Oh that stinks. We recently got kicked out of our permanent campground because we used our E-bikes (manager stated it violated their (outdated) motorized vehicle rules, but there were other campers that had real motorcycles, atv's etc and that was ok). We had only been in there a month and suddenly we felt like outsiders. In fact the manager kept referring to us as the 'newbies'. When my fiance' put the e-bike situation on his private FB page, the manager found out, she knocked on our door and very angrily told us to pack our bags and leave immediately. We're glad to be out of there. Bad vibes and their pool was never open.
Because of this experience we now spend so much time vetting places before we stay! If there is any indication of majority fulltime residents, power issues, management issues or things not working we just move on to the next place!
I live full time at an RV park mostly full time folks here since 2020 they had to Allow more monthly permanent residents . Lots of complainers give bad reviews of our place. It is best neighbors and good management really care here , I had serious mental health episode when I was get off of medications. I had few negative reports from neighbors who didn't know me , management really saved my life by not kicking me out in my mental emotional breakdown . Beautiful people . I have to give back and show my appreciation and gratitude to these people. I have lived here ,5 years this year. I will pick up litter and offer my assistance to anybody here . I had a nasty divorce and bad year 2023; they knew I was a good guy and chit happens. In Vancouver BC here it's ridiculous rents for apartments and housing. In 2020 we fled the city. I'm forever grateful for tswassen RV resort and all the staff and maintace folks. In RV parks the management. This place is respectful to those of us who deserve to be and who have proved to be good people. As long as your human , chit will happen. Its what we do after the storms that reveals our true nature and character. There will allways be judgements and label others at all parks I'm grateful this place has a manager with heart and sees the good In people and I am very grateful . We all just gotta chill and mind your own RV site and don't be so weak and offended by others behavior. Society has gone weak and offended vs old school 😢😢😢
The most epic horrible experience I had was in my trailer in Virginia at a campsite. I woke at 1am because the trailer next to me was on fire, I hastily reconnected it to my hitch, pulled all cables and just as I got onto the truck cab, fires instantly erupted at 6 trailers!! Apparently lightning was hitting the power line somewhere close by and making it into the trailers ultimately burning them up, for whatever reason even new surge suppressors didn't help these people.
Surge suppressors are made to protect from surges on the incoming line, not really designed to protect from lighting strikes. Especially if the electrical system/grid in the park is shoddy and lacks a proper grounding system.
I take bad reviews very seriously (on anything) Rave and good reviews are too easy to planted by the owner or bought and paid for. Thanks for the warning !
You're welcome! You are 100% correct! Too many small companies have friends/family write good reviews for them so they can't always be trusted! On the flip side, I don't take every bad review to heart because I understand people have different expectations. We will take electric/general upkeep reviews a bit more seriously in the future though!
@@PavingNewPaths if a place deserves a bad review it's places like that!! They're deceptive from the word go!!! You may save a lot of people some headache & heartache! They should 🚫 NOT be in business!!
@Beardless Guy No, no. Sorry bud, but he's entirely correct. People are much more motivated to leave a negative review than a postive one. Common sense would tell you that. With that out the way, do you think you could work on yourself a bit and improve how you communicate with others? I appreciate it's your experience in life which has lead you to communicating so poorly, but do try to stop the cycle yourself instead of passing your struggle onto the next guy. You'll feel better, and so will everyone else around you. You got this buddy. Be a man. Shoulders back!
We left an rv park once. The red flag should of been the 9.5 speed limit signs. They had rules for rules. The biggest thing I learned was don't stay at rv parks that mainly have permanent residence. It seemed we were always being watched by the full-time residence. The park was a real click. Why they even rented space to travelers just passing through, I don't know. We lost money because they don't give refunds for early departure. Didn't care left early anyways to get out of there. Never pay a month in advance if you've never been to the park beforehand to check it out.
Great advice! I love your comment about the rules have rules, because we got a welcome brochure once that was two full pages of rules! I felt like they were going to give us a pop quiz after we got settled in!
I lived in a park like that for 14 years. Changed hands twice, and a pretty steady stream of managers. I was a trucker so I’d be home 2 or 3 days and leave for a couple of months. The last owners thought that the permanent residents should clean the sites, including the leaves. I told the owner that I don’t do leaves but I do have a chainsaw. That didn’t go over well. I moved less than three months after retirement, no way was I going to stay.
I agree with your comment. I stayed at a county campground that allows seasonal sites. My friends and I were just sitting there minding our own business and this guy rides up on a golf cart and goes, “just so you know they don’t allow alcohol in state parks” we had beers in our hands. I replied, “good thing this is a county park, cuz state parks don’t allow golf carts either”. Some people just need to mind their damn business.
We had similar issues at other campgrounds. Even if the campground couldn't correct the problem I've never had to wait more than a few minutes for assistance. KOA is our absolute last choice in campgrounds. They're usually poorly maintained and always over priced.
MY WIFE AND I DID 9000 MILES IN 62 DAYS IN 2016 TO SEE AMERICA. AND WE SAW A LOT OF IT. MOST NIGHTS WAS A KOA. WE'VE FOUND THAT THE KOA LOCATIONS NEAR BIG NAME TOURIST ATTRACTIONS, EG MT. RUSHMORE, SOUTH DAKOTA, WERE NICER AND MORE APPEALING ALL THE WAY AROUND. WHEN WE OVERNIGHTED IN B F E KOA LOCATIONS THE FACILITY WAS UNKEPT, USED UP AND REALLY NOT WORTH THE MONEY THEY CHARGE
Thank you for your honesty and more importantly, naming this disgusting rv camp site. We all need to start naming names of camp sites and even RV Dealers that are questionable. By bringing thses entities to the forfront they will either change their ways or go out of business. Let us all get together and share the bad stories & experiences so others can avoid!!
I live near that campground. Before I took residence here, I came for a wedding and was going to stay for a week. I was going to car camp in someone's driveway, but became sick, and thought I better go to the campground for better facilities. They wanted $55/night, no electricity, tent-site (5yrs ago), but no tent, no grass either. But with no tent, my car was now an rv in their mind and so, would cost more, and I had not told them yet I had a child and dog with me. So I gave up, went into town and found a cheaper place: a hotel room with air-conditioning, fridge, stove, bathroom, TV, privacy for a whole week. Only negative was, dog had to stay in my car.
Yikes! We've heard quite a few campers who say our experience at this rv park isn't uncommon! It's really sad because it could be such a great park if they cared just a little bit! Glad you found a more suitable place to stay!
Oh thank you. You took me back about 10 years ago when my husband and I were Camp Host's. We were recent empty nesters and it was one of the best experiences of my life. As a rule of thumb people who go camping and or hiking go with nothing but the best of intentions. They usually intend to relax, hike, fish, the whole relaxing ball of wax. We hosted for about 5 years during the summer and worked from Northern Washington to the border of California and Mexico on the Santa Fe trail. Sure we had a couple of hiccups, like no electricity, water, drunk people occasionally, but for the most part the people were nice, friendly and they came for a good time or to relax. Like I said THANX for the memories your video brought back. Hope your travels all go well. Take Care.
We made the video to show that no matter how much you plan and prepare RV life does not always work out the way you expect it to! That being said getting told to leave was the best thing for us as we got four extra days at Glacier National Park!
This was almost our story exactly at a Virginia campground!! So sorry this happened to you, and good for you for finding the positive in the situation and getting out of dodge quick!
Holy cow we were planning on staying there at that campground next month because it's close to were we needed to be for business deal but I just called to cancel. Thanks for heads up.
Thank you for being so honest and sharing your experiences. Someone probably already commented on this but the bocce game is pronounced ‘botch-eee’ and it is Italian lawn bowling. While it can be super competitive, my experience is that it’s a great game while holding a beer 🍺😁, a lot like croquet!! Happy travels!
I was stationed at Griffiss AFB in Rome NY in the late 1970s, Rome was known as a the Bocce capital of America... I believe they held major events there, they had a set of courts under a pavilion, probably like 50-100 courts... I know live near Rutland VT, and I know my former boss used to play in a league at the local Italian/American Club... A lot of folks don't know about it, but I bet nearly every town in America that has an Italian Club or Italian American Club has their own weekly league. As you previously pointed out it's a great excuse to throw down a few cold brews...
Some people don’t like when others give bad reviews but I love when others give the good, bad and the ugly. Last thing I want is to waste time. Thanks for the vid I’ve been always wanting to go out to Montana with my trailer and thank you again.
Super informative! I don't do RV Parks. I prefer national parks. Visited a few just to check and realized there are sites in the USA that are taking advantage of the RV Community.
I don't know how reservations are required to be paid but if you use a credit card like Visa or M.C. you can call up the card company to dispute the charges and tell them why and the card company can make determination that you are either owed a full or partial refund and they take care of the rest for you.
We considered disputing the charges, but decided paying the rate for those three nights may help them monetarily so they could update the electric. I doubt it was used for any upgrades, but one can hope!
@@jefferyhutchison9775 They did not give full refund. We were charged full price for all the days we were there without power. They only refunded the money for the days after they kicked us out!
Good thing you had a surge protector the faulty electrical service could have caused very expensive damage to your rig. We use the watch dog surge protector because there are so many rv parks out there who aren’t maintained well yet have a great website with beautiful pictures. I now use a cross reference of with reviews and RVers photos.
I think it goes a long way if they try to make it right or if there’s a decent park underneath. We lost power for 3 days at our current campground but it was city side and not campground side. The park did everything they could to make up for it and comped 4 nights. We already had a generator too. Yea i was pissy but they tried and it wasn’t their fault. Complete opposite of what happened to y’all.
Yes, just offering empathy would have been a nice gesture. All we wanted was to hook up to the site beside us since our neighbor left, but then she "couldn't sell that spot" as she said! Yes, we were upset about not having adequate power for two days and having no contact with the staff since they were never there, but it could have been resolved in that instant if she would have said sure hook up to the site beside you and I'm sorry for your troubles! Sounds like your management was better trained then what we were dealing with!
