We are a caravan park in the countryside of Durham and are looking at constructing some all weather pitches using pea gravel, dolomite etc and would like some feedback on your experiences/recommendations with them.
we've gone off hard standing too. Fed up with not being able to even put screwpegs in with a drill, and awning carpet being damaged with the stone. Some we have been on recently are so solid it's impossible to get pegs in, really annoying after getting the awning up and then fighting to get pegged out.
We are planning next years holidays and looking for sites which still have grass.
Grass plus rain and awnings spell MUD and pitches that take a long time to recover and may need re-seeding in october.
gravel boards and compacted gravel for me every time and once done almost maintainance free.
The vans alright on a hard base (but not pea-gravel, its too loose so you stand to sink into it.), but i wouldnt want to step out onto gravel. May as well pitch up in a car park.
I know grass can = mud in winter, but thats where pitch management comes in. Too many sites are too happy to cram as many people onto the their pitches in summer, which severely weakens the grass for the ravages of winter. Theyve only themselves to blame when the pitch is threadbare come Autumn.
Tend to avoid sites that don't have hardstandings. The advantage is that it will give a much longer season. For every one person who says they prefer grass I reckon there are many more that would prefer a hardstanding, especially some of us motorhomers!!!
I prefer the grass pitch with the plastic or concrete interlocking inserts that give a firm standing but still easy to peg.Been on one this year that was pea gravel and pegs came out in high wind, and another was so hard with stone that i had to use my 2lb lump hammer to get pegs in, and then struggle to get them out again.
just a thought but maybe its the obligatory awning thats the real problem.. somewhere nice and solid to sit your van on dosnt fit in nicely with somewhere nice and soft to knock your awning pegs in.. :)