KOA Kampground of America not allowing EVs to charge at campsites

[jasondeno]

Hey All,

We’re currently camping at a KOA campground at Lookout Mountain, GA. Found out after we made our reservation and paid our non-refundable week of camping, that we couldn’t charge our car at our site.

We’ve been popup camping with a Model 3 and now Model y for a few of years with out any problem. We usually choose KOA because we know they have great sites and great power. We always get a 50amp RV site.

But the owner insisted our car will fry the campsite and sited this article at koa.com- Camping at KOA campgrounds with an electric vehicle (EV)

To me, it sounds like KOA simply isn’t up to electrical code. From my experience of putting in Level II charging at home, when you advertise a NEMA 14-50 jack, then that circuit should be built to handle that load. Which is how millions of folks have been charging at home for over a decade now.

We’d recommend calling the campsite before making your reservation and adjusting your travel plans accordingly.

Happy E-camping!

 

[JB47394]

To me, it sounds like KOA simply isn’t up to electrical code.

Going by what I've read in response to your post, I think it's not a question of code so much as the capacity that they set aside for a certain number of RVs on a circuit. Think of the difference between home charging on a house with 200 amp service versus 100 amp service. You can charge your Tesla at 48 amps on the 100 amp service, but if you run too many other devices in your house, you could pop the service breaker. If you have 200 amp service, the setup is far more forgiving of that constant 48 amp load. Well, assuming that you don't normally run 150+ amps of other stuff. Campgrounds went the 100 amp route because that's all a bunch of RVs needed - because they draw power intermittently.

That said, there are certainly older campgrounds that were built before current code requirements and/or haven't been maintained by the campground operators. The web even has examples of Disney campgrounds being poorly maintained, which is a big surprise to me.

Apparently some campgrounds are starting to install dedicated circuits for EV charging.

 

[STS-134]

To me, it sounds like KOA simply isn’t up to electrical code. From my experience of putting in Level II charging at home, when you advertise a NEMA 14-50 jack, then that circuit should be built to handle that load.

The circuit from the subpanel to the NEMA 14-50 must be built to handle a 50A load, and 40A of continuous load. But I think the subpanel itself need not be built to continuously handle 80% of the capacity of every NEMA 14-50 circuit on it, because a NEMA 14-50 circuit itself is not a continuous load. If you have a NEMA 14-50 for cooking equipment, a NEMA 14-50 for an oven, and a NEMA 14-30 for a dryer, those do not count as 40A, 40A, and 24A of continuous load on the panel, and you're allowed to put all of that stuff on a 100A subpanel (if they all counted as continuous loads as per the 80% rule, you'd have 104A of continuous load and it wouldn't be allowed on a 100A panel).

So I don't think the issue is that the branch circuit can't handle it; it definitely can. The issue is that if everyone did this, the main breaker (or breaker to the subpanel) trips and multiple sites go offline until someone resets it.

 

[cpa]

As I wrote in the other thread on this topic, I have charged at campgrounds with 14-50 plugs. I always dial the amperage down in the car to 28 or less. This has always been more than satisfactory to reach 90% by dawn.

The second point that I would argue is that how much electricity is being used in their parks at 2AM? People are supposed to be quiet and asleep.

 

[DP26]

Many campgrounds (especially older, pre big rvs) have limited transformer power, even for the campers. One near me gives a note asking to limit power use. They routinely go below 104v so an auto former is a must if staying there. I carry an auto former, but I try to stay at newer places as we need to have temp control (ac).

 

[iPlug]

KOA is a franchise business and as I understand it, local owners have some discretion about how things are operated. So this is probably related to technical electrical local issues noted above and/or owner discretion.

We have stayed at KOA a couple times at Mount Lassen in Northern California and had no charging problems there. We stayed at a KOA cabin both times and charged at one of the dedicated Tesla destination charging units and also plugged into our cabin overnight on a wall outlet when the destination charging units had other waiting customers.

Although we did not use the numerous NEMA 14-50s, the last time we were there in 2020 I asked if we could use one of those at the camp sites right next to us. Owner said this is allowed, but because they had no vacancies, only those who rented the individual RV/tent camping sites themselves could use them.

Not sure if policies have changed there in the last 3 years since our last visit, but looking at some reviews since - this is possible.

 

[jasondeno]

As I wrote in the other thread on this topic, I have charged at campgrounds with 14-50 plugs. I always dial the amperage down in the car to 28 or less. This has always been more than satisfactory to reach 90% by dawn.

The second point that I would argue is that how much electricity is being used in their parks at 2AM? People are supposed to be quiet and asleep.

That’s what I was trying to explain to them as well. That I could use the heftier wiring for 50amp, but dial it down to 20 or even 12 amps. They did offer to allow me to charge at Level I. But would have to unplug our popup during that time. Which, at that rate, is pretty much the entire time.

 

[jasondeno]

KOA is a franchise business and as I understand it, local owners have some discretion about how things are operated. So this is probably related to technical electrical local issues noted above and/or owner discretion.

We have stayed at KOA a couple times at Mount Lassen in Northern California and had no charging problems there. We stayed at a KOA cabin both times and charged at one of the dedicated Tesla destination charging units and also plugged into our cabin overnight on a wall outlet when the destination charging units had other waiting customers.

Although we did not use the numerous NEMA 14-50s, the last time we were there in 2020 I asked if we could use one of those at the camp sites right next to us. Owner said this is allowed, but because they had no vacancies, only those who rented the individual RV/tent camping sites themselves could use them.

Not sure if policies have changed there in the last 3 years since our last visit, but looking at some reviews since - this is possible.

This is a first for us too and seems like a blanket policy. But it might be fine for some camp sites if you call them before you make your reservation.