Wow, that’s insane!! Although I know it was very frustrating for you guys, getting kicked out was a blessing in disguise. 🙏🏽 God knows what else may have went wrong there in the upcoming days. The place just looks & seems sketchy like the Camp Redwood on American Horror Story 🤦🏽♀️🤣 On another note, you guys have a beautiful family! Enjoy the rest of your trip! ☺️🏕🔥
I agree, definitely a blessing. And although these rvs are set up with so much surge protection and safety, all of that power surging and issues at that place couldn't be good in the long run. Probably best to high-tail! God bless stay safe
They depend on the fact that you're arriving tired and don't have time to find another place. They figure you'll "settle." God, I hate people like that.
We love you, too! We know your time is precious, so to spend it watching our channel means the world to us! This was the video that took us from making videos for friends and family to making videos for everyone to enjoy! We are forever grateful for this negative experience, as it gave us a new job that we absolutely love!
Thank you for reporting them to KOA. We always camped with KOA bc of the comfort you get knowing you will be at a place with standards- good ones. Apparently something this place hasn't had in a very long time!
We've had good luck at the few KOAs we have stayed at! This was a former KOA that wasn't keeping up any standards of their campground, but still using their KOA pictures in online advertisements!
Don't let anything we do talk you out of it! Just take what you see and adjust your expectations! We love this life but we came into it thinking it was going to be vacation 24/7! Guess what it's not, it takes work just like living in a home somewhere!
Most everything that happens to us, can be a learning experience, and good for all of you for recognizing this. I spent most of my working life in customer service, (Aviation, Travel, and Tourism) I am also a traveler and consumer, and have learned to have a plan B, C, and D, if necessary. Most travel industry employees don't wake up in the morning and think, "I can't wait to see how many people I can inconvenience and piss off, because nobody wants to work that hard. It's just that some employees handle it much better than others. I wish you all dry roads, blue sky, and safe travels! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us! 🌅
I, too, came from a customer service background, as my degree is Hotel and Restaurant Management. It's so true what you say that most employees are not trying ruin your experience! When I worked front desk at hotels, I actually tried to make everyone's stay better than they expected and when I moved into sales, I tried to make my client's experience positive and memorable! There are absolutely some employees that editors not be in the customer service industry!
I camped at a very highly rated campground near Santa Fe NM and hooked up to 30A and my surge protector kicked the power off due to a ground fault, so I switched to 50A with an adapter which worked fine. I went over and told the manager about it and why I was on 50A and he came over and said you don't even have a surge protector. I told him my Airstream is 46 years old but I have an inboard surge protector with a digital readout. He said he'd have to shut the whole row down to fix it so he wasn't going to fix it! Another time, I stayed in an RV park on the East side of the river near downtown St. Louis and had the same problem. They moved me to an adjacent site and replaced the pedestal within an hour of me telling them. I've stayed there a couple of times since then. Some parks take maintenance seriously and some don't.
@@PavingNewPaths I wonder how they'd like to deal with someone injured or killed because of a faulty ground. Always check the pedestal before you plugin. You can buy an LED tester for about $10 that will test polarity, ground etc. and it is cheap insurance.
That is why we have a hardwired Surge Protector on board! It will not let power to the rig if there are any faulty conditions! We have had parks tell us the power is fine no one else is complaining, its your surge protector can you bypass it? We absolutely will not bypass it!
@@PavingNewPaths Onboard is the only way to go. No one can steal off of the pedestal and mine has more than paid for itself. I absolutely will not bypass it either. In 8 years I've had reverse polarity once, ground faults 4 times, and it has shut off at least 5 or 6 times that I know of for low voltage. I also always pay with a credit card so I can dispute it if I leave.
Loved yalls video and the review on a bad RV park. One thing that always bothers me is when a person uses me and mine when there is a family involved. Using "we" an "ours" makes a family situation video so much more enjoyable to listen too. Thanks again for the input.
It is a bad RV Park. We've wondered how they got a KOA contract. Next time stay on the south end of town at Southside RV Park. Great Park, really good owners, and close to Sparky's Garage Restaraunt for dinner. Great food & service. We had the same electrical pedestal problems at the The Lazy K Rv Park in Lovelock Nevada. Only our TT was a 30-amp unit. It was 106 outside. Running the ac & watching tv, we blew the entire camper row when we turned on the microwave. Evidently they had doubled the amount of sites without upgrading their electrical system. 1-night, adios.
Thanks for the recommendation on where to stay and eat! We have it noted for next time! I can't imagine being in 106 degree weather without adequate power! These rv parks are crazy to not keep their electrical in tip top condition! I'd hate to know I had to deal with angry customers every day at work over something that could be easily fixed!
FYI...pulling that heavy camper in Washington state (if you ever visit), I do believe you would have to pull over to let the line of people behind to to pass you. That's when there are five or more vehicles.
Thanks for the honest review! I do the same thing - ignore some of the bad reviews because that's not always the best truth tester. I've seen reviews by people who I WITNESSED either scamming or abusing the staff where they bash the place on Yelp because they didn't get meals comped or whatever - so I always hold judgement. But in this case - you provided examples and pictures of WHY you were unhappy with your experience.
Had a friend many years ago ( 80's) who wanted to install a pool heater in his inground 20X40. I told him that mine usually ran about 2.00 a day in propane to keep it 76 degrees. Small pool, 18X36 mostly for my family and neighboring kids. He went ahead an installed one costing him 4.00 a day, accusing me of lying to him. He removed the heater after one season and sold it for a loss. Some people just don't listen.
Thank you so much for reviewing this place. I just came across this post of your. We actually stayed here about 2 weeks ago. Pool was empty park was almost full. workers were there at 8 in the morning. We're were only in one night. We have a 30amp.. We got in way later than planned and couldn't fit in the spot they gave us so we just moved the next empty one. They lady came out in the morning around 845 and apologize for not responding to our email at 1030 pm. She seemed very nice. I know most of the trailers were smaller so maybe that's why you had so much problems with a bigger trailer. I'm sorry that happened to you. Safe travels. God bless
When we had our issues no employee came to work for 2 days! We had surging power for a day then the pedestal had no power the last day! The owner who lives next door would not answer a phone or email so we found our own solution by sharing the neighbors pedestal! Our campers size does not matter we can only run on what power we are provided! If they give us 30amp we run on 30amp! We actually were not mad because in those two days we survived on a 15amp supply from the neighbor and we learned what our camper was capable of! Our next stop was outside Glacier National Park and if you don't have reservations good luck finding a spot, so we figured we were ok for a few more days here! It was how the owner handled the situation when they came to work where this went bad!
We have a Park model in a RV Park. We pay extra for our outside freezer, electric water heater and air conditioner. Our landlord has it set to 30 amps. He tried to tell us it was our water heater was short circuting our power supply. It was during a storm. Everyone's electricity went out. Then he had done some wiring on our box and it again went out during a storm. The Maintenance man said it was faulty wiring on the box. He asked my husband if he tried to rewire it. No it was the owner. So our maintenance man did another rewiring of our circuit box. Everything is fine except when everyone loses power because of the storms. Again our landlord was trying to get us to buy his on demand water supply junk. See him and this other guy puts in a on demand box onto your RV trailer that cost $120 and charge you $500 with no guarantee. We looked up on Home Depot and found they are $179 but with a military discount and workers discount it only $129. The rest of the $500 they pocket it. It takes them about 20 minutes to hook it up on most RV's. But they are only supposed to be used for 2-3 weeks at a time. People were having to replace them within a year. On a Park model you are supposed to have spacers for heat escape. Now its sold to Lake Shore Management/Parakeet Communities. BBB has them at 🌟. Not 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟. People are complaining about these people and we are finding out why.
In almost 2 years and over 60 campgrounds this was our only bad experience! In the end it was a blessing as we got to spend extra days at Glacier National Park!
Once you brought up the box fan not working, I was 100% on board. Don't mess with my box fan at night. And yes Kevin, many people these days hate the damn truth. I dont get it but its TRUE🤷♂️
Montana is Awesome we loved our time there! If you make it to Glacier National Park I would plan to give it 2-3 full days one of the best parks we've ever seen! We just put out two videos of our time in Glacier, Go check them out you won't be disappointed!
My family did a lot of RV camping and even tent camping when I growing up. Maybe we were spoiled by the incredible state parks in Utah and the surrounding states, but we always considered KOA the bottom of the barrel and avoided them whenever possible. We preferred actually having scenery and trees to the usual mowed field that most KOA places seemed to be.
This was a former KOA, but used pictures from when it was a KOA to advertise! We loved Utah and think it would be great to stay inside the state and national parks. Unfortunately, our rv size doesn't allow for staying in them in most cases!
🤌🤌🤌 we never stayed at a Koa either. We stayed at real campgrounds so we were actually in forests and the surroundings. We grew up living in them. Silent Valley in So Cal is beautiful. Half way up the mountain to Idlewild starting down in Banning CA
A couple years ago we stayed here too. Stayed one night, then left 2 days early. Nothing like the pictures. There was also kids racing around on gas-powered bikes continually along with a guy going in and out on his Harley (and I kid you not) about 20 times in one day. No peace there. Very dusty. We also stayed at the other bigger campground on the outskirts of Dillon the year previous. Nice campground, nice people that run it, but no privacy from the people watering the grass and very, very loud as it's next to the highway with no sound barrier (and a crazy ant issue at the time 🐜). It's best to skip that town if you're an RVer. And it's sad, because we have a lot of family history in this town and sounding area.
The sad thing is this place could be so nice! Besides the lack of amenities, there is also a huge mosquito problem that makes being outside impossible! We loved every other place we stayed at in Montana so we will likely never stop in Dillon again!
@@PavingNewPaths - Agreed. The Fairmont Campground is pretty neat and is a good nearby substitute - plus you get to go to the water slide and hot springs.
"bocca" ball, I think you mean Bocce (Boch-eee). It is an Italian yard game popular in New England. Very similar to horseshoes. You throw the tiny ball, called a ballinni, and then the red and green balls are the teams. Whichever team color rolls the balls and gets the closest to the ballinni scores a point.
