Power Pedestal Connections
We read an online RV newsletter that comes out each Saturday. Electricity is often a topic of discussion. Today there was a survey to try to tell what percent of readers have experienced some sort of ...
Forum Discussion
Have you WORKED WITH actual - live RV'ers in Mexico?
No
I have. I operated a park, a rural park that was wired to USA code. From Mufa to receptacle.
And Carlos, who had the largest park in Mazatlan, who filled my ears with reality for years. Finally, in 2005 he told me "I give up these people will never be happy. They come every year with bigger and bigger casasrodantes and every year I hear the quejas (comlaints) get louder and louder. I am draining the alberca (pool) right now and having a meeting with the buyer tomorrow".
Get
It
through
your
head
99% of RV'ers could CARE LESS about learning about electrical codes. They touch their rig, they get shocked, they *****. They melt the receptacles until their power cords catch fire pulling 28 amps out of a 15 amp receptacle - they *****.
I attempted to explain EXACTLY what an RVer could do to improve his lot on a trip AND IT GETS IGNORED. This separates the wheat from the chaff. Complaining that being part of the problem rather than part of the solution falls on deaf ears.
Take your meters, and NEC and NEMA books on our next trip. Attend a campfire session. Bring up the subject.
Within sixty seconds your best efforts are going to turn into a round table of complaints. It's BEEN-THERE-DONE-THAT-AND-GOT-THE-TEE-SHIRT-TIME. People help themselves or they don't get helped.
RV'ers were RELUCTANT to so much as touch a wire on an isolated dead circuit branch, when asked to help pull a wire. They were smart. They knew enough to keep their hands out of stuff they did not understand. They sure as hell are not going to change their own receptacle orhot swap wires.
But then never having dealt with owners of an RV Park on a technical level is a hindrance. The cycle begins when a $5000.00 dollar electrical bill arrives and total revenue is $7000.00 for rented sites. This may be in a park with fifty of sixty sites. Many people stay away because of the bad publicity. It's the few customers that return year after year always complaining about electrical service (and water and dump) that are the straw on the camel's back. My last month at Flores de Las Penas, had one customer who repeatedly ran his hot water heater and two air conditioners, even after politely asking him TEN TIMES to cut down. The result? Seven hundred and seventeen dollars in electrical costs for four hundred twenty dollars site rental. I would have had to charge FIFTY DOLLARS A DAY to break even. Yes I could have put everything on 10-amp breakers and listen to three dozen complaints a day.
Are we getting the picture? I ran a tight ship and my customers expressed nothing but praise for Flores de Las Penas. But despite my politeness, I had people knocking on my door at 0300 complaining about a regional CFE brownout.
So I learn Villas Patzcuaro no longer has facilities. The last I talked to the lady there, she was getting fed up with the complaints. She knew I owned an RV park and like Carlos the entire picture changes when a Mexican owner realizes he is talking to a fellow traveler.
This year's commercial rate is TWENTY SEVEN CENTS PER KILOWATT HOUR plus 16% IVA plus DAP. Have you ANY IDEA AT ALL of how much power the "average" RV draws with hot water heater, refrigerator, converter, and just one air conditioner running.
OF course you don't.
No
I have. I operated a park, a rural park that was wired to USA code. From Mufa to receptacle.
And Carlos, who had the largest park in Mazatlan, who filled my ears with reality for years. Finally, in 2005 he told me "I give up these people will never be happy. They come every year with bigger and bigger casasrodantes and every year I hear the quejas (comlaints) get louder and louder. I am draining the alberca (pool) right now and having a meeting with the buyer tomorrow".
Get
It
through
your
head
99% of RV'ers could CARE LESS about learning about electrical codes. They touch their rig, they get shocked, they *****. They melt the receptacles until their power cords catch fire pulling 28 amps out of a 15 amp receptacle - they *****.
I attempted to explain EXACTLY what an RVer could do to improve his lot on a trip AND IT GETS IGNORED. This separates the wheat from the chaff. Complaining that being part of the problem rather than part of the solution falls on deaf ears.
Take your meters, and NEC and NEMA books on our next trip. Attend a campfire session. Bring up the subject.
Within sixty seconds your best efforts are going to turn into a round table of complaints. It's BEEN-THERE-DONE-THAT-AND-GOT-THE-TEE-SHIRT-TIME. People help themselves or they don't get helped.
RV'ers were RELUCTANT to so much as touch a wire on an isolated dead circuit branch, when asked to help pull a wire. They were smart. They knew enough to keep their hands out of stuff they did not understand. They sure as hell are not going to change their own receptacle orhot swap wires.
But then never having dealt with owners of an RV Park on a technical level is a hindrance. The cycle begins when a $5000.00 dollar electrical bill arrives and total revenue is $7000.00 for rented sites. This may be in a park with fifty of sixty sites. Many people stay away because of the bad publicity. It's the few customers that return year after year always complaining about electrical service (and water and dump) that are the straw on the camel's back. My last month at Flores de Las Penas, had one customer who repeatedly ran his hot water heater and two air conditioners, even after politely asking him TEN TIMES to cut down. The result? Seven hundred and seventeen dollars in electrical costs for four hundred twenty dollars site rental. I would have had to charge FIFTY DOLLARS A DAY to break even. Yes I could have put everything on 10-amp breakers and listen to three dozen complaints a day.
Are we getting the picture? I ran a tight ship and my customers expressed nothing but praise for Flores de Las Penas. But despite my politeness, I had people knocking on my door at 0300 complaining about a regional CFE brownout.
So I learn Villas Patzcuaro no longer has facilities. The last I talked to the lady there, she was getting fed up with the complaints. She knew I owned an RV park and like Carlos the entire picture changes when a Mexican owner realizes he is talking to a fellow traveler.
This year's commercial rate is TWENTY SEVEN CENTS PER KILOWATT HOUR plus 16% IVA plus DAP. Have you ANY IDEA AT ALL of how much power the "average" RV draws with hot water heater, refrigerator, converter, and just one air conditioner running.
OF course you don't.
