Using our C-Dory 25 as our RV towing cross country

S

SeaTurtle

New member
We will be towing Sea Turtle from her current home near Annapolis to her permanent home in the SF Bay area this summer. Planning on following Interstate 80 for most of the trip.

We would like to use the boat as our RV much of the time, with some nights in motels. Looking for comments and suggestions from other C-brats who have done something similar. Also curious if KOA's will accept the boat in their RV areas if we detach the SUV that will be the tow vehicle.
 
"Boaterhoming" has become fairly common these days. We have done it quite a lot, and have never been refused in a campground (although we sometimes get some curious looks). Obviously a pull-through campsite is good, if available.

Have a bucket to contain your grey water plus an extension cord(with 30A adapter if necessary) and hook to campsite shorepower and you'll be all-set.

Enjoy!

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
If you are sleeping on the boat, you may also be using electricity on the boat. You may want a way to keep your boat batteries charged as you are driving.

Just a thought. Unless you are paying for electric hookup at each KOA.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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We have stayed on the boat while traveling also and find it works quite well. Also if there are any Cracker Barrel resterants in your part of the world they have overnight parking available at no charge but no hookups, they told us we didn't even need to let them know we were staying overnight and food is really close.
 
Other places to stay over night:

Most Walmarts
Most Casinos
Hospital parking lots
Some Church parking lots
Some Safeway or other grocery stores
Marina parking lots
Some freeway on ramps (if you are well off the road, not down by the freeway)
Any Truck stop (stay off to the edge out of the truck traffic paths)
Some fast food parking lots, if they have room, or a parking lot close to them

I have used all of these at one time or another with no problems.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Enjoy your trip. In order I have enjoyed Cracker Barrel, WalMart, a Church where I had been a member, and Truck Stops...but a lot of trucks and noise there. We started a C-Brat Gathering in Mt. Juliet TN with 6-8 boats in a local camp ground due to a weather change...15-30mph winds and temps dropping into the 40s and raining like a cow getting relief on a hot rock!! Postponed the launches until the next day. Camp ground had parts already flooding....and folks thought we may have news the campground was not sharing with them. Sunny, no wind and enjoyable, un hurried successful launches of all boats the next morning.
When traveling I found it best to just "bunk out" on the boat for rest....if showers/cooking or other more serious needs....hotels were the gig.

Or, find a place or two you have not boated before and splash your way cross country.
 
Byrdman":diokxj46 said:
....Or, find a place or two you have not boated before and splash your way cross country.
Click to expand...

This is what we tend to do. There are plenty of lakes/rivers that you can try out for a night or two pretty much any direction you travel. If you don't like it, you know you'll be leaving in the morning.

The only caveat is that you do need to plan ahead a little if you are travelling in the off seasons. Once we were travelling in the fall and found a lake on a map that we thought looked nice. The internet showed a very scenic place. However, we did call ahead to a resort on that lake and found that in the fall they draw down the lake before the winter snows and the water level was too low to use any of the ramps. We had to go to a different place.

The other thing is that some lakes have restrictions on boat or motor size that may prevent you from being able to launch there (e.g. less than 10hp, only electric). Some places will let you launch a boat with a bigger than allowed motor on it as long as you don't use that motor (say, use your kicker only), others won't even let you launch if a motor on your boat is bigger than the limit (whether you use it or not).

There also can be restrictions on pets in some places. There was a nice lake in PA we wanted to try, but it is surrounded by parks and no dogs are allowed.

In one place in MI, no dogs were allowed in the park where the ramp was. Dogs were only allowed to go from the car to the boat if they were carried. They said it was to prevent dogs from fouling the park, but the place was overrun by Canadian geese and their waste because (wait for it....) no dogs were allowed in the park!
 
Thanks to all of the c-brats who offered help and suggestions on our trip.
Sea Turtle is now safe at home in Richmond Yacht Club dry storage.
We are busy off loading gear and getting ready for a trip to the boat yard for new bottom and general clean up and maintenance.

We did a visual check of the trailer for correct operation of brake lights and turn signals, tie down security and condition of tires and wheel bearings before departing each morning. After about 1 hr towing we made a stop to check trailer wheel bearing temperatures and do a visual on the rig. Smooth, safe trip all the way home. Steepest grades were about 7%. Tunnels on the Pennsylvania turnpike were a tight fit.

Looking forward to some more road trips, hopefully Pacific Northwest next summer, then South East Alaska and Snake and Columbia Rivers to Portland in the next few years.

Only one RV park refused us. A couple of others even took photos of the Turtle for their Facebook pages and web sites.
 
