 Breaker Breaker Jack, both RVers and truckers want to stay shiny side up on the big slab. So I sent out a call to the truckers at truckersreport.com to get info on how RVers should be parking overnight at truck stops. And they brought it back five by five. Got your ears on? These guys are pushing 18-legged Pogo Sticks 11 hours straight. And when they finally reach the magic mile, they're checking their eyelids for pinholes only to pull into the hook. And find that all the spots are taken by Jeff and Becky and their lanyards. There used to be more honey spots and pickle parks and Wally worlds for these guys, but those are drying up. And these guys just want to keep the left door closed and make some lettuce tinfoil. So I'm going to give you the real scoop from the truckers themselves today on how we should be parking at truck stops so we can all keep them between the ditches. Hey everybody, it's Robin with Creativity RV and welcome to episode 20 of Be a Nomad, Change Your Life, my Sunday series where I try and give you every tip and trick that you need to hit the road full-time. Today I want to send a big thank you out to thetruckers at truckereport.com for giving me hundreds of replies to my questions for RVers out there because our two communities are going down the road constantly right next to each other and we're driving a lot of weight out there and we all want to stay safe. And you know, I see a lot of videos on truck stops, but I've never seen anybody ask the truckers themselves. So I was on a mission to do that. So next Sunday be sure to look out for the next video in this series which I'm super excited about because these guys gave us a whole bunch of ways that we can stay safe on the road by ourselves or next to them. So let's start at the beginning. There are three big companies that have the five big travel centers. Think like FlyingJ and Pilot and TA. Those are some common ones. So they started to cater to other drivers on the road, people that were going on road trips or RVers and they're looking to make money of course so they're inviting everybody in. But the problem with that is it kind of squeezed the truck drivers out a little bit. Just know that they are regulated and as their regulations go up, their places to park go down. So in a minute here I'm going to go through let's say some codes of conduct that we can use to make sure we still have a place to stay because we also need to stay and pull over and get a good night's sleep. So we're safe without stepping on them or without stopping them from getting a spot as well. Okay, when you pull into a truck stop, depending on your size, look in the front of the truck stop first because the back is usually where the semis are. So if you have a van or a B plus van like I do and you can back into a parking spot for cars, do that first. If you can't fit in one of those spots, the next thing you should be looking for is dedicated RV spots. Now you can use apps like Allstays or RV Parky, Park Advisor. A lot of these apps have reviews that will tell you how many parking spaces they have for RVs specifically and how busy it is. The truckers also told me about a website called TruckerPath.com. There's an app for that also and I'll put the link below that they recommend checking about two hours before you get to a truck stop because it will tell you how busy it is at that exact moment. And they also said if one is busy, one a mile down the road may not be busy and you can find that out through TruckerPath. So you've tried the car spot and you've tried the RV spot and either they're full or you don't fit in there. The next thing you should be looking for and I did not know this is the cab only spot. So a lot of these truck spots have spots designated for the cab only when they're not pulling anything behind them and that's not as common for them and they can fit in different spaces. So the next thing we should do is try and get into one of those spaces. Now let's say that you can't park up front and there's no RV spaces and there's no cab spaces, go to the back. Now a lot of these places that I've gone to, there's a huge lot in the back for Simi's and a lot of the places I've gone to, they are crammed together and I'm always amazed how close they can get together. But if you see something that looks like a space between two trucks, don't cram in there like they do because when they get up in the morning they may not be able to get out because they're used to doing that and if you see a space it could have been left there because they need the turn radius to get out of that spot and you may just have unwittingly blocked them in. And if you're going to park in the back, be sure that you do not put your slide out. So I always thought that this was a rule for them because we were taking up two spaces, that is true. But most of them said don't put your slide out because it's hard to see and somebody will take it out because those parking lots can be dark. These guys are getting in at night when they're tired and they said if we want to have a good time just sit back there and watch people go in and out of that lot. It's common for them to take each other's side mirrors off. So if you want to put your slide out, do it on an edge where the slide is going over like a grassy area. Don't take out another spot. Put your side mirrors in and try and keep your distance between you and the Simi's. The next big thing on the list for these guys was if you're going to fill up at the commercial diesel center do not park there and walk away. So you guys may have seen my video on water, water, water everywhere and I told you that I didn't know this when I started my RV life but there's often potable water at the diesel pump and I have a diesel rig so I'll fill up there and fill up my water. Well, that's okay with them. Some of the truckers said you think it's not because you're getting the stink eye from some truckers but their tanks are huge so it takes a long time to fill up and they know that compared to them our gas tanks are little so they know it's going to be pretty fast for us to fill up. What they don't want us to do is go in and do laundry, take a shower, go shopping just fill up your stuff and then pull out of there because once they get their load into their semi let's say at the shipper that's when their clock starts and so any time that they have