I used to own a 44' toy hauler. This unit was 13.5' tall. It is not easy to find parks that can handle a unit of this size. I have tons of stories. Some parks we roof surfed on the way in. Cutting low branches to avoid damage. One park in Massachusetts, we had to back out because the electric lines were to low. I also pulled with a 6.7 . There is a trick to pulling with the 6.7. When you get into the mountains, if you keep your speed at 73 the truck will not down shift and heat up. At 73 that 6.7 will power by everyone. My unit was 17000 dry. My truck pulled it perfectly. I put that unit in so many different locations, even in the side of a mountain. The only time I put it in 4 wheel drive with the unit. That one got a little scary. Be thankful you have the generator a lot of people don't. If you are looking for a good park. Try Clays park in northern Ohio. It has been years since I was there but, it definitely has a bunch going on. Or Caney Creek in Tennessee for relaxing. Good luck on your adventure it truly makes life long memories.
This was the only park in 18 months of fulltime living where we had issues! We know the struggle with getting these big toy haulers into some of the campgrounds! We spend a lot of time planning and making sure we are never on a road that can't handle a Semi! We have also had to cut trees and hold branches back to get in and out of places! Thanks for the tips on the campgrounds we will check them out!
@@PavingNewPaths the bridges on the highways in Massachusetts will make you sweat. I have parked next to a semi and the size is about the same. The day we pulled into Clays park. Reo speedwagon was playing in the band shell. I took a bath listening to live Reo true story 😂
@@PavingNewPaths I was told to never stop in Memphis Tennessee. There is a casino in Missouri called lady luck. It has a RV park. If you go it will take you threw part of the town. Don't worry you will fit. At has a restaurant and security. There is a truck stop to fuel up also.
Man! Sorry you had to deal with all the issues. We generally love KOA, so I was glad to see they really are not a KOA. I wonder how they can advertise as KOA if they are no longer affiliated with them. Seems illegal to me. Glad you got to a better campground. And enjoy Glacier. That place is incredible!!!
We almost didn't post the video, but it shows everything is not always smooth sailing in the rv world. Plus it had a happy ending we got to spend more time in glacier national park!
You inadvertently alerted bunches of potential investors to a place that needs a bit of 'Sweat Equity' to make it competitive. Way to go! Hope you are turning coin on listing derogatories for potential investors. Your insight has a VALUE to it.
Agreed! We said this place needs an influx of cash to upgrade the park and bring it back to it's former glory. And maybe management or staff that works with customers to solve problems instead of blaming customers for problems.
Ok the problem is weird but this is what happens in them power poles. A tree root grows and gets big. It pulls the wires and you get weird power issues because the wires get crossed.
Thanks for the heads up on that place. We we’re possibly thinking hitting that area in the fall. I am so sorry you had to deal with that. Going to save a lot of people from wasting their money/time from this place!
Sounds like your first place had a damaged underground power cord coming into the park effecting all power branches coming off it... and when it rains it would make power jump around and trip breakers until it dried out... this could be considered a safety violation if someone stepped into a puddle near the open power line underground...
Yes the place was in need of some electrical work! Once the 30 am plug died, I still had 15 amp but it was surging so bad the surge protector kept killing the power to prevent damage to the RV!
“Kevin started speaking truth” 😂👍🏼 sometimes it must be done when ignorance reaches that height, very childish on the park owners behalf, safe travels to you & your family brother ✌🏼
I waited on the truth until I was absolutely sure she was kicking us out! She looked me dead in the eyes and said your stealing all the power! my response was if I'm stealing all the power why am I here at your office telling you I don't have power! It escalated from there but we both left the conversation knowing where the other person stood!
When I used to travel cross country I lucked out with some pretty decent KOA'S. I liked to find the ones with the cabins. I think things have gone down hill these days.
We actually have never had a problem with KOA! They were a former KOA, operating under a new name, but still using KOA branded pictures on the website! We thought oh this will just fine! We were wrong!
All I got to say is thank you, I'm sorry about your camping experience, but when I see campgrounds that are like this.it gives me hope when I open mine in a few years in Ga.
Thanks for watching! You will be just fine as long as you give people what they pay for! We travel fulltime so we see a wide range of the campground across this country. Some charge based on amenities they offer, and some charge based on location. As long as we feel the the price meets our requirements we don't mind paying.
A warning to the wise . Your camper may be riding on cracked frames . Lippert makes nearly all of the travel and 5thwheel frames . They are having trouble with 5th wheel frames and travel trailer frames . 5th wheel frames breaking axle spring shackles from the main frame and Goose necks breaking at the transition and pin boxes breaking away and tearing up the trailer and truck. Travel trailers are breaking in the frame web 1 1/2 '' from the bottom flange of the 8" I beam caused by tight turns to get into camping spots . That popping sound you may hear is your frame cracks popping. You can look around on youtube to see the proble,
For a long time we gave every place a chance. After this experience we now remove the campground from our search that have to many of these type of bad reviews!
If you find yourself going through Idaho (since you’re up in those parts anyhow) swing through Salmon and stay at Elk Bend RV park and you will forget all about that place. It’s everything an RV park should be. Safe travels.
Stayed at a nice place just south of San Antonio TX in von ormy. Can't remember the name bit it's on a small creek. Nothing there really but a small camp store and a creek you can fish in and some woods. Everything worked though.
Night day difference. Probably that old Midwest electric rv Box with An old banjo meter is probably corroded so the connection went bad and your RV quit working. Meanwhile the new Arvie site has a Nice new up to code Siemens panel 😀
Use KOA motorcycle trips and never disappointed. That said, lower expectations. Clean spot, clean bathroom/shower, and space for bikes; and on our way the next morning. Sometimes we don’t even deal with someone because we arrive so late.
We stayed at a camp ground in the middle of Dillon ( Not KOA ) and it was great. A small stream running through it. We stayed there on our way up to Wallace Idaho from Arizona and 5 nights on the way home. We have a 40' motorhome with 50 amp and had no problems and the sites are well spaced apart.
It must be a Montana thing with the electricity! But we were there during perfect weather, we kept losing power, and we were not even running our A/C units!
video is awesome guys! Yall have some serious patience where i didn't learn that! i know you been called worse than a MISFIT before. love the videos stay warm and safe travels.
It wasn't operating as a KOA when we stayed, but they used their KOA branded pictures in online advertisements making you think you would receive a KOA experience! We definitely contacted KOA to let them know about the false advertisement!
New, full time rver here, reviews are always jaded with the ability of some sites allowing editing of online reviews. I am handicapped and wheelchair mostly. I'm considering starting a channel for accessible campsites.
We think your channel idea would be a huge success! I (Alecia) broke my ankle and could not put weight on it for 2-3 months and while I was down, we had many people reach out to us and ask us to show what life in the RV looks like with crutches/scooter, etc. We had a three-month old baby, plus our two older children, so we opted to stay with my parents, instead of the RV, so we never filmed those videos! It would also be great to showcase the accessibility of the campgrounds you stay at! We've seen some that are amazing in accessibility and others that leave a lot to be desired. Good luck if you decide to start a channel!
I did put a meter on it! Since it was a 30amp hook up we only had one leg and it was surging between 122v and 108v! Our surge protector was cutting the power due to low voltage! Before I could look into it more the entire pedestal went dead!
We have had issues at various "RV Resorts/campgrounds and in various states. Checked into one and our site was under water. There was about 5 inches of standing water over the whole site. Went back to office and asked to move to another site and was told NO. Plenty of sites open. I said we were not staying and was refused a refund. I always read the reviews. Definitely looks like the place you ended up was much better.
Yikes! You have to wonder why some management are such sticklers and want their paying customers to be unhappy. We definitely ended up in a better place!
I stayed at that campground about 18-20 years ago with a 30 foot travel trailer. It wasn't bad back then, but I don't recall it looking as bad as wheat you've now shown. Sad!
She said we were stealing power and that's why the park electrical system was having problems! I replied with that is not how any of that works and if that were true, I would have power and would not be here talking to you about a problem!
I hope you let KOA know that the badly managed park still was pulling people in with KOA quality promises of amenities. Perhaps they would pursue it with the park. Anyway, sorry for your troubles. We are not full time but we see plenty of actual KOA's that vary on upkeep. Too bad the prices don't reflect the lack of amenities even from what is available in the summer versus the off season times. We are members of Thousand Trails and see the same type of issues on upkeep and amenities. Some are great and others need someone to work there that cares about the park. As an RV'er, we try to make every place we stay look as good or better when we leave. We love the USA and want to keep camping across it!
We definitely notified KOA of the false advertisement from the park. Its unfortunate the standards aren't there across the board. We've only stayed at a few KOA's, and there was one that stood out as being quite a bit older and less maintained. Our issue with this park was using their KOA pictures in advertisements to make you think you'd get a KOA experience, when in all honesty, the park should be permanently closed, until their electrical problems are addressed at the very least.
@@PavingNewPaths Online it says it is permanently closed? Or at least it is closed as a KOA. It says it's an independent campground called Beaverhead River RV Park & Campground now, and has been that for name for about 2 years now. It's pretty confusing checking out the Google listings.
I had a friend who plugged in and went to town and didn't have a surge protector with a low voltage shut-off. The voltage dropped while she was gone and when she returned both of her A/C compressors were fried. The park said "not our problem, your rig was faulty!"
Yeah this is why we refuse to bypass our surge protector! If we have to we will fire up our generator until they can fix the problem or we can find a new RV park!
We've stayed at a couple of 'mom & pop' campgrounds where the pedestal had issues with the 30 amp socket, usually burned up a little from loose RV plugs, but we could usually just grab the 50 to 30 amp adapter 'dogbone' and no problems. Once we did have to move to another site (in the same park) because there was only an inoperative single 30 amp plug in the box. But so far we've not had your experience, but have run across one or two "KOA" that were not up to specs, but the prices were still up!
In over 40 campgrounds last year this was the only bad experience we have had! We actually were not mad because we learned what our RV could actually do with out power! We made the video to show things don't always go as planned!
If you think the manager is bad at this place don't stay with at the Cold Springs RV park in Moss Point Ms. The manager thinks she is queen and if she doesn't like you. You're gone. She's not there most of the time.
