, or they don’t want a lot of disabled vehicles on their park. And who could blame them? But having a “must be operational/road-worthy” requirement is not the same as “must be <10 years old.”

It’s also not a sound business strategy. We stayed at a park that used to have an age/cost restriction– only rigs that cost about half a million dollars new had been welcome. After alienating the entire local community, the park owners had gone bankrupt and sold the whole resort for pennies on the dollar. The new ownership was slowly improving things, but the RV park was clearly lowest-priority for getting upgrades. We stayed there for over a month last year and loved it. There was nobody around– it felt “crowded” when one other camper was in the park, and the space rental was dirt cheap.

We checked in this week at an RV park in the middle of a busy city. The park has breed restrictions– no Rottweilers, no Pit bulls, no Dobermans, no wolf hybrids, etc. And “No Vicious Dogs.” I have to wonder, couldn’t all the breed restrictions be removed solely by saying “No vicious/aggressive dogs; no dogs with a history of biting people or other dogs”? I mean, Rottweilers and Dobermans are generally very sweet, loyal dogs. Their loyalty is why they can be trained to be vicious; they are not inherently mean dogs. Pit bulls are usually problem dogs when they’ve been raised by problem people (although I do understand that some pit bull lines, particularly encouraged in dogfighting groups, are more aggressive and harder to train-out than others).

It seems to me that arbitrary “no old rigs allowed/no dobermans allowed” policies are buying into the various “isms” of the world. It’s like saying “no dark-skinned people allowed because most of the U.S.’s prisons have dark-skinned people in them.” It’s a fallacious argument, one that should not stand. Better to target your real goal in the rule: “No non-operational rigs allowed.” Or “No vicious dogs.” Or “No tube tops.”

So far, I haven’t seen any “no vicious cats” signs, and Alladin is grateful because he’d hate to be discriminated against. I am going to be very saddened the day I try to check in to a park and see the “No plastic flamingos” sign, though. Hopefully they’ll have a large enough parking lot where we can do a u-turn to get out of there!