It's all about the 14 day stay limit

[mountainborn]

I would expect that this decision to cite some campers that tell a ranger, " why, yes, I am living in my Rv full time", should be re thought before saying it to an inquiring official. Here is why, it just may not be the whole story. A Oliver owner and I have been having this conversation and here is a paste from one of my posts:

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This is a non issue for most folks for the following reasons.

 

a. They own property and pay taxes some where which by law is their actual domicile. Therefore they are only passing through the national forest. Betty and I have talked this through so that we do not mistakenly give a Ranger information that would lead him to think that we were living in his forest full time.

 

There are homeless in vans and other RV's that will adamantly say they live in it full time causing the Ranger to cite them to preserve his 14 day stay limit regulation. Many of these RV homeless try to "game" the system to stay beyond the 14 day stay limit.

 

b. Being registered to vote is normally done with drivers license renewal and is the absolute proof of domicile outside of the National Forest.

 

Now, having said that, here is what we have observed to be the actual practice of USFS officials, though I expect that they would not say it like this. Their first glance at the campsite tells them if it is a violator based on the worldly goods that are present. For example, a 15 year old van with expired license plates, would give them cause to investigate further.

 

Now, they react differently to a Sixty thousand Hummer pulling a forty five thousand Oliver. Should they ask for ID, your drivers license and voter registration card tell him all that he needs to know , except for a simple statement from us that goes like this." I am just passing through and have really enjoyed it here, but am moving on soon."

 

Even affluent RV'ers sometimes "game" the system by extending their stay beyond the 14 day limit. thus causing most Rangers to look for signs of violation. For example out in Quartzsite some would just forget to move every 14 days, causing the Rangers to look for probable cause to enforce the stay limit.

[mountainborn]

Here is a link to a forum post that we both follow , that is topic specific on this.

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=105873