By Bob Difley
Finding a campsite could get a lot harder if the suggestions made by Brad Templeton writing in Forbes Magazine take hold. According to Templeton, campground owners could reap more business if they started to cater to the owners of electric vehicles (EV) on road trips.
“Even without the electric RV, RV parks can and should take some steps to welcome all the people doing road trips in electric cars,” writes Templeton. “When driving with an EV, charging while you sleep is by far the preferred way to do it. It requires no (waking) time and no detours, and it’s gentler on the battery than high-speed charging. And there are RV parks already everywhere in all the places good for road trips.”
Templeton even advises how a campground or RV park owner can do this, such as build camping cabins with 50-amp service, and “consider pitching some tents in between the RV pads and renting them.” Oh joy, more campers squeezing into what in most RV parks is already too little space between campers.
And Templeton elaborates (in case you didn’t recognize this as a perk): “In fact, many RV campers may find it quite a nice perk to be able to use such a tent, since they could put the kids in it and not need to reconfigure the couches or dinettes for them to sleep.” He also suggested filling some of the campsites with rental trailers complete with bedding and cooking gear, making it easier for those without an RV or camping gear to use the campground.
So the questions that pop up on such a plan would include: Unless the park has lots of unused space, how can you fit more campers in where conditions are already crowded? How do you expect to handle the increased traffic, maintenance and cleanliness in restrooms and showers? Will all the additional power outlets stress your electrical grids causing power outages?
But even more important is the possibility of the number of campsites in relation to the number of RVs – and now including EV road travelers – on the road, making getting a campsite even more difficult than it is now. This would result in an already almost impossibility of obtaining a campsite when taking a spur-of-the-moment camping trip, when traveling without a planned agenda, or as a fulltimer, or on an extended camping trip not knowing where you might end up at night. That means not only the likely chance of taking fewer camping trips but also the necessity of having to make reservations even more months in advance.
Do you think these are good ideas, beneficial to RVers and not just for the increased profitability of park owners? Are you willing to welcome more campers, more packed conditions, and less privacy around your campsite? I would like to see your comments.
##RVT909
Don’t worry too much, they will be disconnecting early and hauling {bleeped} , never to return thanks to the the RV campsites 70 or 80 barking dogs.
Then they can restrict more parks to specific types of RV’s. Don’t have a Prevost? Go elsewhere. And then they can make the parks for no children only. And what about just for non smokers. We can go further and just make all the parks brand name specific. The author has no clue what is needed in the RV industry.
It could well be a good idea to totally avoid RV parks that do this, for the reasons given.
Right on!
Kinda get the impression Brad might not spend a lot of time in campgrounds.
Yep!
RV parks are permitted so many campsites, sawage capacity etc by municipalities and states. They can’t just cram more in as desired.
Evidently a freelance “journalist” stretching for something to write about! I avoid many RV parks because of the crowded conditions. Making them even more congested would surely not make them any more attractive. As far as EV charging, it seems that there are far better locations than campgrounds.
Agree about the freelance journalist. Also love it when folks who know nothing about camping write up their expert opinions. 🙄
So we turn a crowded RV park into a Ghetto by allowing more people in them. Perhaps we can solve the homeless situation by letting folks sleep in the offices of forbes magazine at night.
I don’t agree with the term “Ghetto” and I wouldn’t agree with the term “Trailor Trash” which. I get where you are coming from though.
Most RV parks already have a problem keeping up with electrical demands from regular RV’s let alone the huge added demand of charging stations. If most parks have close to 100 percent capacity with regular RV’s why would they spend $100,000’s to upgrade underground electrical systems to accommodate EV’s? Doesn’t make economic sense.
Instead of rv parks what about motels adding plugs.
My thoughts exactly………..
Local small shopping center installed EV charging sites. I have never seen an EV charging on those sites. Maybe Al Gore’s private jet can use them.
Shoppes at Montage in Moosic Pa has EV charging stations for cars.
Do You Consider EV “Progress” OR An “Agenda” ??
Definitely an “Agenda”.
