My husband need some legal advice after a terrible experience at a Sun Outdoors in Cape Charles Virginia. We arrived at the campsite on a Sunday afternoon. Only a few hrs after hooking everything up the campgrounds experienced a power outage. We use a surge protector every trip and it was hooked up at this site. During the outage we tried to switch over to our on board generator. We then noticed power couldn't be restored to most of our electronics even with the generator on. My husband is very handy and works with electrical equipment regularly for his job as an elevator mechanic. Many of our electronics haven't been about to work since the surge. We have am rv mechanic we work with at home and will have him assess the situation but I don't want to be held responsible for the damage caused by their electrical issues. Can anyone help point us in the right direction? I posted a picture of the electrical box which flooded the second night of our stay with only a few hrs worth of rain.
Dawn626, Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear that your rig experienced an electrical surge that the surge protector was unable to mitigate. Power spikes after a power outage are very common occurrences. That's why it is adviseable, when a power outage occurs, unplugged the power cord from the power pedestal. Once power has been restored and is stable then reconnect the power cord to the pedestal. In your case, I suspect several circuit breakers were tripped. I would check the power distribution panel to ensure all breakers/fuses are functional. Legal advise is best obtained from an attorney who deals with RV damage mediation.
Thanks so much for your reply. We did unplug as soon as we knew the power went out. My husband did check all the breakers and fuses but we can't find the source of the problem yet. We will have our rv guy look at it when we get back home. I will try to find an attorney who specializes in rv damages.
Just a guess for what it's worth. I would check the power converter. If you experienced a burning smell the culprit could be the power converter.
I am in a campground. My wife was bare foot and had a huge electric shock when she put one foot on the step while her other foot was on the grass. I took my small 8$ outlet tester and it showed a "open neutral". It was strange since before I connected my motorhome a week earlier the tester was showing no problem. Then I see the campground installed an electric box that has four 50amps breakers. So we are 4 sites connected in this box. I see that one of my three neighbors is working on his water heater. I go see him. He is the cause of my problem! After 2 hours of helping him I have found he is poor. He has no knowledge about electricity, not much scholarship and is doing is best. He has a rubber carpet at the door so that he doesn't get an electric shock. They are wearing closed shoes. In his breaker box inside the trailer all the wires go to a single 30amp breaker, all the 5 other breaker have been disconnected. The guy did not even knows his lights are 12v. He has no knowledge of anything. I help him repair his water heater. But it was not the cause of the open neutral error. The problem is coming from his AC. The neutral white wire was reversed with the ground wire. Now I let my outlet tester connected on an outlet connected inside the motorhome 24/7. If I see the two yellow led I know we are ok.
If your husband believes the campground's electrical issues caused damage to your electronics, start by documenting the incident and contacting the campground management. Review their policies for liability clauses, and consider consulting a local attorney if necessary. Additionally, contact your insurance company to inquire about filing a claim for the damages. Seek input from the RV community for insights based on similar experiences.
