[VAC] Re: Vintage Advantage Newsletter ("The new Bambi 16')

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer]

True, you can't count on a campground meeting the latest codes. But the
NEW Bambi should meet them to be acceptable in certain US cities and to
lessen liability when someone gets hurt or there's a fire. Often owner's
policies won't pay if there's a fire caused by a code violation, or if
they pay, they immediately sue the cause of the violation, either the
maker, or repair shop. There's usually a paragraph in the insurance
contract that says, "The insured will cooperate with the insurance
company in recovering damages." In Iowa that means that the insured will
front the lawsuit because its against Iowa law to admit that there's
insurance involved. Cases are regularly thrown out for that word
slipping from a witness. Unless its the insurance company that won't pay
a claim. The insurance companies can be defendants but not plaintiffs.

And such damage recover lawsuits use the existence of codes as a minimum
national standard even when local law has not adopted the national
standards.

The National Electrical Code of 1999 is quite specific about wiring in
travel trailers and RV campgrounds. It is also very specific about not
requiring an upgrade just because the code changed.

I spent a lot of hours about a year ago redesigning the wiring for a
Story County Iowa campground which had 21 pedestals for 43 back in
slots. Some were 100' from the nearest slots. None had larger than 30
amp receptacles, some had only 20 amp receptacles, and none had GFCI.
The main service was a 25 KVA transformer, wiring runs were up to 400'
long. When they were inundated in 1999 by the overflow from a motor home
convention in Ames the hottest week of the year, the most distant
pedestals were pulled down to 85 volts by the multitude of air
conditioners, and the transformer overload tripped several times a day
until the electric coop got tired of resetting it and dropped in a 50
KVA transformer. The larger transformer only helped the low voltage a
couple percent.

Now the campground has three 50 KVA transformers, the wires are 4/0
aluminum throughout with shorter runs, serving no more than four
pedestals per wire, there are 43 pedestals for 43 pads, each pedestal
has 50, 30, and 20 amp receptacles, with GFCI on the 20 amp receptacles.
Voltage drop should stay within 7% for every pedestal being loaded with
240 volts 50 amps, and will stay better than that for normal loads. The
county hasn't told me what the bids were, but I estimated it cost
roughly $1000 per pedestal for the installation. I'm sure it won't be
touched again for another 30 years, the previous installation was about
30 years old. There still is no water or sewer hookup, just a few
hydrants around the place and one dump station for tanks. I've not
checked but I suspect they now charge more than $8 a night to cover the
cost of the wiring and electricity. A 50 amp 240 load can use over $1.40
of electricity in an hour and their minimum tripled because there are
three transformers from the coop instead of one. Getting the service as
good with one transformer would have required an additional $15,000 for
a very large outdoor main panel and $5,000 for more wire and trenches.

Gerald J.



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