We stayed there a few years ago and it was awful. There are great campgrounds in the Dillon area! There was a wedding at the KOA when we were there and that was interesting. A camper drove his truck into a tree next to us….it was wild.
One thing to keep in mind is that all KOA reservations go through their personal website. I wonder if you guys called or booked online for this location…Either way, glad to know. Electric hookup is everything for long-term camping.
At time of booking we knew they were no longer a KOA, but they were still using pictures on the website with KOA signs and amenities. We have reported to KOA that they are still using those pictures to advertise their campground!
A bunch of us used to camp out at a state park for deer season. Every year around midnight without fail everyone's power would go out. Which made the 25 degree weather in the middle of the night in the tent that much more enjoyable. And then they added more campsites.
How convenient! This place we were on the circuit that just went dead all together! Us and about 1/3 of the campground! Funny thing thought because you would think it would be an entire row of campsites! But it was 1/3 of the park randomly spaced out everywhere!
Ibet you were one of them campers that had every electric widget.. on hot water heater 2 ac units fire place stoves and list goes on . i own a super c could run my unit off 20 amp cord if necessary at limited electric supply campgrounds some camps just cant get more power .
We can run our RV on 50amp, 30amp, and 15amp! In this particular instance we had a 30amp service but couldn't run anything because the power from the pedestal was surging so much our onboard surge protector was preventing the power from entering the RV! So, to answer your question we were not running anything during this time unless we fired up our onboard generator! The campground had plenty of power there was a problem with our pedestal! When we shared our neighbors pedestal our RV ran with no issues!
When a customer is satisfied with a service or product they tell 2 friends.. but, when dissatisfied they tell 22 friends. Who's the loser in the situation?
We didn't make this video with the intention of shaming the campground! It was made because we wanted to show that no matter how well you plan and what you pay for you don't always get it! That RV'ing fulltime has challenges, and you need to be flexible! In the end it worked out as we got to spend four extra days at Glacier National Park!
@@PavingNewPaths maybe a responsible couple will make the current owners an offer to purchase the campground? Could you imagine the memories their kid's would have spending most summer's at camp? My wife and are happy with our decision to take our kids camping for 2 weeks every summer when they were young we all had some of the best times of our lives camping, not to mention meeting some interesting people we're friends with (a few),to this day. happy camping
Very interesting, thank you so much for the honest and frank review of this campground. We love Montana and travel there in our 5W quite often. I didn’t happen to see the name of this RV park in your review, so I looked it up in our Good Sam campground guide and astonishingly it got pretty high ratings by Good Sam. Maybe the Good Sam ratings are very subjective. In eIther case we put this campground in our notes to NOT stay there. Love your videos and have learned a lot.
The campground was a former KOA but was using its KOA pictures under the new name to advertise! Unless they've done some major electrical upgrades, I would avoid it! It could be such a nice place but we would never stay there again!
I think its bizarre modern campers don't come factory loaded with solar. I built a system with lithium that keeps us and ACs running 24/7 for 3 or 4 days... with intermittent AC we have virtually unlimited runtime, no hookup. It is wild seeing 30ft+ campers with dinky little lead acid batteries that will run some LEDs and maybe the water pump for at most a few days... something needs to change in the industry.
The reason they don't is the people that will benefit the most out of this type of setup and actually use it, are not going to pay the asking price of what a set up like that from the factory would cost!
@@PavingNewPaths You would be right if there weren't 5th wheels or coaches well into six digits, still with empty roofs and very little battery capacity. Solar panels are cheap. Batteries are the expense. Even a small battery can run AC through the day with panels supporting it, and bigger rigs can run straight off the batteries. DIY a basic solar setup with 1-2kW and a minimal battery for 120v appliances ranges around $2k-$3k. The system I built cost around $12k. Compared to the cost of some higher end rigs this is a drop in the bucket...
@@mikoserbousek4987 We looked at a full solar that would support our rig woth 3 ac units and we were well in the 22k range to have it done! We explored the idea of doing it oursleves and building it the way we wanted to save money! But in the end we realized we spend 99% of our time in parks with hookups, and when we don't the onboard generator will support the rig! It is a huge investment and one a majority will never even use!
@@PavingNewPaths Makes sense from a value perspective. Solar I think is really more critical for boondockers / etc that go without hookup. We see lots of power outages in our area, so its pretty much a no brainer. At 22k tough I can see why one would be hesitant. Safe travels
It sucks when things don’t work as advertised, seems they would have been a lot further ahead to let you use a different pedestal or fixed yours. I’m sure you weren’t the first people it didn’t work for.
Watching this makes me happy I dry camp. I'm on my fourth year living full time in my 25 foot class A motorhome with my little dog Tinkerbell filming what I see and where I camp for free. Glad you had a better experience at your next camp ground!
I'm glad you posted this video. We actually stayed there in 2005 and it was much nicer then. We had a great time but thankfully you posted this. When we make a trip back up that way we will definitely not be staying there. It has changed for the worse.
We wish we could have had a great stay too! Glad you didn't rebook! Maybe with a management change and new funding, it can be restored to it's former glory!
In Europe and the UK there is something call the Trades Description Act, if a business gives misleading information and especially photos of products and or services they will be prosecuted.
We reported them to KOA the former franchise they used to be a part of, and let them know they are still using photos from the KOA brand to promote the Campground!
I'm glad 😊😊😊 that everything worked out for you folks 👍👍👍... If you're ever in Northwest AR do NOT use Monte Ne RV park.. travel the extra 2 miles on down Hwy.94 and stay at the Horseshoe Bend resort there on Beaver lake... it's good advice 👍👍👍
Wow...I tent camped there 10 years ago on a motorcycle trip to Jackson hole...no bad happenings on my stay, but it was only one day...too bad they've decayed....
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Love when places say the pool is closed due to covid but we all know it's just an excuse so they dont have to maintain it.
The owner actually said it was open, but after looking at it we decided it was not going to be ok to get in.
But charge full price when no amenities can be accessed!
Exactly!
why does it matter. if its closed its closed.
@@awack_ Because they are advertsing an amenity and charging a premuim price for something that is not available.
Thank you so much for the heads-up, from all of us full time rv'ers. We will never stop there, and will continue to pass the message.
Thanks for watching! We made the video so no one would go there and have to deal with what we did!
Oh that stinks. We recently got kicked out of our permanent campground because we used our E-bikes (manager stated it violated their (outdated) motorized vehicle rules, but there were other campers that had real motorcycles, atv's etc and that was ok). We had only been in there a month and suddenly we felt like outsiders. In fact the manager kept referring to us as the 'newbies'. When my fiance' put the e-bike situation on his private FB page, the manager found out, she knocked on our door and very angrily told us to pack our bags and leave immediately. We're glad to be out of there. Bad vibes and their pool was never open.
Because of this experience we now spend so much time vetting places before we stay! If there is any indication of majority fulltime residents, power issues, management issues or things not working we just move on to the next place!
You should list the name and location of the campground so others know and can make informed decisions.
I live full time at an RV park mostly full time folks here since 2020 they had to Allow more monthly permanent residents . Lots of complainers give bad reviews of our place. It is best neighbors and good management really care here , I had serious mental health episode when I was get off of medications. I had few negative reports from neighbors who didn't know me , management really saved my life by not kicking me out in my mental emotional breakdown . Beautiful people . I have to give back and show my appreciation and gratitude to these people. I have lived here ,5 years this year. I will pick up litter and offer my assistance to anybody here . I had a nasty divorce and bad year 2023; they knew I was a good guy and chit happens. In Vancouver BC here it's ridiculous rents for apartments and housing. In 2020 we fled the city. I'm forever grateful for tswassen RV resort and all the staff and maintace folks. In RV parks the management. This place is respectful to those of us who deserve to be and who have proved to be good people. As long as your human , chit will happen. Its what we do after the storms that reveals our true nature and character. There will allways be judgements and label others at all parks I'm grateful this place has a manager with heart and sees the good In people and I am very grateful . We all just gotta chill and mind your own RV site and don't be so weak and offended by others behavior. Society has gone weak and offended vs old school 😢😢😢
The most epic horrible experience I had was in my trailer in Virginia at a campsite. I woke at 1am because the trailer next to me was on fire, I hastily reconnected it to my hitch, pulled all cables and just as I got onto the truck cab, fires instantly erupted at 6 trailers!! Apparently lightning was hitting the power line somewhere close by and making it into the trailers ultimately burning them up, for whatever reason even new surge suppressors didn't help these people.
Oh my goodness that sounds terrifying! Glad you got out before yours caught fire!
Surge suppressors are made to protect from surges on the incoming line, not really designed to protect from lighting strikes. Especially if the electrical system/grid in the park is shoddy and lacks a proper grounding system.
I take bad reviews very seriously (on anything) Rave and good reviews are too easy to planted by the owner or bought and paid for. Thanks for the warning !
You're welcome! You are 100% correct! Too many small companies have friends/family write good reviews for them so they can't always be trusted! On the flip side, I don't take every bad review to heart because I understand people have different expectations. We will take electric/general upkeep reviews a bit more seriously in the future though!
Take ALL reviews with a grain of salt. Many people are spiteful and will post bad reviews as quickly as those who post glowing reviews.
@@PavingNewPaths if a place deserves a bad review it's places like that!! They're deceptive from the word go!!! You may save a lot of people some headache & heartache! They should 🚫 NOT be in business!!
Yes but people only write a review when they are mad. Nobody complains when all is well, so you don’t see any good reviews. Only the bad.
@Beardless Guy No, no. Sorry bud, but he's entirely correct. People are much more motivated to leave a negative review than a postive one. Common sense would tell you that.
With that out the way, do you think you could work on yourself a bit and improve how you communicate with others? I appreciate it's your experience in life which has lead you to communicating so poorly, but do try to stop the cycle yourself instead of passing your struggle onto the next guy. You'll feel better, and so will everyone else around you.
You got this buddy. Be a man. Shoulders back!
