We've only taken one trip in our MH but are soon to go out west. Last year, with an aircard for the laptop and an internet capable phone, we were able to monitor our pet while away. Actually we monitored the temperature on a very large patio style thermometer set up in the webcams field of view. As our rig is too old, in a cost effective way, to set up an auto gen start, we must hope for the best with regard to campground electricity and keep an eye on things. This year we will be places with poor cell service (at least as far as data is concerned). For instance at Carlsbad, NM and Williams, AZ, we will leave for the day and must either put our old dog in a kennel (which will freak her out) or leave her in the MH and keep our fingers crossed. We LOVE our dog and are very uncomfortable with this. We'd like to know how other people deal with this. A lot of RV owners have pets and obviously leave them in the MH while out on excursions. I know without A/C the inside of our rig here in FL gets very hot very quickly. As we've only stayed at a few campgrounds last year (without incident), I'd like to know from long-time RV'ers how reliable they've found camground power. Have you ever experienced prolonged power outages in a park? Any info or suggestions appreciated.
Dwayne. We love our pooch, too. We leave her, regularly, in the coach, usually in a kennel, with the air conditioning, (or heat, if appropriate) on. We have a small window sign from CW, "dog on board, please rescue". She is quite content with this arrangement for as long as we have tested, about 4-5 hours.
There are no guaranties in this life, I guess. If the campground power goes out, so be it. I suspect that if the shore power looked "iffy" we would make other plans, like taking her with us.
We have left our two Shih Tzu's in the coach for long periods if we have dependable AC power. Never if no AC. they do well and in most cases we tell a neighbor that the dogs are there and if they disturb anyone give us a call and then we leave a cell #. No problems in almost 20 years of travel.
We leave the two birds and the cat for 5-6 hours max, as long as there is reliable power. The birds are happier in warm weather than cold.
When they get tired, they start screaming...
Thanks. I'll bet the cat stays entertained for those 5-6 hours, Dave. If anyone is interested, I recently switched to an i-phone and with the app they have called i-cam, you also install it on your windows computer (with an internet connection), it is a very easy set-up for having a webcam that you can quickly and easily view on your i-phone without passwords and user names (once it is set-up). I start the app on the computer and hit one button on the i-phone and I'm watching the computer's webcam instantly. The arrangement last year was very difficult and complicated. The i-cam app is a walk in the park.
The cat detests the birds and is ALWAYS moving into the other room to
get away from them.
Dwayne wrote:
It would take a cat with real big b----s to go up against Dave's bird, if we had a flock of those birds in some rag head country we could pull out our troops real soon. VBG :))
I take it that there is some reason not to take your dog with you. I would suggest that before you leave for the day you do two things, first check with some other campers who have been there a while to see if they have experienced any power failures, and two, see if the campground personnel would be willing to remove the dog in case of an extended power failure. I would guess that the power being off for more than thirty minutes would be considered a point to rescue the dog. I worked for a large electronics company at the end of the power grid and in the summertime we would often experience brown/ blackouts but normally power was restored within ten minutes.
I am glad I have no pets to worry about. It is over 100 degrees here in Payson AZ.
We came back from hiking & the transfer switch was banging on & off for I dont know how long.
The Voltage went from 120 in the AM to 109 when everyone was using their A/c's just sucking the power.
Even my Hughes autoformer was no help.
Finally Started the Generator so I could keep the A/c going.
Wow am I worried now. It wouldn't do me any good to have an auto gen start anyway cause the power will not come on line with the A/C units on. I am having to gingerly add load to keep the power coming through while on generator. I will be ok where I have 3G internet on my iPhone and can look in on the dog at will but in Carlsbad NM I will not have 3G and will be risking it. I think I will contact the park and ask if they would be willing to rescue my dog in the event of a brownout.
Barry,
I surprised that your Hughes did not work. According their website a voltage of 109 should have been boosted 10% giving you 119 volts. May be the current draw with both ACs was just too much.
That was with the A/Cs off.
I was quite surprised myself.
It was too low for me to stay on shore power & risk damage to A/Cs.
The A/Cs could not give adequate cooling with voltage that low.
How are you able to "stay on shorepower and risk the A/C?" When the voltage drops on mine (at least when on generator such as when adding too much of a load too quickly and the generator boggs down too much), the ATS disconnects the power. Don't they all work this way?
As I've stayed in very few CG's, can others please relate the reliability of CG power.
We came back from hiking & the transfer switch was banging on & off for I dont know how long.
The Hi/Lo switch in the transfer switch is what shuts down the power.
Because of this intermittent on/off is why I did not want to stay on Shore Power & risk damage.
I will unplug too when the power is low. I will run the genset as well. We were at Foxboro at normandy farms and we had one hot day and the power went below 105. I just unplugged when the EMS shut off the power and ran the generator and fired up both AC units.
As to pets. I had the large cool o matic fan with a thermostat. I would set it for 80 degrees and turn on the AC to 72 degrees. I would leave open the little window in the front and the vents in the bathroom and put a dowel in the window track in the bedroom. The window was only cracked too but it was enough to draw in the air with that fan on high.... Let us go in peace. Now I have an 01 without a big fan so I had a thermostat installed on the magic fan and use it the same way. THe pups will be hot but they will live..