How do you handle bad campgound power

Smoke is smoke, right ?

They should have included a bottle with my MG.

SCVJeff wrote:
I always carry a bottle of replacement smoke

From Lucas? Too funny.

I always carry a bottle of replacement smoke

I would look to see what the voltage was and then make a decision. Likely I'd move on to a different campground if management could not fix it right away but

As someone said. A/C's and other devices with compressors and blower motors do not like LOW voltage.. A few volts on teh high side wont' bother them much.

Electronics (on the other hand) are a different pail of bait,, Now if I design a power supply. LOW voltage won't bother it much (nor high but that is if I design it) many designers do allow for low voltatge, and if it gets too low the device simply does not work.. See note however.

High voltage... I recall one microwave transciver running on a generator that was a few volts HOT.. The owner said, suddenly,, I SMELL HOT RESISTOR.. He sniffed just as the part blew.. He is waving smoke away with one hand and pulling plugs with the other.. As you may know Electroincs run on Magic Smoke, and he'd just let the smoke out.. Cost him like $1.86 to fix it, but that does not include labor (he gets about $200/hr, higest paid electronics Tech in that town).

Too high a voltage tends to let the smoke out.

The NOTE: Computers.. not so much laptops which are designed to protect themselves from low voltage, but if you you have a desk top, tower or mini-tower or an All-in-One. If the voltage goes low at the wrong time it can truly mess up your hard drive. I have seen it happen on major (main frame) devices... Took quite a while to get power restored and the drive back up and spinning. My mother saw it happen as well. (The difference is the computer I used has information on it that can save a life or capture a thief) Thankfully when my Dry Cleaners got ripped off.. I knew how to bypass that computer and get to the one with the thief's name and address on it.. So when he got home, he had a welcoming committee waiting for him to take him to his new home.

Alas. I've not used that 800 number is so many ears I have forgotten it.

Not sure what the range is on your device but I have been an electrical contractor here in Southern California for over 30 years and can tell you that here we can see ranges from 108-132 volts in locations and we have not seen any ill effects. from over voltage. It is possible that some RV Parks may implement some kind of 'Line Conditioning' to creep voltages up when under max loads.

Airstreamer67 wrote:
I don't stay in a campground if the SurgeGuard doesn't stay on.

We normally prefer electric sites but I would, and do ... if my EMS doesn't like what it's seeing I simply disconnect and dry camp. :) I suppose I might consider moving on if we were camping where daily temps were well above 100F and if we were expecting to be there for several days, otherwise we can do just fine without campground power if need be. Installing a 1000 watt PSW inverter last year means that if we do lose campsite power we can still power our coffee machine, toaster, wife's hair dryer, fans, etc ... in other words, anything other than A/C we'd be powering anyway with shore power.

I don't stay in a campground if the SurgeGuard doesn't stay on. Even if the air conditioner runs on voltage that is beyond the safe parameters, damage will result. The life of electrical equipment can easily be shortened by substandard power.

Sounds like late paranoia checking in. The OP inferred the CG was empty since the manager said pick a spot and he tried many, so of course it's going to be high by design, the power company isn't standing at the enterance twisting a compensation knob depending on loading. IF it's 5v over 120, who cares, that's perfectly safe, but the question in this thread he never answered is 5 over WHAT?Those saying they would leave "just incase" it might go higher are simply paranoid. The world isn't flat and the grid is not and never will be a rock-solid 120v. It simply won't happen unless the generating plant is across the street.

SoundGuy wrote:

rk911 wrote:
I ALWAYS check voltage AND polarity before plugging in. afterwards I depend on our Progressive surge protector to protect us. and inside the coach I have a Good Governor voltage/polarity/cycle meter plugged into an AC outlet which constantly monitors the state of our electric hookup.

For greater convenience I built this dongle so I can quickly check the campsite source for errors with a Prime Products AC Line Meter before plugging in.



Inside the camper I've used a Kill-a-Watt meter to monitor incoming voltage but now prefer using my Progressive Industries EMS-HW30C Monitor Panel to keep an eye on incoming source voltage, confident the EMS will shut off the incoming source if it falls out of spec.

I use the same exact meter to check the voltage/polarity at the post before plugging in. mine is just not in a nice dongle like yours. nice job! the monitor for our Progressive Surge Guard is also mounted inside.