We left an rv park once. The red flag should of been the 9.5 speed limit signs. They had rules for rules. The biggest thing I learned was don't stay at rv parks that mainly have permanent residence. It seemed we were always being watched by the full-time residence. The park was a real click. Why they even rented space to travelers just passing through, I don't know. We lost money because they don't give refunds for early departure. Didn't care left early anyways to get out of there. Never pay a month in advance if you've never been to the park beforehand to check it out.
Great advice! I love your comment about the rules have rules, because we got a welcome brochure once that was two full pages of rules! I felt like they were going to give us a pop quiz after we got settled in!
We agree!
I lived in a park like that for 14 years. Changed hands twice, and a pretty steady stream of managers. I was a trucker so I’d be home 2 or 3 days and leave for a couple of months.
The last owners thought that the permanent residents should clean the sites, including the leaves. I told the owner that I don’t do leaves but I do have a chainsaw. That didn’t go over well.
I moved less than three months after retirement, no way was I going to stay.
I agree with your comment. I stayed at a county campground that allows seasonal sites. My friends and I were just sitting there minding our own business and this guy rides up on a golf cart and goes, “just so you know they don’t allow alcohol in state parks” we had beers in our hands. I replied, “good thing this is a county park, cuz state parks don’t allow golf carts either”. Some people just need to mind their damn business.
@@dinospumoni8860 that’s funny 🤣
We had similar issues at other campgrounds. Even if the campground couldn't correct the problem I've never had to wait more than a few minutes for assistance. KOA is our absolute last choice in campgrounds. They're usually poorly maintained and always over priced.
It's unfortunate KOA doesn't have a good reputation these days. We've had pretty good experiences but only stayed in a few.
MY WIFE AND I DID 9000 MILES IN 62 DAYS IN 2016 TO SEE AMERICA. AND WE SAW A LOT OF IT. MOST NIGHTS WAS A KOA. WE'VE FOUND THAT THE KOA LOCATIONS NEAR BIG NAME TOURIST ATTRACTIONS, EG MT. RUSHMORE, SOUTH DAKOTA, WERE NICER AND MORE APPEALING ALL THE WAY AROUND. WHEN WE OVERNIGHTED IN B F E KOA LOCATIONS THE FACILITY WAS UNKEPT, USED UP AND REALLY NOT WORTH THE MONEY THEY CHARGE
@@PeeWeeHenson yall were busy getting to see that much in 62 days! Thanks for the head's up about where the better KOAs are! We appreciate it!
Thank you for your honesty and more importantly, naming this disgusting rv camp site. We all need to start naming names of camp sites and even RV Dealers that are questionable. By bringing thses entities to the forfront they will either change their ways or go out of business. Let us all get together and share the bad stories & experiences so others can avoid!!
This place would have been pretty nice even with no power, if the owner would have just cared a little bit!
Great idea
I live near that campground. Before I took residence here, I came for a wedding and was going to stay for a week. I was going to car camp in someone's driveway, but became sick, and thought I better go to the campground for better facilities. They wanted $55/night, no electricity, tent-site (5yrs ago), but no tent, no grass either. But with no tent, my car was now an rv in their mind and so, would cost more, and I had not told them yet I had a child and dog with me. So I gave up, went into town and found a cheaper place: a hotel room with air-conditioning, fridge, stove, bathroom, TV, privacy for a whole week. Only negative was, dog had to stay in my car.
Yikes! We've heard quite a few campers who say our experience at this rv park isn't uncommon! It's really sad because it could be such a great park if they cared just a little bit! Glad you found a more suitable place to stay!
Oh thank you. You took me back about 10 years ago when my husband and I were Camp Host's. We were recent empty nesters and it was one of the best experiences of my life. As a rule of thumb people who go camping and or hiking go with nothing but the best of intentions. They usually intend to relax, hike, fish, the whole relaxing ball of wax. We hosted for about 5 years during the summer and worked from Northern Washington to the border of California and Mexico on the Santa Fe trail. Sure we had a couple of hiccups, like no electricity, water, drunk people occasionally, but for the most part the people were nice, friendly and they came for a good time or to relax. Like I said THANX for the memories your video brought back. Hope your travels all go well. Take Care.
We made the video to show that no matter how much you plan and prepare RV life does not always work out the way you expect it to! That being said getting told to leave was the best thing for us as we got four extra days at Glacier National Park!
This was almost our story exactly at a Virginia campground!! So sorry this happened to you, and good for you for finding the positive in the situation and getting out of dodge quick!
Sorry to hear you had to go through something similar. It worked out for the best in the end for us! But in the moment it was very frustrating!
In Chesapeake by any chance?
@@baron7024 no, it was on the Blue Ridge Parkway
@@NomadicTrio FYI, if you find yourself in Chesapeake stay away from a campground with Chesapeake in it's name.
Crazy town. Stay safe.
@@baron7024 thanks so much for the heads up!
Holy cow we were planning on staying there at that campground next month because it's close to were we needed to be for business deal but I just called to cancel. Thanks for heads up.
It could be a really nice place if they just cared a small amount!
Thank you for being so honest and sharing your experiences. Someone probably already commented on this but the bocce game is pronounced ‘botch-eee’ and it is Italian lawn bowling. While it can be super competitive, my experience is that it’s a great game while holding a beer 🍺😁, a lot like croquet!! Happy travels!
Yes, some of our viewers told us how to pronounce it and said it's great fun! We may be adding it to our Christmas list!
I was stationed at Griffiss AFB in Rome NY in the late 1970s, Rome was known as a the Bocce capital of America... I believe they held major events there, they had a set of courts under a pavilion, probably like 50-100 courts... I know live near Rutland VT, and I know my former boss used to play in a league at the local Italian/American Club... A lot of folks don't know about it, but I bet nearly every town in America that has an Italian Club or Italian American Club has their own weekly league. As you previously pointed out it's a great excuse to throw down a few cold brews...
Some people don’t like when others give bad reviews but I love when others give the good, bad and the ugly. Last thing I want is to waste time. Thanks for the vid I’ve been always wanting to go out to Montana with my trailer and thank you again.
We hope you make it to Montana! We loved our time there!
Super informative! I don't do RV Parks. I prefer national parks. Visited a few just to check and realized there are sites in the USA that are taking advantage of the RV Community.
We would love to stay in the National Park's, but we are way too big for almost all of them!
Nowadays you need to bring protection with you at the National parks. Not for the four legged kind, but the two legged kind. Dangerous without a gun.
@@deliveryguy7402 Minorities?
@@SalsaSippin_ Wow...🙄
Yup. Traved the entire US in an Aliner. Getting older and need more creature comforts so I'm looking for a class B+ or C under 30ft.
I don't know how reservations are required to be paid but if you use a credit card like Visa or M.C. you can call up the card company to dispute the charges and tell them why and the card company can make determination that you are either owed a full or partial refund and they take care of the rest for you.
We considered disputing the charges, but decided paying the rate for those three nights may help them monetarily so they could update the electric. I doubt it was used for any upgrades, but one can hope!
Am l wrong ....Did you not get a full refund?
@@jefferyhutchison9775 They did not give full refund. We were charged full price for all the days we were there without power. They only refunded the money for the days after they kicked us out!
Good thing you had a surge protector the faulty electrical service could have caused very expensive damage to your rig. We use the watch dog surge protector because there are so many rv parks out there who aren’t maintained well yet have a great website with beautiful pictures. I now use a cross reference of with reviews and RVers photos.
Yes we are very glad we had the surge protector! We now double check reviews with other apps and websites before booking!
I think it goes a long way if they try to make it right or if there’s a decent park underneath.
We lost power for 3 days at our current campground but it was city side and not campground side. The park did everything they could to make up for it and comped 4 nights. We already had a generator too. Yea i was pissy but they tried and it wasn’t their fault. Complete opposite of what happened to y’all.
Yes, just offering empathy would have been a nice gesture. All we wanted was to hook up to the site beside us since our neighbor left, but then she "couldn't sell that spot" as she said! Yes, we were upset about not having adequate power for two days and having no contact with the staff since they were never there, but it could have been resolved in that instant if she would have said sure hook up to the site beside you and I'm sorry for your troubles! Sounds like your management was better trained then what we were dealing with!
Wow, that’s insane!! Although I know it was very frustrating for you guys, getting kicked out was a blessing in disguise. 🙏🏽 God knows what else may have went wrong there in the upcoming days. The place just looks & seems sketchy like the Camp Redwood on American Horror Story 🤦🏽♀️🤣 On another note, you guys have a beautiful family! Enjoy the rest of your trip! ☺️🏕🔥
You are so right! Thank you for taking time to watch and comment! We appreciate your kind words!
I agree, definitely a blessing. And although these rvs are set up with so much surge protection and safety, all of that power surging and issues at that place couldn't be good in the long run. Probably best to high-tail! God bless stay safe
Y'all are the most sweetest people I can ever see on TH-cam and the most nicest people and got the best-looking family anybody could ever have
Thank you!
They depend on the fact that you're arriving tired and don't have time to find another place. They figure you'll "settle." God, I hate people like that.
I think you're right!
Thanks for the heads up about the campground and I’m glad that things worked out for you in the long run❤
You're welcome! We are glad it all worked out, too!
Wow! That's crazy. I'm binge watching your videos. Love this little family! Thank you for all the updates and where not to camp.
We love you, too! We know your time is precious, so to spend it watching our channel means the world to us! This was the video that took us from making videos for friends and family to making videos for everyone to enjoy! We are forever grateful for this negative experience, as it gave us a new job that we absolutely love!
@@PavingNewPaths there is always a bright side.
Thank you for reporting them to KOA. We always camped with KOA bc of the comfort you get knowing you will be at a place with standards- good ones. Apparently something this place hasn't had in a very long time!
We've had good luck at the few KOAs we have stayed at! This was a former KOA that wasn't keeping up any standards of their campground, but still using their KOA pictures in online advertisements!
One of your vids talked me out of rving full time but it actually made me aware is all. Thanks for these vids
Don't let anything we do talk you out of it! Just take what you see and adjust your expectations! We love this life but we came into it thinking it was going to be vacation 24/7! Guess what it's not, it takes work just like living in a home somewhere!