to take in one of these lanes waiting for us to get out of the way so they can fill up is taking up valuable time that then they have to try and make up for on the road when they're next to you and me. Along that same line if you have to do laundry or take a shower try and do it at off peak hours. Now some people were like truck stops are busy all the time especially if they're near populated areas but most of them said that off peak hours is like mid-afternoon. The morning, midday and night time is when all the truckers are there trying to get their stuff done and they wanted me to tell you guys that we have a bathroom and a clean change of clothes and a lot of them don't so you know if we can change our timeline which I do you know I travel at my leisure nobody is regulating me and I'm not in a hurry so if I can time my laundry time to get there in the mid-afternoon I do so that I'm not taking up a washer and dryer when there's a rush of truckers trying to get a clean pair of clothes. So just like I said for like walmarts and rest areas they're overnight spots the same is true for a truck stop so don't put out your barbecue and your lawn chairs and like set up camp if there's room you can do it but I have to say that the truck drivers were like we don't want to see you camping you know if you want to come to the truck stop and stay like us that's great don't camp unless you're going to give us a hot dog and they wanted me to tell you that they also like ice cream. Okay so let's get to some of the misconceptions between our two communities that I found really interesting so the first one is that on some videos and in social media I've gotten the impression from some truck drivers that they don't want us at the truck stops at all and I have to say there were a couple people at truckers report that felt that way but the vast majority of them did not so misconception number one is that they don't want us at the truck stops they do they want us there because they want us to be able to stop and get fuel and get food and rest and be safe because they want us to be safe drivers when we're next to them on the road just like we want them to be safe they just want us to understand that we shouldn't be blocking them from resting or getting back on the road because they are so regulated the next misconception is that truck stops are not safe now I'll tell you that some truckers were like why would you guys want to stay there anyway they're dirty and there's a lot of nefarious stuff going on sometimes and I'll tell you a truck stop is just like any place else if you pull into one and you get a bad vibe and you can move on do it the third misconception I think from our community towards theirs is that they like to stay at truck stops where they stay this is not true I was surprised to find out so here's the deal most of them have a different list of places that they like to stay and it varied by people but I'll tell you that the vast majority of them number one wanted to stay at the shipper so if they take an empty rig to their shipper and they can spend the night there and then load up their clock starts and then they can take off that's their first thing the second place a lot of them like to stay is something they called a honey spot like I said that's a place they just pull over on the side of the road but sometimes it's not allowed now and a couple of them still had honey spots but they wouldn't tell us where they were and I don't blame them and the third place they like to stay is maybe a Walmart or a rest area and last on their list was a truck stop they don't like it the spaces are few and far between and they're noisy okay now let's talk about some of the misconceptions I found from their community towards ours some of them were really surprised that people live and work in their RVs full time like this girl and they didn't really understand that was a thing I had two different people in the forum call us Jeff and Becky so I think that could be a common term they think we're Jeff and Becky on vacation out on a weekend trip taking up their spot so I politely told them that that's not always the case a lot of us live and work in our RVs and we're not on vacation and we don't have giant bank rolls which is another thing that they thought we are just regular people working from our RVs and we just need a safe place to stay overnight too they also thought that Jeff and Becky wanted to stay at a truck stop for the experience like they wanted to get home and tell their friends about how they stayed at a truck stop and I told them this isn't really true a lot of us are on our way to campgrounds or RV parks or like me to beautiful boondocking spots and maybe it's a long drive and so for a night if we don't have other options we need to stay at a truck stop just like they do because we want to be safe and get a good night's sleep and get out early the next morning like them so you guys these are just guidelines and I know that the RV community is full of freedom loving people and we don't want to be told what to do and when to do it but our two communities are going down the road together and all of us want to get where we're going safely so I thought it would be a good time to hear from the truckers themselves and the truckers can hear from us so our two communities can help each other when we're going down the road and we can all get where we're going so I'm sure in the comments below people are going to be all over the board about if we should stay at truck stops at all like is it safe and somebody else will say well I got there first it's my spot and I'm sure some truckers will get on here and say stay out but like one trucker said from TruckerReport.com we're going to get as many opinions as there are stars in the sky but I have to tell you the vast majority of the truckers that I talked to on Trucker's Report were safety oriented friendly people and they were happy to give us some advice and tell us what they thought was the best practice for us when we go to a truck stop so everybody if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up on the way out do give me your comments down below I do want to hear your opinions and your experiences if you haven't subscribed already please consider doing so and truck them easy come back in the comments below everybody have happy travels out there and stay free