How to measure your camping equipment before you arrive
A campsite plan is only as good as the numbers in it. Ten minutes with a tape measure at home saves a lot of shuffling once you arrive. Here’s what to measure, and what people usually forget.
What you need
- A 25 ft (or 8 m) tape measure. A second person helps with long items.
- Your phone for notes and photos of labels.
- The manuals or spec sheets for your vehicle, tent and canopy, if you have them.
Vehicles
- Length: bumper to bumper, plus anything attached such as a hitch-mounted rack or cargo box.
- Width with mirrors: spec sheets usually list body width without mirrors. Mirrors can add several inches per side. Measure mirror to mirror if you can’t fold them.
- Door swing: open the doors you’ll use and measure how far they stick out. This space must stay clear.
- Hatch or tailgate: measure how far it extends when open, plus room to stand and load.
In FestivalPlot you can draw these clear zones as Custom rectangles set to “Overhead cover”, so they show up on the plan without being treated as solid objects:
Tents
- Floor size is what the box says. It is the smallest number.
- Vestibules add covered space outside the doors.
- Staked-out footprint includes stakes and guylines. Pitch the tent at home once and measure stake to stake. That’s the number to enter.
Pop-up canopies
Check whether your canopy’s size refers to the roof or the leg base. Straight-leg canopies usually have a base about the same size as the roof. Slant-leg canopies spread wider at the bottom than at the top, so their footprint on the ground is bigger than the roof. Measure leg to leg at ground level, and add room for any weights or stakes.
RVs and trailers
- Overall length including the tongue or hitch, ladder and rear bumper storage.
- Each slide-out’s depth when fully extended, and which side it is on.
- Awning projection (how far it extends from the side) and length.
- Steps and door swing on the entry side.
See How to plan an RV campsite with an awning and slide-out for placing them.
Furniture and gear
Tables, chairs, coolers, generators and storage bins are small, but they add up. Group things you keep together into one Storage / gear area rectangle rather than drawing every bin.
Converting inches to decimal feet
FestivalPlot takes decimal feet (or meters). Divide inches by 12, or use this table:
| Inches | Decimal feet | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 3 in | 0.25 ft | 6 ft 3 in = 6.25 ft |
| 4 in | 0.33 ft | 10 ft 4 in ≈ 10.3 ft |
| 6 in | 0.5 ft | 16 ft 6 in = 16.5 ft |
| 8 in | 0.67 ft | 6 ft 8 in ≈ 6.7 ft |
| 9 in | 0.75 ft | 19 ft 9 in = 19.75 ft |
Prefer meters? Switch units in the campsite settings. 1 ft is exactly 0.3048 m, and FestivalPlot converts exactly.
Save your measured gear
Once your items have your real sizes, save the layout under My layouts. Next time, open it and change only the campsite size.