Do you guys always plug in power when your vehicle is at your home?

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tracyc

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I got to thinking do I really need to even plug my RV when it's just sitting in my driveway? I have the fridge but I could get a container when I'm not using it to camp with and bring the fridge stuff in my house. I will still get the electrician to install an outlet but otherwise should I just plug if I need to? Or is there any reason why it's better to keep my RV plugged in? I will be using it quite a bit to haul stuff for my business so it will be quicker to use if I don't have to unplug it first.
 
One quick thought while reading your question: lightning or power surges. It'd be nice to have the RV to go to if your house is zapped.

When I get my driveway redone so I can bring my RV home, I will have an outlet for it, but I will not leave it plugged in.
 
I put in two outlets for ours.  One outside and one inside the garage.  It's always plugged in.  Only takes a couple of minutes to unplug and get ready. Checking the tire pressure takes longer.

That being said, get a Progressive Industries Surge Protector for it.  It will protect it from just about everything. Low voltage is a killer of RV appliances and it will protect from that also.
They make 30A and 50A versions.
 
srs713 said:
One quick thought while reading your question: lightning or power surges. It'd be nice to have the RV to go to if your house is zapped.

When I get my driveway redone so I can bring my RV home, I will have an outlet for it, but I will not leave it plugged in.

Oh yeah it would be nice to have my RV if my house got zapped. Hopefully that will never happen. Ok so no need to keep your RV plugged in when it's just sitting in a driveway right?!
 
Old Radios said:
I put in two outlets for ours.  One outside and one inside the garage.  It's always plugged in.  Only takes a couple of minutes to unplug and get ready. Checking the tire pressure takes longer.

That being said, get a Progressive Industries Surge Protector for it.  It will protect it from just about everything. Low voltage is a killer of RV appliances and it will protect from that also.
They make 30A and 50A versions.

Oh so I need to stay plugged in for my RV appliances. I thought since they weren't being used while in my driveway that I didn't need to plug my RV in.

Now i'm hearing 2 different things here and I'm confused. My neighbor who stores his trailer in my parking lot doesn't have his plugged in.
 
We have our rig at my place of business, and it is constantly plugged in. We can be ready to hit the road within minutes.
 
Old Radios said:
That being said, get a Progressive Industries Surge Protector for it.  It will protect it from just about everything. Low voltage is a killer of RV appliances and it will protect from that also.
They make 30A and 50A versions.

Excellent idea!!  This is really more to protect from bad power at campgrounds than at home, but it is cheap insurance!

One reason to keep plugged in is to keep the batteries charged.  If you are not using the rig at work and you are driving it at least weekly, the batteries will stay charged.  No need to plug in.  Now winter may change your strategy!
 
Old Radios said:
That being said, get a Progressive Industries Surge Protector for it.
x2. We usually plug in our RV but if we do we always use our Progressive Industries Surge Protector.
 
tracyc said:
Oh so I need to stay plugged in for my RV appliances. I thought since they weren't being used while in my driveway that I didn't need to plug my RV in.

Now i'm hearing 2 different things here and I'm confused. My neighbor who stores his trailer in my parking lot doesn't have his plugged in.

You don't have to keep it plugged in but if it sits for too long your batteries will be dead. Being a motorhome even with everything shut off, it should have a carbon monoxide detector. That will eventually drain the batteries. 

We have ours always gassed up, packed and ready to go. Batteries are always fully charged. All we have to do is load the perishable food and unplug.  We even keep jackets, sneakers, boots, clothes and other items loaded.  We can bugout in ten minutes.  We always spent hours getting ready and packing to go camping.  No more.
 
I keep mine plugged in 24/7. I just pulled it out to get it ready to go to Oshkosh. We're leaving Friday morning. I made up a 50 amp extension cord so I could keep it plugged in when sitting too far away from the recep.
I like to keep the a/c's and the fridge running. I have a hard time thinking the extreme heat is good on anything.
 
tracyc said:
I got to thinking do I really need to even plug my RV when it's just sitting in my driveway?

We have Full Hookups in our driveway. We don't travel back to Tucson that often, but when we do, we use all the hookups for our RV. While we don't need to keep everything hooked up, we choose to do so. Before we left to live full-time on the road, we always had the RV hooked up as well. We used it as a guest house for friends and family visiting from out of state.