Glad you had a safe, uneventful trip. I'm a little surprised that a campground refused you a site, but I guess that's their 'right. As you've already seen, most campgrounds just see the boat as a novelty and want a photo.

We're on Day 71 of our Maritime Provinces truck camping trip (we left the boat at home this time). We've been "boondocking" a lot of the time but use campgrounds and other places for showers, etc.

Best,
Casey&Mary
...currently in L'Anse-Au-Loup, Labrador
 
We are working our way to Bellingham WA from PA. We have been turned away from three campgrounds so far on this trip. A KOA in Cheyenne a private one in Jackson, WY and another whose location now escapes me. We always get the jokes about there isn't any water here. I tell them it's supposed to rain for 40 days and nights didn't you get the memo. Also "I've been here thirty years this the first time we've ever had a boat here before". Others want to look inside the boat. All very nice people. Some say when we first saw you we thought the boat thing RVing was stupid but after we thought about they said I wish I had thought of that.
D.D.
 
Dave, I wonder if the size and nature of the 27 Ranger Tug is part of the reason that you have been turned away. The "cute" and "simple" factor of the C Dory 22 (and 25) seem to be persuasive.

Also, we don't pick fancy "resort" campgrounds. We once had a KOA question us, until I showed him my KOA card. I also have told/shown the campground host (not often are you dealing with the owner), that we collect all of the waste, and there is no way for overboard discharge--the sink hose has been reverted to a 2 gallon plastic container. We have a porto-potty and no need to dump--will use their bathrooms and showers.
 
No we never just pull in an RV park. We use the internet via hotspot to see what might be available. Then my wife calls and asks for a 50' pull thru. Our 23' C-Dory was 53' overall. We really are about 58'. So I don't think "cuteness" played any part in equation. We never mention boat unless asked. Once we get the reservation via phone and we arrive we have never been turned away. We never dump any water of any kind on the ground. It's hard for us to understand when we inquire why they just respond the manager said no. It's ok with me if they want to have empty sites. Maybe they are non profits.
D.D.
 
Dave,
I am confused. You posted that you had been turned away 3 times on one trip this year, and now you say you were never turned away. The only reason I am pursuing this, is that it is contrary to our experience, with multiple cross country trip boater homing. One place we stopped at had a review that someone was turned down with a truck camper towing a boat. We asked the manager--and he said that was not an issue, even if one was staying in a boat like the C Dory. When RV managers envision camping in a "boat" almost always it is like an open Wake Board boat--not self contained like the C Dory. We have rarely found length an issue--since we are 75 feet towing the 22. A couple of times we have had to unhitch the boat and leave it in a defined storage area--and a couple of times when we were "boater homing" we had to unhitch after backing the C Dory into a 30 foot site.

The App "Allstars" is excellent for both RV and boater home camping. All of the information you need is there, It tells you how far away, also fuel stations, for trucks, WalMarts, restaurants, Costco, Sam's, grocery stores, etc. The phone nun number is right there to click and call. Also reviews, the web site etc is all there for a click. We use it on our cellular data plan.
 
I downloaded the App "Allstays" onto my iPhone before departure. Well worth the very nominal price.

We called all RV parks and Campgrounds early in the day of our planned arrival to explain that we were using our boat as an RV and to request a pull thru site.

The only one that turned us away when we showed up after making the reservation was a snooty country club like RV park. They had some previous bad experiences with people towing sleeper horse trailers and were afraid to take a chance on a boat.

Found that the private campgrounds with three or more stars in Allstays were less expensive than the posted price for KOA's in the same area with the added benefit of more spacious sites and better amenities. The one night we spent in a KOA, we only two restrooms were available between 8pm and 8am for a facility with over 125 sites. The office , store and everything else were locked up tight during these same hours.
 
Bob,
We were turned away three times trying to make a reservations this trip. Once we arrived with a made reservation we were never turned away. Maybe I was not clear on that.
We are not really resort campground people. Never much cared for the KOA people. We use a Good Sam's card. We are just looking for a place to shower sleep and the next day we move on usually. Maybe it's different when you use a motorhome to pull your C-Dory. I'm just stating real life occurrences.
D.D.
 
I've found this works great to keep the boat batteries charged by the truck while towing so I can have the boat fridge running on the road. My truck is the 'motorhome' and the boat is the 'towed vehicle'. Easy install, I only blew one breaker and one fuse and no disabling injuries, which is pretty good for me.

http://www.lslproducts.net/ToadChargePage.html

Thanks to Bob for the original idea and link.
Happy towing!
John
 
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