Vast Adirondack Park
The Adirondacks are so magnificent that even the person who wrote the subtitle for the “Forever Wild” article (April 2022 issue, page 56) didn’t comprehend that Adirondack Park encompasses six million acres, not mere thousands.
As a youngster, I spent summer vacations with my family in a country boardinghouse on Long Lake. As an adult, my Boy Scout troop traveled the area by canoe, portaging the short distances from one lake to another. My wife and I visited after attending FMCA rallies in Vermont and Maine. Adirondack Park is a year-round destination.
— Frank S. Winter, F114882
Manalapan, New Jersey
Great Ford Service In Alabama
On a recent return trip to Virginia from Florida, by way of Alabama, the “service engine soon” light on my 2015 Born Free motorhome, built on a Ford F-550 chassis, illuminated. After calling four Ford dealerships in the Opelika/Auburn, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia, areas, with none being able to lend assistance, we contacted Tallapoosa Ford in Alexander City, Alabama. Mike Walker, the service manager, said that he had other vehicles in the shop undergoing major repairs, and because he was waiting for parts, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to be of much help. He said that he didn’t like to see people stranded, though, and that the least he could do was to read the malfunction codes and tell us whether it was okay to continue to drive the vehicle.
We dropped the RV off at 9:00 a.m. and two hours later received a call from Mike to let us know that there was a minor problem with the diesel exhaust emissions system and that they had corrected it. He almost seemed embarrassed to charge us a nominal fee for the service.
While walking through the dealership, someone remarked that Tallapoosa Ford is just a small dealership. As a Ford owner and shareholder, we think Tallapoosa Ford, with Mike Walker and his service team, is a huge dealership when it comes to customer care and service. We will highly recommend this dealer to friends who have motorhomes with Ford chassis.
― Paul & Brenda Schilinski, F453294
Manassas, Virginia
Lights Out
Loved the “Campground Etiquette” article (May 2022, page 63), but, boy, did you miss a big one! Outside lights. My father, George Shallbetter, F64835, has been RVing for more than 43 years, and I, his daughter, joined him five years ago. My biggest complaint: Why do people think they need to leave outside lights on overnight? It seems like everyone is trying to outdo with bigger, brighter, and now this past winter we had next-door neighbors two different times on a one-month trip with LED lights that changed colors and were flashing. I have made blackout curtains and put them on tension rods so I can hang them up just in case, but since I paid for this campsite, I feel my neighbors should take into consideration that when they go to bed and shut their inside lights off, it means all lights off, including the outside. To me that’s good campground etiquette.
— Susan Scott
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Too Much Power
Your article in the May 2022 issue about the Hughes Autoformer (“Boosting Low Campground Voltage,” page 40) was very informative, but it did not address an overvoltage situation like we encountered at a campground last year. In fact, the Hughes Autoformer may actually aggravate an overvoltage supply, because its baseline configuration already increases the incoming voltage by a minimum of 2 percent.
We’ve been taking camping trips since 2014, and we have yet to encounter a low-voltage issue. Perhaps we have been lucky. But we did experience a high-voltage issue last year. When it happened, my electrical management system (EMS) shut off the power to the RV because it exceeded 132 volts. At the time, the campground manager advised us that to help correct the overvoltage situation, we should “use more power.”
It was an older campground, and it was evident that the owner was in the midst of upgrading the power system. The campground manager told me that on previous weekends the sites were completely full, and they had to have the power company boost their incoming voltage. I was there in the middle of the week and most of the sites were empty, so the campground voltage ended up being too high, especially in the middle of the night when my EMS tripped. The manager said he would call the power company and have them check the power again. The next day the voltage returned to a normal range.
― Ron Ream, F517661
New Freedom, Pennsylvania
Editor’s note: We checked with a representative from Hughes Autoformer, and he noted that high voltage from the supply (campground) is rare but possible. If that does happen, the 2 percent “standby mode” boost the Hughes Autoformer unit provides could result in exceeding the 132 volts that is the typical shutoff point for many emergency power off (EPO) or electrical management systems (EMS). He noted that with the Autoformer working properly, reaching 132 volts means the park is already supplying about 129.4 volts, which would not be common. He shared that in the three-plus years he has worked at Hughes Autoformer, he knows of only two verified cases of customers that were getting high voltage from the park (not boosting from the Autoformer, etc.).
He also noted that even with 120 volts at the pedestal (which is ideal), for a typical 30-amp cord, you can lose almost 2 volts before it even goes into your RV, just based on the length and gauge of the wire. For this reason alone, the standby 2 percent boost of the Autoformer is typically not an issue.
As noted in the “Boosting Low Campground Voltage” article, even with the Hughes Autoformer installed, having an EMS is still a good idea.