Why Tent Campers Hate RVers

After a long week at work, you’ve finally arrived at your weekend camping destination, and you’ve just finished setting up your tent.

Home sweet home.

You emerge from your tent, inhale the fresh air deeply and look around at the beautiful, serene scene that only nature can promise us. A sparkling crystal lake behind you, woods with a deep trail on the other side, and the sound of birds and light waves crashing against the shoreline in the distance are like a gentle symphony of nature.

Suddenly you hear an engine, and the sight of a guy driving an entire house appears in your sightline.

Closer, closer, closer he comes, until suddenly there is a house parked in view of your beautiful, serene camping spot.

And just like that, it’s no longer the same beautiful, serene camping spot. 

Do Tent Campers Really Hate RVers? 

“Hate” is a strong word, but tent campers probably strongly resent RVers and feel offended by their presence if they’re nearby. They may feel that the RVers are invading their space and destroying the experience they came out to enjoy. 

Why? Because campers often go camping to get away into nature and to enjoy her many gifts.

They may feel that a nearby RVer robs them of that natural serenity, especially if the RV is plastered with lights all around it at night while playing a movie on an outdoor television and running a generator until 10 PM complete with its harsh, rumbling noise and the smell of exhaust.

This sort of thing can make for bad blood between tent campers and RVers.

Tent Camping vs. RVing: Two Totally Different Camping Experiences

Tent campers and RVers head to camping areas to enjoy the same space, but from two very different perspectives.

Campers leave the comforts of home at home. They pack a simple camping setup and head to the woods, the rivers, or the lakes to embrace the beauty and solitude that one can only find in nature. Their light at night is a campfire and maybe a little solar lantern. Their food is cooked over the fire or on a little propane stove. They sleep in a little tent mounted on the ground, and the most luxurious item they bring along is a camping pad to make their sleeping quarters on the ground more comfortable. They wake in the morning and brew coffee quietly on that silent propane stove. Their big plan for the day is a hike and a swim in the lake and maybe some fishing. 

RVers head to campgrounds for the very same reason – to embrace life in nature, just from a different place. They share a love of camping and nature with the tent campers, but when they leave home, they pretty much bring the comforts of home with them.

RVers want a comfortable bed and a refrigerator, maybe a grill, and a television for the same kind of entertainment they enjoy at home. 

They enjoy their life’s amenities, so in the morning, they want to run an electric coffee pot, maybe a microwave oven, and almost certainly their blowdryer so they’ll look nice in nature. If it gets too hot, they’ll like to run their air conditioner, and if it gets too cold, they’ll run a heater.

Their big plan for the day involves exploring the area and going to a local restaurant for dinner. For this, they will use their “toad,” the little car they’re towing behind their house. 

Why Tent Campers Hate RVers

Or maybe what we really mean to say is – why tent campers resent and complain about RVers. Let’s explore:

1 RVs Are HUGE

As noted in the example above, RVs block otherwise beautiful, natural views and are sometimes considered an eyesore by tent campers. If the tent campers wanted a house next door, they could have stayed home, after all. But they didn’t. They came for peace, serenity, and the atmosphere of nature. 

2 RVs Are Loud

RV engines are loud. The generators are loud. Doors slam shut. RV outdoor “theatres” are loud.

Let’s face it – RVs can be LOUD. “Loud” and nature do not mix well unless the sound you’re hearing is a loon calling loudly or a bunch of frogs and crickets in the night. Tent campers don’t like loud sounds unless they’re sounds of nature.

3 Tent Campers Feel Like RVing Isn’t Really ‘Camping.’

Tent campers feel that when you bring your house with you, you’re not really camping – you’re just moving your house. 

Camping involves doing campy things – like sleeping on the ground in a tent and roasting marshmallows over a fire, with evening entertainment involving a guitar and some singing around that fire, not an “outdoor theatre” that plays a movie the entire campground has to listen to whether they want to or not. 

Tent campers might say that if you’re going to bring a small house with you and do everything you do when you’re at home, then maybe you should stay home.

4 Outdoor TVs and Lights Are a Nuisance to Tent Campers

See above. When campers are expecting that the only light they see at night will be the soft light provided by a crackling fire, and then their next-door neighbors drive a house into the campground and light it up like a Christmas tree when night falls.

The only light brighter than those “RV Christmas lights” is the light from the outdoor TV (now there’s an oxymoron!), well yes – that’s considered a nuisance to tent campers!

5 RVs Can Stink Up The Tent Campers’ Campsite

Tent campers don’t mind the smell of a skunk, or a fire, or even the fishing gear scent of fish caught earlier in the day. But engine exhaust and generator exhaust are offensive. And odors from the sewer hookup? Forget it! 

Should RV Campsites and Tent Campsites Continue To Be Together? 

All campers and RVers are adventurous spirits who love to spend time in the great outdoors, albeit differently. 

A tent camper would not call RVing “camping” at all, and an RVer might not be able to – or care to – sleep on the ground. But while they all may enjoy some of the same adventures and surroundings, tent campers and RVers would be better off in separate campsites. This way, tent campers will be surrounded by like-minded campers, and RVers will work as well!

Is it true?

Here’s the thing: It’s really not that tent campers hate RVers, and it’s not that RVers hate tent campers. They’re all just trying to enjoy camping from two very different perspectives. 

But some tent campers can be annoying to others, too.

RVers aren’t the only campers who can bring annoyances to a camping experience. The real answer to this predicament, in addition to separating tent campers from RVers, is respect. If all campers, regardless of their camping method, can respect their neighbors and be mindful of what they’re contributing to the camping environment, then all of nature will be quieter and more serene and joyful for everyone.

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