AltCharging at RV parks
There are tens of thousands of NEMA 14-50 outlets across North America, already installed, already wired for 240V. They belong to somebody, and how you treat that determines whether they stay available to the rest of us.
Ask first. Every time. No exceptions.
An RV pedestal is metered, paid-for electricity on private property. Plugging into one without booking a site or getting explicit permission is theft, however small the amount feels. It is also the single fastest way to get EVs banned from a park.
This has already happened in plenty of places. Parks that once shrugged now post signs, meter separately, or refuse EVs outright — because enough people treated an unoccupied pedestal as a free charger. Book the site, pay the rate, be unremarkable.
What you'll find at the pedestal
| Service | Outlet | Volts | Range/hr | Overnight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 amp | NEMA 14-50 | 240V | 25–30 mi | 250–300 mi |
| 30 amp | NEMA TT-30 | 120V | 8–10 mi | 80–100 mi |
| 20 amp | NEMA 5-20 | 120V | 4–5 mi | 40–50 mi |
The 50 amp pedestal is the prize: it is literally the outlet Tesla's mobile connector was designed around. Book a 50 amp site specifically — do not assume, and do not book 30 amp thinking it is nearly as good. Full adapter chart →
The etiquette, which is the actual point
Some RVers are genuinely hostile to EV drivers at campgrounds, and it is worth understanding why rather than dismissing it. The common complaints are specific and mostly fair:
- Taking a site without camping. Occupying a pitch purely to charge, in a park that turns campers away, is a real cost to the business and to the person who couldn't book.
- Power draw during peak. Older parks have limited service. A car pulling 7.7 kW on a hot evening while air conditioners run can genuinely brown out a loop.
- Unattended cables across roadways. A trip hazard and a vehicle hazard.
- Flat-rate abuse. Where power is included in the nightly rate, a car drawing 60 kWh overnight is consuming several times what a rig does.
None of that is anti-EV bigotry. Behave like a camper who happens to drive an EV and almost all of it evaporates.
How to be the EV driver parks are happy to see
- Book a site and stay the night. You're a customer, not a visitor.
- Say you drive an EV when you book, and ask whether charging is allowed and how it's billed.
- Offer to pay for the power. Many owners will wave it off; the offer is what matters.
- Dial the car down. 24A instead of 32A costs you a couple of hours you're sleeping through anyway and takes real strain off the park's service.
- Charge overnight, not at 6pm when everyone's cooking.
- Keep the cable on your own site, off any path or roadway.
- Stop at 80–90% unless you need the range. It's better for the pack and cheaper for the park.
Where this genuinely shines
Rural routes with thin fast-charging coverage. In much of northern New England, the Maritimes, and plenty of the interior west, campgrounds outnumber DC chargers by a wide margin and are open when nothing else is. A 50 amp site is a full battery by morning for the price of a night's camping — which is often less than a hotel and considerably less than a bad fast-charging session.
Cheaper alternatives worth knowing
- State, provincial and national park campgrounds frequently have electric sites at well under private-park rates. Availability varies enormously; some have 50 amp, many are 30 amp only.
- County fairgrounds often rent RV hookups cheaply outside event weeks, and are usually happy to have the business.
- Municipal campgrounds in small towns tend to be the cheapest electric sites anywhere, and staff are generally relaxed about EVs.
- Campground membership programs can pay for themselves quickly if you travel a lot, though read the electric-service terms before assuming 50 amp is included.
- Off-season rates at private parks can be a fraction of summer pricing, and shoulder-season sites are wide open.
Destination chargers are often the better answer
Before booking a campground purely for electrons, check whether a hotel, inn, or restaurant on your route has a Level 2 destination charger. Many are free to guests and quite a few are free to anyone. You get 25–40 miles per hour, a bed, and no etiquette minefield.
PlugShare and Open Charge Map both list these, and the user comments are more valuable than the listings — they tell you whether a charger actually works, whether it's blocked, and whether staff mind. Filter for free, sort by recent check-ins, and trust reports from the last month over the listing itself.
If you're travelling my corner of the world, the charging map covers northern Vermont and the Eastern Townships.
Safety at older pedestals
Campground wiring ranges from excellent to alarming. Before you plug a car into an unfamiliar pedestal, it's worth testing it — open grounds, reversed polarity, and voltage that sags badly under load are all common in older parks, and all of them will either fault your charging session or stress the equipment.
A pedestal tester is inexpensive and lives in the frunk. If voltage sags below about 208V under load, dial the car down or stop.