When I’m at home, I don’t think twice about plugging an appliance into an electrical outlet.  The power at my house is reliable.  I know it’s all sized, installed, and wired correctly.

It’s a totally different story when plug my RV into a campground outlet.  Campground electrical pedestals get exposed to a lot of abuse and can be the source of damage to an RV’s electrical components.  I’ve seen worn / cracked outlets, charred outlets, outlets with no wired ground, and outlets wired wrong.  All of these conditions can cause problems.

My Surge Guard

That’s why I carry a portable Surge Guard to protect my RV electrical system.  This device is somewhat mis-labeled.  It will protect against power surges, but it also will protect against high or low voltage, poor ground connections, and outlets that are wired wrong.  It also gives a read out of voltage and amperage draw.  My RV uses a 30 amp service and there are also models for 50 amps service.

30 amp Surge Guard

When I plug into a campground power pedestal, I first plug the Surge Guard into the campground outlet and wait for it to give me any alerts or low voltage readings.  I want to make sure I’ve got clean power before I plug in my RV.

Recent Electrical Problems

At a recent stay at a RV park in Florida, I experienced two situations with the electrical supply that could have caused major problems.  The first problem was that the pedestal outlet looked very worn.  When I plugged into it, I could not get a good connection. The power would not stay on and it felt like the neutral part of the plug had a bad or loose connection.  If I jiggled the Surge Guard plug, the power would come on intermittently but not stay on.

An electrical pedestal with a worn 30 amp outlet in the center. An outlet gets worn from constant use (plugging and unplugging) and overheating from worn contacts in the outlet.  The dull coloring on the outlet is a sign of overheating.

I called the RV park to report the problem and they immediately sent an electrician to look at it.  He confirmed the problem and replaced the 30 amp plug in the pedestal.  He showed me the back side of the outlet and the neutral terminal and wire from the bus bar were charred from over heating.  If I had tried to use the outlet, it would have continued to overheat and ruin the plug on my Surge Guard.

When he was done and left, I plugged in again and got a reverse polarity alarm on the Surge Guard.  That was odd.  I just saw the electrician install the new outlet 2 minutes ago, but obviously he had wired in backwards.  I called the RV park office again to report the problem.  They sent a different person to look at the outlet.  When he put his tester into the outlet, he confirmed that the prior electrician had wired it backwards!

My Surge Guard plugged into the new outlet.  The small green light on the upper right means power is on and good.

And It made sense from what I had seen on the first outlet.  That outlet had the neutral post charred from overheating (not the incoming hot post).  The original outlet had been wired backwards.  When the first electrician replaced it, he just wired the new old like the old one.

Saved By My Surge Guard

Luckily my Surge Guard caught all this.  With reverse polarity, the power will work, but the current in the RV will be flowing backwards over the neutral wiring and back out over the hot wiring.  Some things like lights will work fine, but others with control boards that control the power (like microwaves, AC units, power controller) could easily be damaged with reverse polarity.

This was a perfect example of how a $250 Surge Guard probably saved my RV appliances from some costly damage.  A new control board on a refrigerator is over $500.  A new RV microwave is $200 and new AC unit is over $1,000.  And none of those prices include labor.

A Surge Guard is one of the best things you can buy to help protect you and your RV.  There are different makes and models.  Some can be permanently installed in the RV.  The key is to get one that doesn’t just protect against surges.  The key attributes to monitor are low or high voltage, reverse polarity, and open ground.  All of these conditions are more likely to occur than surges.

Lastly, if an outlet at a campground looks bad, melted, or won’t stay on, call the campground or RV park office and ask to have it replaced.

PS.  Check out my latest videos at my YouTube Channel.  Lately, I’ve been doing more travel videos that written posts.  Here’s links to a couple of my latest.  They’re both short – under 9 mins.

• Snowbird Journey to Florida
• Walkabout in Historic Savannah, GA