Most everything that happens to us, can be a learning experience, and good for all of you for recognizing this. I spent most of my working life in customer service, (Aviation, Travel, and Tourism) I am also a traveler and consumer, and have learned to have a plan B, C, and D, if necessary. Most travel industry employees don't wake up in the morning and think, "I can't wait to see how many people I can inconvenience and piss off, because nobody wants to work that hard. It's just that some employees handle it much better than others. I wish you all dry roads, blue sky, and safe travels! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us! 🌅
I, too, came from a customer service background, as my degree is Hotel and Restaurant Management. It's so true what you say that most employees are not trying ruin your experience! When I worked front desk at hotels, I actually tried to make everyone's stay better than they expected and when I moved into sales, I tried to make my client's experience positive and memorable! There are absolutely some employees that editors not be in the customer service industry!
@@PavingNewPaths 👍✌️
I camped at a very highly rated campground near Santa Fe NM and hooked up to 30A and my surge protector kicked the power off due to a ground fault, so I switched to 50A with an adapter which worked fine. I went over and told the manager about it and why I was on 50A and he came over and said you don't even have a surge protector. I told him my Airstream is 46 years old but I have an inboard surge protector with a digital readout. He said he'd have to shut the whole row down to fix it so he wasn't going to fix it! Another time, I stayed in an RV park on the East side of the river near downtown St. Louis and had the same problem. They moved me to an adjacent site and replaced the pedestal within an hour of me telling them. I've stayed there a couple of times since then. Some parks take maintenance seriously and some don't.
It's crazy the ones that don't take it seriously or try and fix it! Seems like they wouldn't want to deal with upset customers all the time!
@@PavingNewPaths I wonder how they'd like to deal with someone injured or killed because of a faulty ground. Always check the pedestal before you plugin. You can buy an LED tester for about $10 that will test polarity, ground etc. and it is cheap insurance.
That is why we have a hardwired Surge Protector on board! It will not let power to the rig if there are any faulty conditions! We have had parks tell us the power is fine no one else is complaining, its your surge protector can you bypass it? We absolutely will not bypass it!
@@PavingNewPaths Onboard is the only way to go. No one can steal off of the pedestal and mine has more than paid for itself. I absolutely will not bypass it either. In 8 years I've had reverse polarity once, ground faults 4 times, and it has shut off at least 5 or 6 times that I know of for low voltage. I also always pay with a credit card so I can dispute it if I leave.
Loved yalls video and the review on a bad RV park. One thing that always bothers me is when a person uses me and mine when there is a family involved. Using "we" an "ours" makes a family situation video so much more enjoyable to listen too. Thanks again for the input.
Thanks for watching!
It is a bad RV Park. We've wondered how they got a KOA contract.
Next time stay on the south end of town at Southside RV Park. Great Park, really good owners, and close to Sparky's Garage Restaraunt for dinner. Great food & service.
We had the same electrical pedestal problems at the The Lazy K Rv Park in Lovelock Nevada. Only our TT was a 30-amp unit. It was 106 outside. Running the ac & watching tv, we blew the entire camper row when we turned on the microwave. Evidently they had doubled the amount of sites without upgrading their electrical system. 1-night, adios.
Thanks for the recommendation on where to stay and eat! We have it noted for next time! I can't imagine being in 106 degree weather without adequate power! These rv parks are crazy to not keep their electrical in tip top condition! I'd hate to know I had to deal with angry customers every day at work over something that could be easily fixed!
FYI...pulling that heavy camper in Washington state (if you ever visit), I do believe you would have to pull over to let the line of people behind to to pass you. That's when there are five or more vehicles.
Most states have a similar rule, and we do when there is a place for us to allow them to pass!
Thanks for the honest review! I do the same thing - ignore some of the bad reviews because that's not always the best truth tester. I've seen reviews by people who I WITNESSED either scamming or abusing the staff where they bash the place on Yelp because they didn't get meals comped or whatever - so I always hold judgement. But in this case - you provided examples and pictures of WHY you were unhappy with your experience.
Thanks for watching! We now wish we would have filmed more so we could have shown how it truly was leading up to us being told to leave!
Had a friend many years ago ( 80's) who wanted to install a pool heater in his inground 20X40. I told him that mine usually ran about 2.00 a day in propane to keep it 76 degrees. Small pool, 18X36 mostly for my family and neighboring kids. He went ahead an installed one costing him 4.00 a day, accusing me of lying to him. He removed the heater after one season and sold it for a loss. Some people just don't listen.
Goodness!
Thank you so much for reviewing this place. I just came across this post of your. We actually stayed here about 2 weeks ago. Pool was empty park was almost full. workers were there at 8 in the morning. We're were only in one night. We have a 30amp.. We got in way later than planned and couldn't fit in the spot they gave us so we just moved the next empty one. They lady came out in the morning around 845 and apologize for not responding to our email at 1030 pm. She seemed very nice. I know most of the trailers were smaller so maybe that's why you had so much problems with a bigger trailer. I'm sorry that happened to you. Safe travels. God bless
When we had our issues no employee came to work for 2 days! We had surging power for a day then the pedestal had no power the last day! The owner who lives next door would not answer a phone or email so we found our own solution by sharing the neighbors pedestal! Our campers size does not matter we can only run on what power we are provided! If they give us 30amp we run on 30amp! We actually were not mad because in those two days we survived on a 15amp supply from the neighbor and we learned what our camper was capable of! Our next stop was outside Glacier National Park and if you don't have reservations good luck finding a spot, so we figured we were ok for a few more days here! It was how the owner handled the situation when they came to work where this went bad!
We have a Park model in a RV Park. We pay extra for our outside freezer, electric water heater and air conditioner.
Our landlord has it set to 30 amps. He tried to tell us it was our water heater was short circuting our power supply. It was during a storm. Everyone's electricity went out. Then he had done some wiring on our box and it again went out during a storm. The Maintenance man said it was faulty wiring on the box. He asked my husband if he tried to rewire it. No it was the owner. So our maintenance man did another rewiring of our circuit box. Everything is fine except when everyone loses power because of the storms. Again our landlord was trying to get us to buy his on demand water supply junk. See him and this other guy puts in a on demand box onto your RV trailer that cost $120 and charge you $500 with no guarantee. We looked up on Home Depot and found they are $179 but with a military discount and workers discount it only $129. The rest of the $500 they pocket it. It takes them about 20 minutes to hook it up on most RV's. But they are only supposed to be used for 2-3 weeks at a time. People were having to replace them within a year. On a Park model you are supposed to have spacers for heat escape.
Now its sold to Lake Shore Management/Parakeet Communities. BBB has them at 🌟. Not 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟.
People are complaining about these people and we are finding out why.
In almost 2 years and over 60 campgrounds this was our only bad experience! In the end it was a blessing as we got to spend extra days at Glacier National Park!
Once you brought up the box fan not working, I was 100% on board. Don't mess with my box fan at night.
And yes Kevin, many people these days hate the damn truth. I dont get it but its TRUE🤷♂️
Never touch that box fan! I was very nice until i realized where the situation was going! Once I knew she was kicking us out some truths were told!
Amen no fan no fun
We are actually planning a trip to Montana right now. Thank you for the warning!
Montana is Awesome we loved our time there! If you make it to Glacier National Park I would plan to give it 2-3 full days one of the best parks we've ever seen! We just put out two videos of our time in Glacier, Go check them out you won't be disappointed!
My family did a lot of RV camping and even tent camping when I growing up. Maybe we were spoiled by the incredible state parks in Utah and the surrounding states, but we always considered KOA the bottom of the barrel and avoided them whenever possible. We preferred actually having scenery and trees to the usual mowed field that most KOA places seemed to be.
This was a former KOA, but used pictures from when it was a KOA to advertise! We loved Utah and think it would be great to stay inside the state and national parks. Unfortunately, our rv size doesn't allow for staying in them in most cases!
@@PavingNewPaths Ah ok. That makes sense. Ours was a fairly small one.
🤌🤌🤌 we never stayed at a Koa either. We stayed at real campgrounds so we were actually in forests and the surroundings. We grew up living in them. Silent Valley in So Cal is beautiful. Half way up the mountain to Idlewild starting down in Banning CA
A couple years ago we stayed here too. Stayed one night, then left 2 days early. Nothing like the pictures. There was also kids racing around on gas-powered bikes continually along with a guy going in and out on his Harley (and I kid you not) about 20 times in one day. No peace there. Very dusty. We also stayed at the other bigger campground on the outskirts of Dillon the year previous. Nice campground, nice people that run it, but no privacy from the people watering the grass and very, very loud as it's next to the highway with no sound barrier (and a crazy ant issue at the time 🐜). It's best to skip that town if you're an RVer. And it's sad, because we have a lot of family history in this town and sounding area.
The sad thing is this place could be so nice! Besides the lack of amenities, there is also a huge mosquito problem that makes being outside impossible! We loved every other place we stayed at in Montana so we will likely never stop in Dillon again!
@@PavingNewPaths - Agreed. The Fairmont Campground is pretty neat and is a good nearby substitute - plus you get to go to the water slide and hot springs.
"bocca" ball, I think you mean Bocce (Boch-eee). It is an Italian yard game popular in New England. Very similar to horseshoes. You throw the tiny ball, called a ballinni, and then the red and green balls are the teams. Whichever team color rolls the balls and gets the closest to the ballinni scores a point.
Yes we had never heard of it until we posted this video! Sounds fun!
I used to own a 44' toy hauler. This unit was 13.5' tall. It is not easy to find parks that can handle a unit of this size. I have tons of stories. Some parks we roof surfed on the way in. Cutting low branches to avoid damage. One park in Massachusetts, we had to back out because the electric lines were to low. I also pulled with a 6.7 . There is a trick to pulling with the 6.7. When you get into the mountains, if you keep your speed at 73 the truck will not down shift and heat up. At 73 that 6.7 will power by everyone. My unit was 17000 dry. My truck pulled it perfectly. I put that unit in so many different locations, even in the side of a mountain. The only time I put it in 4 wheel drive with the unit. That one got a little scary. Be thankful you have the generator a lot of people don't. If you are looking for a good park. Try Clays park in northern Ohio. It has been years since I was there but, it definitely has a bunch going on. Or Caney Creek in Tennessee for relaxing. Good luck on your adventure it truly makes life long memories.
