Stealth Tenting 101 Suggestions for City Tenting With or With no Stealth Camper

What’s stealth tenting? Stealth tenting refers to tenting in an city surroundings in a discreet method. These stealth campers are sometimes discovered on public streets, parking heaps, and different accessible areas. The attract of stealth tenting comes from its capacity to mix in with on a regular basis environments, permitting for the comfort of tenting nearly anyplace it’s authorized to park.

On the subject of tenting, one query that comes up often is: Do you really want a stealth camper? The quick reply is: not essentially. Nevertheless, the reply isn’t so simple as that. It relies upon largely in your particular wants and circumstances.

Stealth Tenting

Within the video above, I share our experiences with stealth tenting together with ideas totally free tenting in city enviornements. You’ll want to try the remark part of the video for stealth tenting experiences from fellow campers.

“The Knock”

A most important concern main folks to think about a stealth camper is the concern of “the knock” in the course of the evening. This refers to being requested to maneuver your camper or automobile, usually by legislation enforcement or safety. In eight years of RV journey, with six and a half of these years residing full-time on the street, the quantity these incidents we’ve encountered has been minimal and all associated to tenting at Walmart. So the concern of the midnight knock may be extra intimidating than the truth itself.

City Tenting

Earlier than we delve into the intricacies of stealth tenting, it’s important to differentiate between the 2 main methods it’s practiced. On this put up, I’ll concentrate on city stealth tenting for eventualities the place you’re touring to a city or metropolis to go to family and friends or see the sights. For these instances, you don’t essentially want a stealth camper to take pleasure in city tenting.

Nevertheless, sure folks could discover a stealth camper indispensable. That is usually true for these utilizing their camper as a everlasting residence inside a metropolis or for people who want to remain below the radar because of particular circumstances or laws.

Examples that require a stealth camper embody staff tenting of their office’s parking zone or college students residing in a college parking zone to save lots of on housing prices.

In Walden on Wheels: On the Open Highway From Debt to Freedom by Ken Ilgunas, the writer tells the story of residing in a van on campus parking heaps whereas attending college with a purpose to get monetary savings. 

One other case may very well be householders residing below HOA (householders affiliation) laws that limit seen campers from being parked on their property. On this case, the home-owner would wish a stealthy camper van, for instance, that appears extra like a passenger van than a camper van.

Suggestions for City Tenting

It’s a typical false impression that solely stealth campers can park in a single day in an city surroundings. This perception usually discourages these with non-stealth campers from venturing into metropolis settings. Nevertheless, from expertise with varied campers — a 30-foot Class A RV towing a Jeep Wrangler, a number of Class B camper vans, and a light-weight flatbed truck camper, none of which may very well be thought-about stealthy — we’ve managed to take pleasure in city tenting all through the US with none points other than thrice at Walmarts.

Listed here are our expertise based mostly recommendations on how one can take pleasure in city stealth tenting: 

1. Use frequent sense and your judgment. Widespread sense and common sense kind the muse of city tenting. If a location appears secure and acceptable for parking, it most likely is – simply guarantee to examine for any prohibitive indicators or guidelines.

2. Know the laws. It’s vital to grasp the laws of the world wherein you intend to park. This consists of restrictions on outsized autos, or parking laws that limit parking throughout sure hours.

3. Be thoughtful of your surroundings. When tenting in an city setting, it’s essential to be respectful of the encircling surroundings. This implies not littering, maintaining noise ranges down, and avoiding any actions which may entice pointless consideration.

4. Take into consideration your parking spot. It’s helpful to be strategic about the place you park. For instance, parking alongside a wall on a facet road will be much less intrusive than parking immediately in entrance of somebody’s home.

5. Ask for permission. When planning to park in a enterprise’s parking zone, we at all times advocate asking permission from the administration. This could forestall any potential points and guarantee that you’re abiding by the property’s guidelines. It’s additionally good to ask when they want you to depart the next day. Try our information on boondocking which incorporates companies that enable in a single day RV parking.

6. Use your community. Leveraging your private community can present invaluable insights and proposals about the place to park in unfamiliar cities or cities. We’ve gotten many good suggestions from associates about the place to park and what to keep away from in new areas. 

7. Have a backup plan. It’s at all times a good suggestion to have a contingency plan in place in case you’re requested to maneuver your automobile in the course of the evening.

8. Take into account pets. When you journey with pets, make sure that to allow them to out in an acceptable location earlier than you arrive at your parking spot for the evening so that you don’t must go out and in of the camper after arrival. The extra you possibly can keep away from drawing consideration by often coming into and exiting your camper, the much less possible you might be to get the knock.

9. Verify with associates / household on HOAs. When you’re visiting associates or household who reside in an HOA, it’s good to ask about their laws regarding in a single day RV parking prematurely. If they are saying it’s not allowed, ship them a photograph of your camper and have them ask the HOA for permission so that you can park whilst you’re there. Since our Class B camper van solely takes up one parking spot, HOAs have given us permission to remain for an evening or two.

10. Familiarize your self with the method. The extra you observe city tenting, the extra snug you’ll get. Over time, you’ll be capable to simply spot appropriate parking areas and anticipate potential points.

11. Study from others. Try different YouTubers or bloggers who share ideas and experiences about city tenting. Their insights may help you navigate your individual experiences.

What to do in the event you get the knock

As I discussed earlier, we’ve gotten the knock thrice, all at Walmart. The primary time, the laws had modified at one we’d stayed at beforehand and we have been requested to depart by safety shortly after we arrived. The second time, we’d been given permission to remain nonetheless that night one other camper arrived and dumped their rubbish all around the parking zone and administration instructed all campers they needed to depart or threat being towed. Lastly, we got permission and had stayed the evening. The subsequent afternoon, we have been instructed we would have liked to depart as they needed RVers to depart within the morning. 

When you get the knock, the very first thing to do is to remain calm, placed on garments if wanted after which look out of the window. You by no means know who may be knocking so don’t open the door with out verifying who’s there. If the particular person outdoors isn’t a police officer, it’s possible you’ll wish to communicate to them from contained in the van by way of an open window. From there, simply speak to the particular person and discover out what the difficulty is. If you’ll want to transfer, take into account your backup plan (when you have one) and you may even ask the particular person if they’ve any solutions given how late it may be. After you’ve moved, take into consideration what it was that induced the particular person to knock after which have a look at methods to keep away from it sooner or later. When you’ve gotten the knock, depart us a remark and inform us about what occurred. 

In conclusion, whether or not or not you want a stealth camper for city tenting is determined by your distinctive circumstances. For almost all of leisure vacationers, a non-stealth camper can work for tenting in city environments. Nevertheless, in the event you’re utilizing the camper as a main residence in a metropolis or below particular laws, a stealth camper could also be a necessity. No matter your selection, it’s vital to respect native laws and attempt to be a courteous member of the group wherever you park.

Share your experiences with stealth tenting by leaving a remark under.

New to the RV life? Try our Information on RVing for Newcomers