CAMC pitch markers

Hja
Hja Club Member Posts: 850 ✭✭
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edited March 2022 in UK Campsites & Touring #1

It is reported in another forum (Autosleepers) that all Club sites will soon have two pitch markers for each pitch - and you pitch between the two.

I havent seen it anywhere on Club info or this forum.

Anyone know any more?  I know people like to get really exercised about "pitching to the peg"!

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  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #2

    Our man with an ear to the ground has mentioned it, hja. 👂😀

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #3

    I’m sure any attempt to define and simplify that area in which ‘correct’ positioning on a pitch is indicated will still be deliberately misunderstood or abused by those wishing to pitch their way. The current method is clear to me and I’m sure many others..

  • davetommo
    davetommo Forum Participant Posts: 1,430
    edited March 2022 #4

    We might even get 2 white lines to reverse between x

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,038 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #5

    We are currently at Ferry Meadows. Staff mentioned that some pitches now have two white pegs, but to be honest I wasn’t really paying attention as to why. Later in the arrival day, we saw a couple of staff out with pegs and a measured length of board, knocking in a second peg on vacant pitches. Basically, I think it’s to help those unsure about how to pitch to get it right to maintain distances. There are a lot of new Members in the Club now, so it possibly makes things simple for them. In the past, we have come across instances of some very “creative” parking, possibly where folks don’t understand nearside and offside🙄 You can park your outfit either nose in, or tail in still. This is on the nearly all HS side, not sure if the grass pitches across the road are being measured similar.

    The Club, and a lot of its Members, like to have easy to understand solutions to anything possibly contentious. It’s not harming anyone, possibly helping. 

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,857 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #7

    I have been to a fair few Club sites over the years and I can't remember one occasion when the correct pitching instructions have not been communicated to me so there should be no reason for getting wrong but you do see some evidence of that on site. I wonder if the problem is that with quite a few arrivals it is not the driver that goes into reception and the non driver doesn't pass on the information? 

    David

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
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    edited March 2022 #8

    but by the time you've been told what you can do & what you can't do etc etc you tend to stop listening ...

  • SallyD
    SallyD Forum Participant Posts: 85
    edited March 2022 #9

    Seem to remember being on a site about 3 years ago and the wardens were trialling the 2 peg system. Might have been Chatsworth?

    Does make you wonder why people cant follow simple instruction on how to pitch. My view is that Motorhomes are the worst: as they only have one vehicle they think they can take a liberty

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #10

    Sigh, I don't know, how does the "other" club manage without pitch markers..?!  (Yes, I know, they help everyone onto the pitch and no-one later gets told off for not listening, looking or being really really naughty. wink)

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #11

    We saw some awful examples of mis-pitching on the all grass site at Dunnet Bay. Rear corner of the awning to the peg was one which meant the caravan was far too close to the next pitch. The poor warden was constantly on patrol sorting things out and, yes, it did seem to be newbies creating the issues.

    This is an instance where C&CC shepherding arrivals to the pitch and helping/watching folk park pays off.

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #12

    Do they? I don’t.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited March 2022 #13

    It is a wel, known fact that it does not matter what information to help members on arrival, is given ,whether it be verbal or in a handout given when on arrival,

    Many will then ask the staff about information that they already have in their possession undecided

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited March 2022 #14

    Yes they do and it seems it is normally. New members or those who have converted from caravan outfitsundecided,

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,135 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #15

    Do you ask them those questions, JV?

    You'll be one of them, then. 🤣🤣

  • eribaMotters
    eribaMotters Club Member Posts: 1,193 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #16

    I can see this thread going around in circles. A lot of us have an axe to grind and will put our penny worth in. I've said it before, I think twice, the bit of paper you are given says GUIDE. The fire regs distance is the important bit, and if we had gravel pitches distanced accordingly we could go nose in/out/across etc and as long as the outfit and awning sat on the gravel all would be fine. 

    But we know that would mean less pitches, availability would be an issue and we would have to pay even more. The site would also no longer look like a car park with outfits in nice boring parallel rows.

    I don't like these regimental car parks and so like others my first choice of site will continue to be a CL. 

     

    Colin

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,665 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #17

    Quite a few of the CCC sites we used last year they said "anywhere on the hardstanding"  unless you wanted to put up an awning, then it was "caravan right over to one side so awning is on hardstanding".

    This works fine on their narrower hardstandings.

    On their larger ones they say van in the middle, car one side, awning the other side.

    Where spacing was tight (Glencoe) there were 2 pegs and caravan and awning had to be between the 2 pegs.

  • Unknown
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    edited March 2022 #18
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  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #19

    There is only one factor which should determine pitching and that is the maintenance of fire breaks the so called rule of 3&6. When a grass finger or hedge between plots is much less than 3m then the fire break will actually project into what appears to be available and useful pitching space. May be two pegs will help define that zone in which car, caravan and awning must fit.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited March 2022 #20

    Why ask when it is normally the site staff who advise of the miscreants wink

    We are returning PVC ownerscool

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited March 2022 #21

    We arrived on a CC site today and the instruction was to "pitch to the peg, as per leaflet". I asked the (relief) warden/site manager about the new two peg system, but she knew nothing about it's implementation. She did say, however, that there would still be some that wouldn't pitch correctly, whatever they were told or shown!!😁

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,038 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #22

    I fell over the second ruddy peg this morning as we were packing up, forgot it was there.🙄 It is all a bit “camping for the thick” combined with the Club’s decision to shoehorn in as many pitches as it can.

