Pitch Etiquette

Hi All,

Can I ask what you do to preserve your pitch at a site if you decide to venture back out in the van? Is there any recognised etiquette to observe? I was thinking of buying a little pop up tent and pitching that so that I have somewhere to leave the camping chairs etc.

Thanks
Nigel

You can get a board saying "Motorhome on Pitch" from the Caravan Club or there are businesses that will make you a marker with your van number on it. i just use a spare number plate that I peg down.

Quite a lot of people simply leave a few items on the pitch; a bucket, levelling ramps or even the hook-up cable - don't leave it plugged in!!!!
I've just made a board that says pitch in use. 

nuevoboy.

We have a couple of buckets that we use for clean and dirty water ( plus many other things)

I painted our registration number on them, and, stacked and filled with water, they have done sterling service as a pitch marker for very many years now. 

Never stolen, never blown away.

I marked my pitch once with a foldout table and some chairs. When we returned later they were still neatly set up, some distance away from where we left them. Upon asking the new campers if they had moved them they maintained that our things were where they are now when they arrived.

I've not bothered to mark my pitch since.

dbroada wrote:

I've not bothered to mark my pitch since.

Last year, at the C& CC site at Devizes, we were escorted by the assistant warden to an empty pitch and began to set up only to be told that it was occupied but the occupiers had gone out for the day. This happened twice more, and to another couple who had arrived at the same time. The coordination between office and roving warden was poor but it would have been a lot easier if the 3 pitch occupiers had done as they were asked to do and left a marker.  We did suggest that we took the first, lovely, pitch and the original occupiers would  have to slot in where/ if there was space when they got back but this was not taken seriously.

Some places ask you to find your own pitch and report back: not helped if you don't know what is unoccupied.

I made my pitch marker, a board with an angled metal bit on the back in which I insert a tent peg to hold it in place, has " This Pitch is Reserved for Dora " my  MH `s name and also a picture of a camper with washing line on its roof,  and a ASOF sticker, all which I laminated on to the board. Has lasted four years up to now.

We leave full waste master and motorhome using this pitch sign.
Boaby

Made our own, one for UK and one for furrin parts:

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We use exactly the same as Roger above - A4 sheet laminated and has survived for years . Work colleague left his hook up lead fire bucket and step to mark pitch on a Cc site and returned to find someone had 'tidied them away' warden did loan him a lead till he bought new one though.Lately a couple of commercial sites we stayed at have had traffic cones available to mark pitch at reception.

dbroada wrote:I marked my pitch once with a foldout table and some chairs. When we returned later they were still neatly set up, some distance away from where we left them. Upon asking the new campers if they had moved them they maintained that our things were where they are now when they arrived.

I've not bothered to mark my pitch since.

Hi dbroada, the pitch where your furniture was surreptitiously moved to, was it less favourable than where you originally set up? Surely when the interlopers stole your pitch, it would have been immediately noticed by the site office as a double occupation. This would certainly not happen at a CC site due to the security barrier card recorded as given out evident by the empty hook on the master board in the site office. Regards.

Paramedic wrote:

dbroada wrote:I marked my pitch once with a foldout table and some chairs. When we returned later they were still neatly set up, some distance away from where we left them. Upon asking the new campers if they had moved them they maintained that our things were where they are now when they arrived.

I've not bothered to mark my pitch since.

Hi dbroada, the pitch where your furniture was surreptitiously moved to, was it less favourable than where you originally set up? Surely when the interlopers stole your pitch, it would have been immediately noticed by the site office as a double occupation. This would certainly not happen at a CC site due to the security barrier card recorded as given out evident by the empty hook on the master board in the site office. Regards.

No it wasn't a club pitch. Had it worked in the way you describe then all these suggestions are also redundant.

This was on an old fashioned follow the AA signs to a farm type site. Of course we ended up in a less favourable place but we can be thankful that our stuff was just moved on the site rather than in to the back of their car.

When we went to a CMHC site receptionist ask if we could put a pitch marker on, when we went out.

Thanks for you comments everyone. Sounds like I need to make a pitch marker

NigelNomad wrote:Thanks for you comments everyone. Sounds like I need to make a pitch marker

I disagree


But since I'm in a minority I'll let you get one.

I simply fasted the spare number plate to a bit of wood with a pointed end to mark our claim on the pitch. The site warden guy in Brugge said an Italian couple coned off a pitch next to there van last summer. Thinking they were saving a pitch for some one he said nothing. The next day the Italians were sat out in the sun in there coned off pitch. When they were told to pay for two pitches  the cones the cones disappeared.
They must have a done this before taking the cones with them because the cones were not there when they left.