Faulty Campground Facilities

[Pete Dumbleton]

Here's a post from another RV group:

The last two campground we have been have had faulty electrical
connections. The first one was a decent RV Park in Grangeville, ID.
My little 3-light tester showed that it did not have a ground.
Another 30-amp socket was available so I tried it and it didn't have a
ground. The box had a 50-amp socket so I got my adapter and tried it.
The 50-amp supply didn't have a ground either.

Electrical Outlet Tester

The campground maintenance man showed up and wanted to know " what I
was complaining about, wasn't everything working." "No one else has
complained about this site.".

The maintenance man took off the face of the electrical box and
announced that the ground wire was attached to the socket. I was
looking at the ground wire and it just disappeared down the side of
the pole. I suggested to the clueless maintenance man that the ground
obviously wasn't grounded and suggested that we run some water on the
ground where the ground wire disappeared.

In order to pacify me since he didn't have a clue he did put a hose on
the area and watered it. Within a few minutes the water soaked into
the ground and suddenly we had a ground.

I suspect that the ground wire just ran a few inches into the ground
instead of being connected to a long rod driven deep into the soil.

Anyway, that was the first problem.

The very next campground was at the Clearwater Casino Campground in
Lewiston, Idaho. The campground used to be a KOA and was not in the
best shape. When we plugged in it indicated that the hot and neutral
were reversed. This was an easy problem to fix but I wonder how many
RVs had plugged into that reversed wiring and not complained.

I am sharing this so that RV'ers will know to check for a good
electrical connection ------- Good meaning that the supply electricity
is wired properly and that the supply is supplying 115 to 120 volts.

Another campground in the last week had over 100 pounds of water
pressure on the fresh water supply. The only way to protect your RV
from that much water pressure is to have a good quality water pressure
regulator connected to the campgrounds hose bib.

I know that these things are discussed from time to time but new
RV'ers need to hear the reason it is necessary to protect their
investment.

I hope this motivates some new RV'er to invest in one of those
electrical checkers and a quality water pressure regulator.

HTH
mike

[Dan Meyer]

I've experienced similar things.

In the late 1970's, I was a teenager and my parents took the family camping in Ensenada Mexico. As I recall, the campground was at some hotel, and located right on the beach. Returning from the beach, I grabbed the assist handle next to the door of the motorhome, and got a jolt of 110 volt electricity. Since I pretty much understood how electric outlets are wired, I took out my trusty meter and found hot and neutral reversed. Rathern than deal with campground management who wouldn't understand english, I made a short adaptor cable and resolved the problem for us.

-- Dan Meyer