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RV & Road Trip Charging··@sbergstrom

Spent a week at a KOA and ended up charging off the campsite pedestal every night

Didn't plan this trip around EV charging at all -- just happened to book a KOA because it was cheap and close to the kids' activities. Pedestal at our site had the usual 30/50A RV hookups and I figured I'd try it since we were plugged in anyway. Worked fine on the 50A side, actually charged faster than my home setup. Front desk didn't bat an eye when I asked, said half their guests do it now. Only annoying part was every site's pedestal is slightly different -- some needed an adapter, one site's 50A plug was wired weird and tripped something. Anyone have a go-to kit for this, or do you just wing it park by park?
Filed under: RV & Road Trip Charging
06 answers
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6 ANSWERS
wadecross
@wadecrossOctober 03, 2026
I just wing it. The Ford mobile charger that came with the Lightning has the 14-50 end on it and that's what the 50A side of basically every pedestal is. Never needed anything else
0 Reply
greg_whitaker
@greg_whitakerOctober 08, 2026
The 50A side is a standard 14-50 so whatever mobile cord came with your car probably plugs straight in. The 30A side is the one that gets people - it's a TT-30, which is 120V, not 240V. It looks like a big dryer plug but you're only getting Level 1 speeds out of it with an adapter, and the EVSE has to be told to pull 24A or less. When you say it tripped something - was it the breaker on the pedestal or did the car/cord fault out?
0 Reply
vinnie_carbone
@vinnie_carboneOctober 09, 2026
I have a 14-50 at home and my Leaf only takes 6.6 kW no matter what, so a campground pedestal would be exactly the same speed as my garage. If yours charged faster than home, then your home setup is on a smaller circuit than 50 amps. What are you charging on at home? As for a kit, I keep the L1/L2 cord that came with the car in the back and that is about it. The only adapters I carry are for DC fast charging.
0 Reply
sbergstrom
@sbergstromOctober 10, 2026
Home is just a dryer outlet in the garage the previous owner had, 30A I think, so the cord limits itself to 24. At the park it was showing 32. Not sure what tripped honestly. The cord's light went red and the car stopped, I unplugged and plugged back in and it did it again about 10 min later. Park moved us one site over for an unrelated reason the next day and that one was fine.
0 Reply
tim_okonkwo
@tim_okonkwoOctober 10, 2026
That makes sense on the speed. 24 amps is about 5.7 kW and 32 is about 7.7 so you would notice it over night. On the one that faulted I would guess a worn out receptacle more than wired wrong. Those pedestals get RVs plugged and unplugged a couple times a week for years and the contacts get loose. A camper running an AC unit for a bit does not care much but an EV pulling 32 amps for 6 hours straight will heat that up and the plug on a lot of the mobile cords has a temp sensor in it. Mine is a Nemi 14-50 in the garage and the electrician made a point of using a better grade outlet for that reason.
0 Reply
wadecross
@wadecrossOctober 10, 2026
Half their guests is funny to me. I put free charging at two of my Airbnbs and it's been used twice total... maybe campers are a different crowd
0 Reply
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