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Will this layout work in GA Preferred/GL Village Car/GL Meadow Car camping?
The first major question is: do I have the orientation length and widthwise of the camp plot right?
Trying to sketch out my setup now, is this going to be alright? Trying to fit 1000w of solar so I'm thinking of parking my car not directly beside my canopies but go in lengthwise.
Did good life last year, all cars are parked one behind the other down the travel lane, I would imagine they will not let you drive it into your spot. They didn’t have marked spaces either, just whatever space your car took up. not sure if that will change this year
I mean, if I parallel park to mark my spot then later on move it, who's gonna tell me no? They gonna tow my car? It's still movable for emergency/evacuation, just oriented perpendicular instead of parallel
Wtf is with you all and down voting? It's just a fucking question good lord.
Yeah, they might. Not a game you want to play in the middle of nowhere Michigan with spotty cell service. You can ask when you get on site if they mind and they’ll tell you; their biggest concerns are going to be if you are in the fire line and if your exhaust is going to go into another camp
There is another less optimal but still working setup where the car is parallel parked and I run a 1x8 solar array parallel to the fire lane (so I box my own car in with the panels). So as long as one of these are working setups hopefully I should be fine.
Yeah I know, I am planning on staking out the spot with my canopies, panels, shower, and car. I'm planning this way so I don't take more space than I'm alloted, even if it's not measured I want to be a good neighbor.
I don't want to be your neighbor either, go away and have a good life. Its two canopies and some solar panels. This isn't something revolutionary or a new approach to camping.
If you haven't noticed, I'm responding and listening to every single one of the comments. You have stooped to the level of personal attacks and assuming things about my character. That is offensive and uncalled for. Take care.
Thats good of you. One year i had a neighbor that tent was giant and encroached a lot into our space. They were friendly and we talked but ended up with not as much space.
Have you been to forest before? Asking because the space you are allotted is theoretically going to be 20x25 if you did preferred camping but you might end up with less space- just how it goes.
There’s also no guarantee you will be on the edges the way you have it drawn out, it’s pretty likely you will have some neighbors. Plan for one side of your camp to face the fire lane and the other three sides to have campers next to you.
Yeah that's what I'm planning. I'll just let the neighbors cool off with my fans or shower if they want and negotiate the 20x25 that we're supposed to have per plot.
Best of luck friend, it’s very much everyone for themselves. Preferred camping is new this year so prepare for a slight shit show if that’s the space you got. This would work in meadows btw, there’s less space restrictions historically
Nice. So worst case, I deal with a bit of shade on the panels (or maybe can't fit quite the full 8 panel array, which I definitely won't lose sleep over). Good to hear it can work!
I'm getting one of those lifetime 4 foot tables and bringing a coleman 3 burner stove for food prep. Gonna make birria bowls and tacos, breakfast hash and shakshuka. Love planning.
Since both GA Preferred and GL are the same 20x25 size, I'm assuming GA Preferred is the same layout as GL. I'm currently GA Preferred but I'm trying to get either GL village or preferably meadow, I'm wait listed for both.
Option B would be to have the panels box my car in parallel to the fire lane. I'm trying to avoid shadows on the panels, and if I put them in the center of my camp, they'll be in shade 80% of the time because of all the tents and canopies.
When I see solar panels in GL, they are either on top of the car itself or on the side of the car in the drive aisle. They definitely won’t let you park your car like that, and the spaces are very often not as big as advertised. Here’s an aerial shot from GL Village.
By on the side of the car in the drive aisle, are you saying people put panels in the fire lane? I mean I'd totally do that if that's okay to do, trying my best to be a good neighbor here and stay within the rules of the camp sites.
Sort of like this.. except the car and panels would be pushed down south?
Actually, if I were on the north side, this wouldn't be an issue at all, since my car could be parallel parked like everyone else's, and the panels can be nested towards the south end of the plot.
They’re going to make you park your car on the edge of the lane like in the photo, but I’ve seen people just lean the panels against the car with them on the ground so they’re only like a foot sticking out. If you want them to be flatter they’re going to have to go on your roof on be in the tent area. They just aren’t going to let you do funky stuff with your car like that, it’s a fire marshal thing.
Search for ecoflow 125w bifacial. Works best with their ecosystem of products. Disclaimer I haven't tried them yet, I have a test run camping trip in April where I'm going to try the battery + panel setup so we'll see how that goes, from what I've read, they're a reputable company though.
Also if this thing ever becomes a reality, this thing would be a gamechanger. 2KW of solar mounted on the car roof, so I won't have to do gymnastics to figure out how to get these panels in the sun at camp. It shows Tesla but it's just a roof rack mounted panel system, so it probably would be mountable on any car.
I never trust them to truly give you the amount of space they say. 2 years ago the rv spots were close to 6 feet shorter last year they were about 3 feet narrower couldn’t even put out our awning fully
There are margins built into the measurements to account for this. The only things that can't get smaller are my canopies and car, but I'd be shocked if I couldn't park my car and put up two canopies, that seems to be the de-facto setup everyone tends to go with.
Now. I'm wondering if it's worth it to bring some cones and measuring tape to mark the plot... Hopefully the rumors are true and they'll just mark the plots for us?
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u/imp3r10 Jan 31 '26
In good life the cars are parked parallel with the lane