The future cost of RV stay

Due to the cost of the vehicle itself, I don't think they will ever "become common". The ones that can afford an electric tow vehicle probably won't blink an eye at stay rates.

To have charging ability at each site would require an entire rewiring of the park. If the recharging included the RV itself, the increase in electrical loads would be monumental. Currently, a 200 amp service will support seven fifty amp RV pedestals. Add in charging abilities for a tow vehicle, a dingy, likely some ATVs, and the electric motorhomes now that 200 amp service will only support one or possibly two sites. It will be necessary to replace every pedestal, rewire every single site, repair all the roads and landscaping damaged by that rewiring, and pay the power company for all those new service connections (Assuming they can supply the extra power which is unlikely at best). My best guess is somewhere around $5000.00 per site.
Then you have the added electricity usage to spread over the sites since individual metering on a daily basis is not feaasible. That could easily run ten bucks a day. Recoup the capital investment over seven years and site fees are rising $20+ a day. And that assumes a park owner is willing and able to make that five thousand dollar a site investment only to stay in business and not see a financial return. If it ever reaches that decision point I will probably see it as the time to bail out and sell the properties, likely for conversion to another use.

We have experienced the rusty brake thing once in awhile from lack of use. But regen is pretty much gone if the car is at 100 percent. Although we tend to run the battery between 40 and 80 percent on a daily basis we charge to max the night before a road trip. When that happens the brakes get used and the disks “cleaned”. Feels weird driving the first few mikes without regen though.

Tusk uses a UNIX derivative and most likely brick it than blue screen

In touching the brakes to scrub oxide off...how many of you test your ABS, etc ?

Rainy season is upon us and I test my ABS every month or so on all of my vehicles

This is the great infrastructure question. There are places on some interstates to charge up. We have charging stations in our little town of 9,000 people. As EV become popular there will be a major increase in charging stations.

Groover wrote:


With regenerative braking Tesla's use the brakes so infrequently that they recently updated the software to do a light touch now and then to take the rust off of the rotors.

This update thing is one problem I have with same E-cars. Sure, I can see how it could be a help. But do they contact the owner first, find out if the owner has a issue? I was not happy when I went to bed with a computer that did everything I asked it to do, woke up to find Microsoft had updated it to "fix" problems. Fixed it to be less useful than a Lego brick.
To me the laptop is mostly a toy. If Dodge did that to my pickup I would be hot!

Reisender wrote:


Exactly, But it is the service industry. No different than hotels. Those that don't have EV charge facilities will either upgrade or disappear. RV parks don't have to do anything they don't want to. But in 10 years RVers with EV tow vehicles or EV motorhomes are going to be looking for facilities with charge infrastructure. No different than people with 50 amp coaches looking for 50 amp serviced sites.

Even though I am not a huge fan of KOA parking lot style campgrounds the only place I could find to stay on a recent trip to Ashville was KOA East. The thing that really impressed me was that they expand and grow to meet demand and their prices weren't unreasonable for the services they offer. So it can be done. Probably not by National Parks that are run from far off but the private parks will respond and people that value those services will have to pay the price. Capitalism will prevail if allowed to.

Actually that KOA in Ashville was surprisingly nice. No major attractions on site but plenty of room to walk the dogs, a nice creek with ponds and very clean.

blt2ski wrote:

agesilaus wrote:
IMO a long range TV capable of pulling an RV is no where in the foreseeable future. It will take some new discoveries in material engineering to come up with a power storage device that would support that. And new discoveries are unpredictable.

But as it is now no RV park could supply power to 50 electric TV being charged.

BTW Elon Musk has apparently claimed that the vaporware Tesla P/U will pull 300,000 pounds!! LOL what sized brakes would that take?

Normal brakes for the gvwr of the truck. Trailer brakes stop the trailer! Same as your gas or diesel truck.

Marty

With regenerative braking Tesla's use the brakes so infrequently that they recently updated the software to do a light touch now and then to take the rust off of the rotors.

winniman wrote:
Many rv parks only have 30 amps available for the rvs. Do you really foresee them upgrading their electrical capabilities to accommodate charging large vehicles in 5 to 10 years. One of the major expenses to building a rv park is the electrical services. You are talking a major investment here. Maybe the higher end premium parks might be able to afford it, but Im guessing a lot of regular parks are not going to spend that kind of money any time soon. That is assuming that the grid feeding the park is capable of the upgrade.

On a limited basis for an additional fee... Yes.
The phase in and uptake will be slow. Maybe install 2 or 4 shared charging spots only and if it gets busy these spots will also need separate reservations.

Once the additional fee starts rolling in the park owner can decide to expand or not based on business opportunity vs profit.

Otherwise any RV with specific needs will need to seek out parks that can accommodate those needs just as we do today. Same as some must have a 70' pull through and full hookups including cable TV. Others may need just central water and dump station. Others may need a spot to charge an EV truck etc.

Yes to upgrade all and immediately in one swoop as the first EV rolls in would be poor business. A limited and structured roll out as needed should be quite simple without major cost.

The price of a park that just cannot or will not accommodate future RV needs may actually need to reduce prices as vintage RVs get to be far and few between. But that is 30+ years in the future. Many of us today will not be impacted.

winniman wrote:

Reisender wrote:

bgum wrote:
If/when electric tow veh become common what do you think the average RV park will charge for a nights stay if they charge $40 per now?

I would think an RV park would contract a company like EVGO or Chargepoint to equip a certain number of sites with EVSE's. The park would split the proceeds with the supplier. Currently payments are made with cell phone Apps or RFID cards. I suspect that will be the method of payment in an RV park. Depending on the grid service to the park the charge network company would probably go with a 6.6 KW or 7.7 KW EVSE per site, This is common in car parks and would provide a reasonable overnight partial charge and a full charge in a two day stay, The campground site price itself probably wouldn't change.

I would think we are probably 5 to 10 years away from seeing campgrounds invest in this type of infrastructure. In the meantime EV drivers can share the power from the 50 amp pedastal between the EV and RV using the EVSE that comes with the EV and just setting the charge rate of the truck to a lower amount. 16 or 20 amp or whatever. Pricing will be as per the campground owners rate. This is how we do it right now although the battery in our EV toad is quite small in comparison to what a EV truck would have.

Many rv parks only have 30 amps available for the rvs. Do you really foresee them upgrading their electrical capabilities to accommodate charging large vehicles. One of the major expenses to building a rv park is the electrical services. You are talking a major investment here. Maybe the higher end premium parks might be able to afford it, but Im guessing a lot of regular parks are not going to spend that kind of money any time soon. That is assuming that the grid feeding the park is capable of the upgrade.

Exactly, But it is the service industry. No different than hotels. Those that don't have EV charge facilities will either upgrade or disappear. RV parks don't have to do anything they don't want to. But in 10 years RVers with EV tow vehicles or EV motorhomes are going to be looking for facilities with charge infrastructure. No different than people with 50 amp coaches looking for 50 amp serviced sites.