If CG owners would keep the sites and CG clean, not double-up or triple-up on the number of sites in the same amount of space, RV’ers would by word of mouth recommend these CG’s to other RV’ers and in no time this site would become a favorite and would be near or at capacity. All this adding of services in the same amount of space available just cuts down on the distance between sites, which in many cases is already a problem. Try cutting out some of the supervised activities which not everyone is looking for. I will take a clean private site over basket weaving, bingo, and other things I can do on my own, and find others who are interested in the same thing.
I suspect that Mr. Templeton has never spent a single night in a crowded RV Park such as we are now dealing with throughout the U.S. If he was a regular patron of most of the existing campgrounds in this country I don’t believe that he would be trying to promote any additional accommodations be shoe-horned into what is already an overcrowded situation. He needs to be promoting additional campgrounds and RV Parks instead of writing about adding EV-charging stations, camping cabins, tents, etc. for electric vehicle operators in these existing facilities. As others have pointed out, at this time EV-charging stations would be much more appropriate being located in the parking lots of hotels and motels.
I’m betting your average Tesla owner is NOT looking for a tent site to sleep in while his spendy electric car charges up. As Ed says, charging stations are better suited to hotels and motels.
I would venture a guess he has never seen a campground, from the way he talks he is the typical “free lance journalist” who thinks of a subject to write about and starts typing hoping someone will think he knows what he’s talking about. He could’ve suggested the campground owner install “sky hooks” to hang hammocks from and been just as accurate. Chuck I would hesitate to print stuff like this, his story is so far out in left field, campgrounds have enough problems supplying electricity to all the new RVs that are total electric and recharging an EV overnight requires high output recharging stations. My nephew has one in his garage, it cost him $700, you can’t just run an extension cord and recharge overnight. That process takes a week.
Campgrounds whine when people stay at Walmart-if they even try gouging more then Walmart & others will be very busy. Walmarts are being pressured by towns to not allow overnight (by campgrounds). We spend much money in the stores/CrackerBarrels, etc they wouldn’t get so we do pay there
Why not install EV charging stations at MOTELS and HOTELS, which is where most non-RVing travelers tend to stay??? Duh!!!
As others have noted, I’ve also seen unused (Tesla) charging stations in places as out-of-the-way as Tonopah, NV…. Sounds like the article author was someone who thought he had a “genius” idea but ends up showing how little he really knows about RV parks and campgrounds.
All the way down Hwy 95 from Reno to Vegas, there are Tesla charging stations (Hawthorne, Tonopah, Beatty) and like Ellen, I’ve never seen anyone charging up.
In my little town of Manchester, TN we have two recharging stations. In the 2 1/2 years they’ve been there I’ve never seen 1 car recharging there. As a matter of fact I’ve only seen 1 Tesla in town and it had a Nashville tag on the back bumper, either it was passing through or visiting someone, oh those recharging stations have 6 places each for recharging. One is behind the Dollar General and the other is behind Dunkin Donuts. That would be a good place to spend several hours recharging, probably wouldn’t gain more than 2-3 lbs waiting.
Gouging RV Parks…..How about this one.
Chula Vista RV owned by Sun Resorts now charges $100 per night or more and even after you
reserve a spot they charge you $30. more to ‘guarantee’ that spot you reserved….and then they double book and have to move you when you already paid the $30.
We Californians will pay anything to get out of the heat and on to the beach.
We had a term for that back in the 50s, “EASY”
Right? They haven’t even opened yet and already they sound like a nightmare.
Actually you can save money reading Forbes magazine at Libraries, and canceling your subscription.
Why can’t Tesla just sell an optional RV-50amp to EV Charge Port adapter. Then the travelers can figure out for themselves how to pick a camp site.
Many parking lots now have EV charging stations. I have never, ever seen a single EV being charged at one of these stations.
Just because they could doesn’t mean they should try to squeeze non camping EV clients into an environment they don’t seek. And doing it at the expense of the RVing public would not be a good move. Clearly the author had no concept of what RV traveling is like, not any concern for the quality of the experience.