Todd
 
We kept ours plugged in all the time. Both to keep the batteries charged and keep the refer cold. If you want to be able to leave on short notice the refer needs to be on. Ours took 12 to 14 hours to get cold.

We always kept water in the water tank also. If we wanted to go somewhere the MH was ready or if there was a storm and we lost power we had a place to go.
 
Alaskansnowbirds said:
We kept ours plugged in all the time. Both to keep the batteries charged and keep the refer cold. If you want to be able to leave on short notice the refer needs to be on. Ours took 12 to 14 hours to get cold.

We always kept water in the water tank also. If we wanted to go somewhere the MH was ready or if there was a storm and we lost power we had a place to go.


Not to get off topic, but we actually had to do this one evening.

A couple of weeks after getting the "newly acquired" motorhome home, it was sitting on the driveway, plugged in. My wife had just started supper, the power went off. So, we just started the generator in the motorhome and finished cooking supper and eating in the MH. Worked out great, power came back on about 2 hrs later.
 
Ours is always plugged in, but the appliances are usually turned off.

Oh so I need to stay plugged in for my RV appliances. I thought since they weren't being used while in my driveway that I didn't need to plug my RV in.

Not so. I think you misunderstood what he was saying. The comment was that the Progressive Industry Surge Protector protected the appliances. If the RV isn't plugged in, it doesn't need electrical protection. And if the power source is good (hopefully it would be at home), protection is of minimal value as well. When plugged in at home, the RV appliances at no more at risk than the appliances in the house.
 
When I had my 1986 motorhome, if it was left plugged in and nothing was being used, the battery would overcharge and boil over.
I got in the habit of leaving the shore power unplugged, but keeping a battery maintainer hooked to the battery.
That habit has carried over to my TT.

We rarely leave on a moments notice, and I will plug it in a day or so before we start loading it for use.
 
Jeff in Ferndale Wa said:
When I had my 1986 motorhome, if it was left plugged in and nothing was being used, the battery would overcharge and boil over.
I got in the habit of leaving the shore power unplugged, but keeping a battery maintainer hooked to the battery.
That habit has carried over to my TT.

We rarely leave on a moments notice, and I will plug it in a day or so before we start loading it for use.

Technology marched on... The newer quality converters should not harm the Batteries.
 
We are plugged in all the time, but have a Progressive Dynamics 9460 Smart Charger.  Once we get home and unload the fridge, we turn it off and leave it open a bit.
 
Our rig stays plugged in unless we are rolling.  The fridge stays on 24/7, we use it for overflow when home.
 
A lot depends on your converter.. Modern RV's will have anything from a Parallex 7300 To a Progressive Dynamics Wizard Controlled unit (Several product lines)  All can be left powered full time.. My Rig described later.

Older rigs may have an older ferror-resonant converter like the Magnetek 6300 line.. Best recommendation is to UPGRADE by replacing the electronics of that unit (Behind the fuse/breaker panel) with a Progressive Dynamics 4600 line wizard controlled converter or equal (I personally do not believe there is an equal but.. Well, For many there is)

My RV came with a Progressive Dynamics 9180 with optional wizard (one of those I describe as having no equal) the one that is 99.999% as good does not have manual override of the carger mode.. Most do not know how to use the override to start with so for most no differece.. (IOTA with IQ4) But I really like my 9100 with wiz.

Of course. Since shortly after I got the RV, which I planed to full time in (DOing that) I upgraded my ham license (Simple upgrade, Just paper work, no test since i took the needed terests a whole lot of years ago) and got a new main radio, which I installed in the RV.  So I had to use the RV every day Home or not, in order to check into the ham radio nets and such... ANd I needed power for the radio.

Which by the way I last used around 4am today.
 
Always plugged in through the surge protector. Years ago I upgraded the converter/charger to multiple stage which solved overcharging the battery problems.

If I am looking for a quiet place with Dish Network TV and other toys, I go to my Taj Ma-haul, however if my DW of 41 years misses me she checks there first then looks to see if the boat is at the dock followed by calling the airport. Seems I am not too hard to locate.

Cheers Ya'll
 

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