Best way to learn about your Campground's electrical grid

[Neal]

Lose shore power, twice. It's always an experience when you have to report a power outage and maintenance comes. You get to hear all the reasons it's not them, it's you, more specifically that surge protector hanging from the pole ya know, detecting surges. He tells me 9 times out of 10 it's that surge protector then goes into yeah but the damage it could cause if you didn't have it. My usual "it's not a problem anywhere else" and the usual end result, put a new breaker in. I think this happens about 3-4 times a year it seems. This is #2 for this year already. Fortunately though maintenance showed up minutes after my call, was very friendly beyond the usual discussion of the power grid, and offered to put a new breaker in. So we'll see.

Probably getting brownouts. I have the hughes autoformer internally mounted but the progressive industries surge protector on the pole may be triggering before the autoformer can do its thing. The maintenance guy did see a red light on it when he showed up. So I wonder if having it on the pedestal is good or bad but I certainly don't want to fry a cord reel which is why I got this after @ARD's situation in Tucson I think it was.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

The problem with many...if not most...RV parks is that they are inadequately wired to begin with. When they get filled up, the power use exceeds the available amperage and drags the voltage down. Consult Ohm's Law for the relationship between voltage and amperage.

Of course, no park wants to tell you they have an inadequate power system, so they blame the end user instead.

TJ

 

[Neal]

One thing I have learned is how much power OASIS draws. To avoid overloading the pedestal in peak heat season I’m turning it off when not in use. Diesel burner may be a good option in hot weather ops to take 20A off the grid and have that for your AC’s.

 

[sheridany]

i can only imagine with the sales trends of RV's reported in 2020 is only going to make this worse? How do you pick a park where you feel confident that you won't have issues or they will remediate without the blame game? I seem to read these about these types of inadequate electric but I am not sure if its a small problem or not.

 

[Joe Hogan]

The problem with many...if not most...RV parks is that they are inadequately wired to begin with. When they get filled up, the power use exceeds the available amperage and drags the voltage down. Consult Ohm's Law for the relationship between voltage and amperage.

Of course, no park wants to tell you they have an inadequate power system, so they blame the end user instead.

TJ

Agreed, when most of these parks were built when RVs had few electronics. Now the RVs are rolling condos, with multiple TVs, A/Cs, Residential Refrigerators, Freezers, MicroWaves, etc. With the Hybrid Inverter installed in my Newmar, voltage sages are negated by drawing from available battery/solar power. However, the Hybrid Inverter operates in the background, I would like notification when this Hybrid feature is operating.

 

[Neal]

Came back from beach and turned on OASIS, drawing total of around 30A with 2 AC's running and lost power again. Removed surge protector, lost again. Diesel burner will be used now, they can't handle the load in my section.

 

[ARD]

Probably getting brownouts.

Speaking of brownouts. We had a severe thunderstorm when I was in Spearfish, SD and I got a brown out. I shut everything down and my power control panel went back to normal minutes later. Do I need to check anything for possible damage? ?

 

[Neal]

Speaking of brownouts. We had a severe thunderstorm when I was in Spearfish, SD and I got a brown out. I shut everything down and my power control panel went back to normal minutes later. Do I need to check anything for possible damage? ?

No, as long as you don't smell anything burning

I wouldn't even shut anything down. You have surge protection inline and even when not in a thunderstorm these CG's are some of the worst "dirty" power ever seen. I had multiple GEN starts yesterday, maintenance came again but as I expected, beyond checking or changing a circuit breaker there is nothing maintenance can do. This time they blamed it on the electric company as having problems.

For brownout protection I highly recommend an internally mounted Hughes Autoformer. That's what it's designed for. For those that carry them and use them haphazardly, my opinion is as I've stated before, if you wait until you "need it" then it's too late. Click here for the internal mount kit.

 

[ARD]

No, as long as you don't smell anything burning

Thanks. I didn't think I had an issue. It was a pretty bad storm, so I wouldn't doubt that the electric company had problems.

NOTE: For anyone, who read my other electrical issue, this one was a separate electric happening at Elkhorn Ridge that occurred at my new site and had nothing to do with the very real electrical problem the park had in the sites I mentioned in my other post. ?

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

When we experience a serious thunderstorm in our area, we unplug from the power pedestal until the storm is gone. And, we always have a Progressive Industries EMS PT-50X in the circuit. Lightning strikes up to several miles away can put a serious surge on the power lines serving a fairly large area. No need to waste a good surge suppressor when the likelihood of a surge is known in advance.

TJ