This was the only park in 18 months of fulltime living where we had issues! We know the struggle with getting these big toy haulers into some of the campgrounds! We spend a lot of time planning and making sure we are never on a road that can't handle a Semi! We have also had to cut trees and hold branches back to get in and out of places! Thanks for the tips on the campgrounds we will check them out!
@@PavingNewPaths the bridges on the highways in Massachusetts will make you sweat. I have parked next to a semi and the size is about the same.
The day we pulled into Clays park. Reo speedwagon was playing in the band shell. I took a bath listening to live Reo true story 😂
The overpasses in Memphis TN will get you also! We are 13"6 to the top of the AC units and the clearance is 13'9" going though there!
@@PavingNewPaths I was told to never stop in Memphis Tennessee. There is a casino in Missouri called lady luck. It has a RV park. If you go it will take you threw part of the town. Don't worry you will fit. At has a restaurant and security. There is a truck stop to fuel up also.
Man! Sorry you had to deal with all the issues. We generally love KOA, so I was glad to see they really are not a KOA. I wonder how they can advertise as KOA if they are no longer affiliated with them. Seems illegal to me. Glad you got to a better campground. And enjoy Glacier. That place is incredible!!!
We almost didn't post the video, but it shows everything is not always smooth sailing in the rv world. Plus it had a happy ending we got to spend more time in glacier national park!
@@PavingNewPaths loo0p
I googled it...says permanently closed for Koa. So perhaps you fixed this issue.
The KOA in Billings, MT is the very first KOA that started. I'm really surprised they never updated.
KOA is not what they use to for sure never will I stay in one again
You inadvertently alerted bunches of potential investors to a place that needs a bit of 'Sweat Equity' to make it competitive. Way to go! Hope you are turning coin on listing derogatories for potential investors. Your insight has a VALUE to it.
Agreed! We said this place needs an influx of cash to upgrade the park and bring it back to it's former glory. And maybe management or staff that works with customers to solve problems instead of blaming customers for problems.
I'm glad that you ended up at an excellent campground.
We were too! Thanks so much for watching!
Ok the problem is weird but this is what happens in them power poles.
A tree root grows and gets big. It pulls the wires and you get weird power issues because the wires get crossed.
Thanks for the info! The place could be really nice if they would update the entire power system and do some updates to the park!
I’m going off to manage an RV park this year. Gonna be interesting.
It really is very easy! We are there to enjoy the park, and have a good time!
Thanks for the heads up on that place. We we’re possibly thinking hitting that area in the fall. I am so sorry you had to deal with that. Going to save a lot of people from wasting their money/time from this place!
You welcome! It operates as Beaverhead River RV park now in Dillon Montana!
Sounds like your first place had a damaged underground power cord coming into the park effecting all power branches coming off it... and when it rains it would make power jump around and trip breakers until it dried out... this could be considered a safety violation if someone stepped into a puddle near the open power line underground...
Yes the place was in need of some electrical work! Once the 30 am plug died, I still had 15 amp but it was surging so bad the surge protector kept killing the power to prevent damage to the RV!
We stayed at North American RV Park the Summer of 2020 and loved it.
We loved North American RV Park!
Years ago, we had a Griswalds RV Vacation. The RV park was so bad you could only laugh… and leave!
We were frustrated at first, but in the end it was a blessing as we got to spend four extra days in Glacier National Park!
Wow thank you for sharing about that dump I wish y’all would come to Georgia because I will show you some beautiful camp grounds
Georgia is on our list! Wife really wants to see Savannah!
“Kevin started speaking truth” 😂👍🏼 sometimes it must be done when ignorance reaches that height, very childish on the park owners behalf, safe travels to you & your family brother ✌🏼
I waited on the truth until I was absolutely sure she was kicking us out! She looked me dead in the eyes and said your stealing all the power! my response was if I'm stealing all the power why am I here at your office telling you I don't have power! It escalated from there but we both left the conversation knowing where the other person stood!
When I used to travel cross country I lucked out with some pretty decent KOA'S. I liked to find the ones with the cabins. I think things have gone down hill these days.
We actually have never had a problem with KOA! They were a former KOA, operating under a new name, but still using KOA branded pictures on the website! We thought oh this will just fine! We were wrong!
All I got to say is thank you, I'm sorry about your camping experience, but when I see campgrounds that are like this.it gives me hope when I open mine in a few years in Ga.
Thanks for watching! You will be just fine as long as you give people what they pay for! We travel fulltime so we see a wide range of the campground across this country. Some charge based on amenities they offer, and some charge based on location. As long as we feel the the price meets our requirements we don't mind paying.
A warning to the wise . Your camper may be riding on cracked frames . Lippert makes nearly all of the travel and 5thwheel frames . They are having trouble with 5th wheel frames and travel trailer frames . 5th wheel frames breaking axle spring shackles from the main frame and Goose necks breaking at the transition and pin boxes breaking away and tearing up the trailer and truck. Travel trailers are breaking in the frame web 1 1/2 '' from the bottom flange of the 8" I beam caused by tight turns to get into camping spots . That popping sound you may hear is your frame cracks popping. You can look around on youtube to see the proble,
Thanks for the head's up! We've seen some of the issues you talked about from other TH-cam channels! So far, we are all good!
Thanks for the review! Looks like a little background search might be useful before booking.
For a long time we gave every place a chance. After this experience we now remove the campground from our search that have to many of these type of bad reviews!
That sucks but seems like it was a good thing y’all left. Stay safe and keep the videos coming
Thanks Jose! We ended up so thankful that our first campground didn't work out!
Added that park to my “Never in a million years” list. Thanks for the heads up!
You're welcome! We've got one of those lists too!
If you find yourself going through Idaho (since you’re up in those parts anyhow) swing through Salmon and stay at Elk Bend RV park and you will forget all about that place. It’s everything an RV park should be. Safe travels.
Thanks for the suggestion, we will add it to the list.
Nice!!! Adding to my list as well
Stayed at a nice place just south of San Antonio TX in von ormy. Can't remember the name bit it's on a small creek. Nothing there really but a small camp store and a creek you can fish in and some woods. Everything worked though.
This would have been a pretty nice place if the owner would show up to work and take a little pride in what they have!
Night day difference. Probably that old Midwest electric rv Box with An old banjo meter is probably corroded so the connection went bad and your RV quit working. Meanwhile the new Arvie site has a Nice new up to code Siemens panel 😀
It was defiantly time for an upgraded electrical system and pedestals at each site!
Use KOA motorcycle trips and never disappointed. That said, lower expectations. Clean spot, clean bathroom/shower, and space for bikes; and on our way the next morning. Sometimes we don’t even deal with someone because we arrive so late.
KOA has never disappointed us! This however was a former KOA and we now know why!
You guys are funny as heck! I'm glad I found your channel thanks for sharing the tips
Thanks so much for watching! We hope you enjoy the channel!
Wife and I planning RV trips all over America before we sail, thank you for the video.
Thank you for watching! Safe travels to you and your wife!
We stayed at a camp ground in the middle of Dillon ( Not KOA ) and it was great. A small stream running through it. We stayed there on our way up to Wallace Idaho from Arizona and 5 nights on the way home. We have a 40' motorhome with 50 amp and had no problems and the sites are well spaced apart.
We heard (after leaving) that there is a really nice campground in Dillon! Glad you didn't have the experience we did while there!
You must be in Great falls Montana at the KOA we had a 29 ft Winnebago and our lights would go out midday in 95 plus degree weather for 3 to 4 hours
It must be a Montana thing with the electricity! But we were there during perfect weather, we kept losing power, and we were not even running our A/C units!
Welcome to Montana !!! I don't even want to have my oil changed..and I live here. Hope the rest of the trip went better 👍🐾☮️
This place could be really awesome if they just cared a little! The rest of our trip was amazing in Montana!
video is awesome guys! Yall have some serious patience where i didn't learn that! i know you been called worse than a MISFIT before. love the videos stay warm and safe travels.
Thanks for watching!
I hope you got a hold of the head KOA office because they can't stay open unless they stay within the promised standards of koa. Thanks for posting
It wasn't operating as a KOA when we stayed, but they used their KOA branded pictures in online advertisements making you think you would receive a KOA experience! We definitely contacted KOA to let them know about the false advertisement!
New, full time rver here, reviews are always jaded with the ability of some sites allowing editing of online reviews. I am handicapped and wheelchair mostly. I'm considering starting a channel for accessible campsites.
We think your channel idea would be a huge success! I (Alecia) broke my ankle and could not put weight on it for 2-3 months and while I was down, we had many people reach out to us and ask us to show what life in the RV looks like with crutches/scooter, etc. We had a three-month old baby, plus our two older children, so we opted to stay with my parents, instead of the RV, so we never filmed those videos! It would also be great to showcase the accessibility of the campgrounds you stay at! We've seen some that are amazing in accessibility and others that leave a lot to be desired. Good luck if you decide to start a channel!
It more than likely a bad wire under ground. I would have put a meter on it to know which leg was bad. Glad you found a new place
I did put a meter on it! Since it was a 30amp hook up we only had one leg and it was surging between 122v and 108v! Our surge protector was cutting the power due to low voltage! Before I could look into it more the entire pedestal went dead!
Everything happens for a reason, you were meant to find that new place, looked WAY nicer! God bless
Thanks for watching! We agree! Things worked out for the best!
We have had issues at various "RV Resorts/campgrounds and in various states. Checked into one and our site was under water. There was about 5 inches of standing water over the whole site. Went back to office and asked to move to another site and was told NO. Plenty of sites open. I said we were not staying and was refused a refund. I always read the reviews. Definitely looks like the place you ended up was much better.
Yikes! You have to wonder why some management are such sticklers and want their paying customers to be unhappy. We definitely ended up in a better place!
Sorry you guys had that problem in my state. Dillon is only an hour from my house and I would never camp there unfortunately
Despite this one bad impression we loved everything else about Montana!
