From one extreme to the other - electrically speaking
Am writing this adventure story (with a possible hint of rant) as we have no 120 volts at our CG and can't watch TV (missing Dr Phil season premiere & AGT finals too, argh). First time EVER dry camping. Our PC will run on battery for a while so I have something to keep me suitably occupied.
We're out on our longest camping trip so far, 2000 or so miles from BC to Reno and back. I know one common and troublesome issue facing RVers is CG (or "RV park") voltage so I've installed a PI EMS and also an LED display in plain sight in our kitchen to be able to keep tabs on what's going on everywhere we go and have had no problems to date anywhere. DW thinks I'm an idiot but whatever... :R
Got to the casino CG in Reno and were pleased to find good voltage there - rock solid 123 - 124 volts. Highest and most stable I've seen anywhere yet. A little on the high side but better than being too low. Great water pressure too at 100 psi, great weather at a sunny 100+ F and even good luck at the slots. Interesting CG, especially with a Burning Man event on at the casino, lol. Great visit.
Headed out to the Cali. coast only to find cold and rainy weather. I don't believe in omens, but not a good sign. Pre-booked into a Thousand Trails up in Florence, Or. It's a heavily treed CG with narrow roads, grouchy staff and no direction signage. Get lost several times driving around. Not getting a good feeling. TT has a reputation for bad voltage, but never thought it could be as bad as we've just encountered. Arrived and plugged in to find that the voltage was hovering around 106V!!! Bad, bad, bad considering nuthin' on but some LED lights and converter charging the battery a little.
Head off to get some groceries and when we get back, the EMS is turning off and resetting over and over. What? Quickly figure out that while 120 volts is off, 12V battery gets used and when the EMS turns back on, the converter is drawing more AC current as it charges the battery which then causes the CG AC voltage to drop which again causes the EMS to trip once more. Bad, bad, bad wiring system at this TT CG. :M
Error code initially says open ground. Very bad, bad, bad. Call CG maintenance dude who checks it out and declares the ground is fine but that we are at the end of the line and have the worst voltage here so nothing can be done. Nice to know after we've fully set up and it's just turned dark. Dude leaves but I cannot get rid of open ground situation, even after trying our spare 30A cord. Then plug into the other 30A recept. on pedestal and get rid of open ground. EMS resets, but then goes back into the repeating on-off cycle.
No choice but to shut off the AC at the pedestal and find out what all the dry camping hype is about... The maintenance due had said that there is a row of 50 amp sites behind us all with good voltage so we will break camp and relocate in the morning (which is expected to be rainy). Or maybe we should go back to Reno.
Will probably end up getting an autoformer after this adventure. Too bad if everyone else's voltage goes down in the CG. Oh well, haha. :B
We're out on our longest camping trip so far, 2000 or so miles from BC to Reno and back. I know one common and troublesome issue facing RVers is CG (or "RV park") voltage so I've installed a PI EMS and also an LED display in plain sight in our kitchen to be able to keep tabs on what's going on everywhere we go and have had no problems to date anywhere. DW thinks I'm an idiot but whatever... :R
Got to the casino CG in Reno and were pleased to find good voltage there - rock solid 123 - 124 volts. Highest and most stable I've seen anywhere yet. A little on the high side but better than being too low. Great water pressure too at 100 psi, great weather at a sunny 100+ F and even good luck at the slots. Interesting CG, especially with a Burning Man event on at the casino, lol. Great visit.
Headed out to the Cali. coast only to find cold and rainy weather. I don't believe in omens, but not a good sign. Pre-booked into a Thousand Trails up in Florence, Or. It's a heavily treed CG with narrow roads, grouchy staff and no direction signage. Get lost several times driving around. Not getting a good feeling. TT has a reputation for bad voltage, but never thought it could be as bad as we've just encountered. Arrived and plugged in to find that the voltage was hovering around 106V!!! Bad, bad, bad considering nuthin' on but some LED lights and converter charging the battery a little.
Head off to get some groceries and when we get back, the EMS is turning off and resetting over and over. What? Quickly figure out that while 120 volts is off, 12V battery gets used and when the EMS turns back on, the converter is drawing more AC current as it charges the battery which then causes the CG AC voltage to drop which again causes the EMS to trip once more. Bad, bad, bad wiring system at this TT CG. :M
Error code initially says open ground. Very bad, bad, bad. Call CG maintenance dude who checks it out and declares the ground is fine but that we are at the end of the line and have the worst voltage here so nothing can be done. Nice to know after we've fully set up and it's just turned dark. Dude leaves but I cannot get rid of open ground situation, even after trying our spare 30A cord. Then plug into the other 30A recept. on pedestal and get rid of open ground. EMS resets, but then goes back into the repeating on-off cycle.
No choice but to shut off the AC at the pedestal and find out what all the dry camping hype is about... The maintenance due had said that there is a row of 50 amp sites behind us all with good voltage so we will break camp and relocate in the morning (which is expected to be rainy). Or maybe we should go back to Reno.
Will probably end up getting an autoformer after this adventure. Too bad if everyone else's voltage goes down in the CG. Oh well, haha. :B