    I admit I did glaze over at reception when I was given guidance on where to place my caravan and then my car………….🤔 especially as I had just climbed out of a Motorhome…..Nowadays, I get in and out of reception as quickly as possible. I like an envelope pinned to the reception door for preference. No chance at FM, there are not one but two security gates to negotiate before you get onto Site. The first one you have to yell into a microphone to get access, the second one doesn’t open until your Membership card is produced, you pay and are given a handful of paper. Getting out in an MH is fun as well, to get close enough to the card reader to raise the barrier involves either risking your (usually large) door mirrors, or the passenger climbs out, uses the card, the driver shunts forward, and the passenger climbs back in. 🤷‍♀️
    The staff were nice though, cheerfully doing everything HQ demands of them. 

  • mbee1
    mbee1 Forum Participant Posts: 557
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    edited March 2022 #23

    We were at Chatsworth October last year and the two peg system was already in place, at least on the super pitches.

  • Graydjames
    Graydjames Forum Participant Posts: 440 ✭✭✭
    edited March 2022 #24

    This thread, and TW's post above in particular, reminds me of the worst case of reckless and disrespectful pitching I ever saw. It was at Tewksbury where, at that time anyway, not sure if things have changed as I've never been back, it was all grass and the pegs were the only demarcation indicator. A large caravan, next to me, parked meticulously to the peg, but on the wrong side, making him rather too close to me for comfort.

    When he realised his error, he solved it by pulling out the peg and replanting it at the other corner of his caravan!! Classic.

    The second worst example was less than a month ago when I was at Chapel Lane, but this did not impact on me. Three motorhomes turned up in convoy and were all singles obviously touring together. One van parked not just on the wrong side of the peg, but a significant distance from it and, as a result, its offside wheels were almost touching the grass strip. The driver got out of the van and indicated to one of the other vans to use the space, on the same pitch, alongside. The driver stood in the middle of the space and indicated with both arms where the other should reverse. Thank goodness the driver of this other van, after a pause, saw sense and instead went onto a different pitch. However, the original van did not re-pitch.

    Later I met a lovely guy on site who was a site manager on another CAMC site. During a chat the subject of site rules came up and this led to bad pitching. Rightly, he said you have to take a reasonable stance. If it is not unsafe, he will point out the error, but not insist they move. I pointed out the aforementioned errant motorhomer and asked him what he would do about that if it were his site. "Oh, crikey," he said, "yes, I would have to get that moved. The site manger will tell them to move when he sees it." I was there a further four days, but it was never asked to move. Admittedly, there was no van on the adjacent pitch so maybe, if the site manager did see it, he, or she, decided it was not worth getting involved in requesting it be moved. New arrivals would obviously avoid the adjacent pitch in question. 

    All the signs were that the owner of this van was new to the hobby, so that makes the error forgivable; but the site managers should have got the van moved. In my experience, despite all the moans and groans one reads in this place about officious site managers and pedantry about the rules, site managers are very reluctant to get involved and turn a blind eye to, not just bad pitching, but other misdemeanours like speeding, straying onto the grass strip and bad parking of cars. (I accept that sanctioning speeders is tough.)

    Those who think they should be able to do what they like and who are somehow affronted by the simple requirement to pitch to the peg are persona non grata as far as I am concerned. Some of them have made themselves known in this thread!

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited March 2022 #25

    Graydj, a similar thing occurred when we were on Balburnie site last week. An obviously new M/H owner who was also new to the CC's way of pitching backed onto a pitch, adjacent to the peg but with the nearside read corner not the offside one. He was put right by the owner of another M/H from the pitch opposite..

  • Unknown
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    edited March 2022 #26
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  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,302 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2022 #27

    When we were at Brecon last September a MH next to us did the same thing. I wandered over and pointed out that they might like to move it before they set anything up, as the warden was very likely to tell them to move, because of fire regs. They did move, it was apparently their first CAMC site as the normally used C&CC, where you can put it anywhere on the pitch. They had been told but I don’t think covid screens masks etc helped in getting the message across.

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
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    edited March 2022 #28

    With the advent of many new vanners (caravans and MH, from home and abroad) and the difficulty some new folk might have with the clubs pitching requirement (rear offside etc..) then perhaps two peg and park between them might be the easiest way to get the message over.

    like AD, we spend the majority of our nights parked safely and complementary to others without the need for a peg...

    the pitches here are very large (about 8m wide)..we have a door on the right/offside (like most here) and are pitched (reversed in) over to the left side to give maximum space on the door side in the sunshine.

    Our (offside) neighbours have parked the same way round and are therefore about 8m away.

    our near side neighbours also have an offside door but have decided to park nose in, and also on their left side of the pitch, meaning that they are only about 3m from us....'back to back'. This would certainly be a problem on a club site.

    the next van up is parked diagonally across the pitch....etc, etc...

    i don't think anyone here (certainly not us or our German neighbours) is too bothered about anyone else but if folk who are used to parking like this come to the uk and use a club site then, perhaps 'scoring a goal' with the van between two pegs might be the easiest explanation.

    left/right, near side/offside is obviously tricky enough for us UK campers, let alone those visiting our shores from the land of no pegs.

    im sure the two nights of 'adjacent' parking we had on the beachside aire at Capbreton would have caused heart failure for some...

  • ChemicalJasper
    ChemicalJasper Forum Participant Posts: 437
    edited March 2022 #29

    To me this seems a sensible and long overdue addition, if nothing else, when parking solo and reversing in a caravan, it means at least you can see a peg to aim at when reversing in to pitches on the left hand side of the road, in stead of being forced to reverse blind onto a hidden peg.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited March 2022 #30

    But then you tend to go to overseas sites that are mostly in countries that have far more space than here smile for the the populations

  • Unknown
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    edited March 2022 #31
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