I stayed at that campground about 18-20 years ago with a 30 foot travel trailer. It wasn't bad back then, but I don't recall it looking as bad as wheat you've now shown. Sad!
It is just unfortunate, because it looks like it could be such a great park if they put a little effort into it!
Appears that in Jan. 2023, they may have gone out of business. Hopefully someone will take over and fix the issues.
It is still in business, and it is operating under the name Beaverhead River Rv Park!
You were super kind with all your disappointments thanks for the warning and the post! It can only get better from here!
Thanks for watching! It was a blessing as our next park was right outside Glacier National Park!
She kicked you out because she wasn’t willing to address the problem.
She said we were stealing power and that's why the park electrical system was having problems! I replied with that is not how any of that works and if that were true, I would have power and would not be here talking to you about a problem!
I hope you let KOA know that the badly managed park still was pulling people in with KOA quality promises of amenities. Perhaps they would pursue it with the park. Anyway, sorry for your troubles. We are not full time but we see plenty of actual KOA's that vary on upkeep. Too bad the prices don't reflect the lack of amenities even from what is available in the summer versus the off season times.
We are members of Thousand Trails and see the same type of issues on upkeep and amenities. Some are great and others need someone to work there that cares about the park.
As an RV'er, we try to make every place we stay look as good or better when we leave. We love the USA and want to keep camping across it!
We definitely notified KOA of the false advertisement from the park. Its unfortunate the standards aren't there across the board. We've only stayed at a few KOA's, and there was one that stood out as being quite a bit older and less maintained. Our issue with this park was using their KOA pictures in advertisements to make you think you'd get a KOA experience, when in all honesty, the park should be permanently closed, until their electrical problems are addressed at the very least.
@@PavingNewPaths Online it says it is permanently closed? Or at least it is closed as a KOA. It says it's an independent campground called Beaverhead River RV Park & Campground now, and has been that for name for about 2 years now. It's pretty confusing checking out the Google listings.
Yes- please tell KOA!
No matter where we stay, whether at a campground or motel I always make sure it is as clean or cleaner than we found it.
I had a friend who plugged in and went to town and didn't have a surge protector with a low voltage shut-off. The voltage dropped while she was gone and when she returned both of her A/C compressors were fried. The park said "not our problem, your rig was faulty!"
Yeah this is why we refuse to bypass our surge protector! If we have to we will fire up our generator until they can fix the problem or we can find a new RV park!
We've stayed at a couple of 'mom & pop' campgrounds where the pedestal had issues with the 30 amp socket, usually burned up a little from loose RV plugs, but we could usually just grab the 50 to 30 amp adapter 'dogbone' and no problems. Once we did have to move to another site (in the same park) because there was only an inoperative single 30 amp plug in the box. But so far we've not had your experience, but have run across one or two "KOA" that were not up to specs, but the prices were still up!
In over 40 campgrounds last year this was the only bad experience we have had! We actually were not mad because we learned what our RV could actually do with out power! We made the video to show things don't always go as planned!
If you think the manager is bad at this place don't stay with at the Cold Springs RV park in Moss Point Ms. The manager thinks she is queen and if she doesn't like you. You're gone. She's not there most of the time.
Is sad the way some of them act! Luckily this was our only negative experience with over 40 parks we stayed in last year!
We stayed there a few years ago and it was awful. There are great campgrounds in the Dillon area! There was a wedding at the KOA when we were there and that was interesting. A camper drove his truck into a tree next to us….it was wild.
Now i would have stayed with no electricity for that!
One thing to keep in mind is that all KOA reservations go through their personal website. I wonder if you guys called or booked online for this location…Either way, glad to know. Electric hookup is everything for long-term camping.
At time of booking we knew they were no longer a KOA, but they were still using pictures on the website with KOA signs and amenities. We have reported to KOA that they are still using those pictures to advertise their campground!
A bunch of us used to camp out at a state park for deer season. Every year around midnight without fail everyone's power would go out. Which made the 25 degree weather in the middle of the night in the tent that much more enjoyable. And then they added more campsites.
How convenient! This place we were on the circuit that just went dead all together! Us and about 1/3 of the campground! Funny thing thought because you would think it would be an entire row of campsites! But it was 1/3 of the park randomly spaced out everywhere!
Ibet you were one of them campers that had every electric widget.. on hot water heater 2 ac units fire place stoves and list goes on . i own a super c could run my unit off 20 amp cord if necessary at limited electric supply campgrounds some camps just cant get more power .
We can run our RV on 50amp, 30amp, and 15amp! In this particular instance we had a 30amp service but couldn't run anything because the power from the pedestal was surging so much our onboard surge protector was preventing the power from entering the RV! So, to answer your question we were not running anything during this time unless we fired up our onboard generator! The campground had plenty of power there was a problem with our pedestal! When we shared our neighbors pedestal our RV ran with no issues!
Grrrr I had a bad experience in Dillon I'm sorry you did as well 😔 Safe travels.👍🙏
It's unfortunate because the surrounding area is very nice!
When a customer is satisfied with a service or product they tell 2 friends.. but, when dissatisfied they tell 22 friends. Who's the loser in the situation?
We didn't make this video with the intention of shaming the campground! It was made because we wanted to show that no matter how well you plan and what you pay for you don't always get it! That RV'ing fulltime has challenges, and you need to be flexible! In the end it worked out as we got to spend four extra days at Glacier National Park!
How does one expect to be a successful campground when "no one's in the office" most of the day?
Yes it is pretty sad because with just a little updating and care, this campground could be amazing!
@@PavingNewPaths maybe a responsible couple will make the current owners an offer to purchase the campground? Could you imagine the memories their kid's would have spending most summer's at camp? My wife and are happy with our decision to take our kids camping for 2 weeks every summer when they were young we all had some of the best times of our lives camping, not to mention meeting some interesting people we're friends with (a few),to this day. happy camping
You sure see all kinds on the road. Thank you for your review. Very informative.
Thanks for watching! And yes, you do!
Very interesting, thank you so much for the honest and frank review of this campground. We love Montana and travel there in our 5W quite often. I didn’t happen to see the name of this RV park in your review, so I looked it up in our Good Sam campground guide and astonishingly it got pretty high ratings by Good Sam. Maybe the Good Sam ratings are very subjective. In eIther case we put this campground in our notes to NOT stay there. Love your videos and have learned a lot.
The campground was a former KOA but was using its KOA pictures under the new name to advertise! Unless they've done some major electrical upgrades, I would avoid it! It could be such a nice place but we would never stay there again!
I think its bizarre modern campers don't come factory loaded with solar. I built a system with lithium that keeps us and ACs running 24/7 for 3 or 4 days... with intermittent AC we have virtually unlimited runtime, no hookup. It is wild seeing 30ft+ campers with dinky little lead acid batteries that will run some LEDs and maybe the water pump for at most a few days... something needs to change in the industry.
The reason they don't is the people that will benefit the most out of this type of setup and actually use it, are not going to pay the asking price of what a set up like that from the factory would cost!
@@PavingNewPaths You would be right if there weren't 5th wheels or coaches well into six digits, still with empty roofs and very little battery capacity. Solar panels are cheap. Batteries are the expense. Even a small battery can run AC through the day with panels supporting it, and bigger rigs can run straight off the batteries.
DIY a basic solar setup with 1-2kW and a minimal battery for 120v appliances ranges around $2k-$3k. The system I built cost around $12k. Compared to the cost of some higher end rigs this is a drop in the bucket...
@@mikoserbousek4987 We looked at a full solar that would support our rig woth 3 ac units and we were well in the 22k range to have it done! We explored the idea of doing it oursleves and building it the way we wanted to save money! But in the end we realized we spend 99% of our time in parks with hookups, and when we don't the onboard generator will support the rig! It is a huge investment and one a majority will never even use!
@@PavingNewPaths Makes sense from a value perspective. Solar I think is really more critical for boondockers / etc that go without hookup. We see lots of power outages in our area, so its pretty much a no brainer. At 22k tough I can see why one would be hesitant. Safe travels
It sucks when things don’t work as advertised, seems they would have been a lot further ahead to let you use a different pedestal or fixed yours. I’m sure you weren’t the first people it didn’t work for.
Yes, it was very unfortunate how it was handled!
Watching this makes me happy I dry camp. I'm on my fourth year living full time in my 25 foot class A motorhome with my little dog Tinkerbell filming what I see and where I camp for free.
Glad you had a better experience at your next camp ground!
Thanks for watching! Love your dog's name!
Thank you! She has been my sidekick for 14 years! We are both getting older im 60 but we love adventure!😁
I'm glad you posted this video. We actually stayed there in 2005 and it was much nicer then. We had a great time but thankfully you posted this. When we make a trip back up that way we will definitely not be staying there. It has changed for the worse.
We wish we could have had a great stay too! Glad you didn't rebook! Maybe with a management change and new funding, it can be restored to it's former glory!
Thanks! I literally just added them to our stop. I will definitely change our stop for that night.
It could be such a great place, but the owners don't seem to care!
In Europe and the UK there is something call the Trades Description Act, if a business gives misleading information and especially photos of products and or services they will be prosecuted.
We reported them to KOA the former franchise they used to be a part of, and let them know they are still using photos from the KOA brand to promote the Campground!
Its been 2 months since you posted about this place but word travels and we will definitely not stay at this dump thanks for heads up
You're welcome! Thanks for watching! Sad because it could be such a great place to stay!
Thanks for the heads up on this!!
No problem, thanks for watching!
I'm glad 😊😊😊 that everything worked out for you folks 👍👍👍... If you're ever in Northwest AR do NOT use Monte Ne RV park.. travel the extra 2 miles on down Hwy.94 and stay at the Horseshoe Bend resort there on Beaver lake... it's good advice 👍👍👍
Thanks for sharing we will keep that in mind when we travel through that area!
Wow...I tent camped there 10 years ago on a motorcycle trip to Jackson hole...no bad happenings on my stay, but it was only one day...too bad they've decayed....
It could be a really nice place! The new owners with out KOA have let it go!