Friday, October 2, 2009

50 amp Service....Who Knew?

We've been here at the Allimor RV/Mobile Park for about 6 weeks or so. When we checked in here last August, we got ourselves settled into one of the refurbished RV sites. We checked in the electric boxes around the site we selected and they were all 30 amp service. Oh heck, we thought. Why didn't the owner put in any 50 amp outlets when he did the refurbishing?

About 3 weeks ago, we were out in the area behind the RV looking at something....I don't remember what.....and I happened to notice that the 5th wheel parked behind us was plugged into a box that had 50AMP scratched on top of it. Huh??? We looked under the box cover and sure enough, there was a 50 amp cord plugged into a 50 amp receptacle. Then we walked over to a motorhome parked next to the 5ver and they had a 50 amp receptacle too. Holy Cow!

We saw the lady in the 5ver the next day and she mentioned that they were leaving by October 1st. Our eyes sort of glazed over when she said this as we had visions of being able to plug in with 50 amp service. We probably had some dopey looking expression on our faces as well as the glazed over eyes as she continued talking. We weren't hearing any of it now, I'm sure. We saw Bill, the manager, the next day and we told him that when the 5ver couple left we were going to plug into that 50 amp receptacle. "What 50 amp?" he asked. We then showed him the 2 boxes there behind our rig. He didn't even know they were there. Those are the only 2 in the place as we have now made a thorough investigation.

Bill told us to feel free to hook-up there as soon as the other folks vacated their space. The best part was we didn't even have to move the motorhome. Our cord was just moved over about 3 feet to the other box. We did find out yesterday that the owner wants an additional $20 a month for the 50 amp sites. OK by us and we paid our rent this morning.

If anybody comes along to set up behind us where the 5ver was, it will be no problem for them to hook-up with the 30 amp service. As you can see in this photo below, most of the electric hook-ups are so close together as to almost be ridiculous. During the recent refurbishment, they were left in the hodge-podge way they were originally, just with newer boxes etc. From several of the RV spaces you could hook-up into about 6 different boxes.
Here is the back end of our Tour, with it now plugged into the 50 amps. Yippee, this means that we won't have to juggle our power usage this winter like we did last winter. We spent 5 months here during the winter with only the 30 amp service. It was a challenge, to say the least. If we had the space heater on we couldn't operate the dryer and the microwave at the same time. We were always shuffling around what was operating. Good experience, though.
Here is an example of the "unfinished work" that I don't think is really going to be finished any time soon with the services here. My question is, if you are going to go to all the trouble and expense of improving some of the RV spaces, why leave it like this???
They did put in a much improved water hook-up with it and the sewer connection boxed in. These services are not in a uniform line or direction either, though. Again...I don't think the owner wanted to fully refurbish to the point of digging everything up and moving water lines, sewer lines and what have you. Go figure.
We think the set up is funny, but we aren't complaining out loud. It's all worth the cost of cheap rent here. It's fine with us. Especially with 50 amp service!!!
Until next time.....so long for now!



3 comments:

Jerry and Suzy said...

Don't mean to be critical, Margie, but we would not feel comfortable "borrowing" the 50amp service from a neighboring site, even if we paid the extra charge. If someone pulls into that site and wants the 50amp service, they would have the right to it. The least we'd have done is move to the other site. But if the park management is OK with it, I guess it will their problem to deal with it, not yours, right?

Margie M. said...

As I think I wrote but may not have made clear, the 50 amp is not really attached to a designated site. The way the utilities were redone, there are about 6 individual electric boxes for 4 sites. You seem to have your choice of what to connect to. We are not RVer's that infringe on other persons spaces or rights. Sorry that was misunderstood by my unclear writing.

Rick said...

Good deal, Margie! I'm sure what you've done is perfectly o.k. as it doesn't appear that any hookups are specifically designated.