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Originally Posted by Mikendebbie
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I started traveling in RVs with my folks when I was a kid in the late 60's. Never once worried about plugging in to the campground pedestal. I suppose ignorance was bliss. Same goes for our Coleman pop-up when we started traveling with our kids in the early 90's. ...
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Your life style experience is similar to mine. My parents purchased a brand new 1963 Phoenix Travel trailer pulled with a Pontiac station wagon. I was 8 years old when they brought the camper home.
As I remember, all it took was a heavy construction style extension cord plugged into a 15-20 amp plug (and then, they weren't even grounded back then). But then, the only things that ran off electricity in the camper were the outlets and the lights on the side of the wall. There were no electronics in that camper, no computerized devices, no electronic games, no "smart" televisions or microwaves, or anything that even remotely required charging with a USB plug.
It was very simple then and if there were power fluxes in the electric grid it almost always affected nothing. Even the radio my parents drug along still had vacuum tubes in it as transistors weren't even invented yet. Electric coffee pots was pretty much non existent, at at most, we had an electric toaster. Cooking was done on the the gas stove, no electric appliances, and the camper had NO air conditioner. It was simple.
It wasn't until popular demand insisted on RV's and campers to have all the modern devices that one uses in their stick n brick homes. Luxury became more demanding. Convenience became more demanding. All of that meant installing more and more sophisticated equipment that demanded the latest and greatest electronic technology. All of these devices we use today are much more sensitive to power fluxes, surges, low voltage, and any number of electric power issues.
Not to mention, the cost to replace any one of these devices in an RV can end up being a very costly endeavor. The price of a good EMS is far, far cheaper than the cost of the computer system for your Key TV, the air conditioners on the roof, or the electronics that control the jacks on your camper, that all depend on your converter.
That is the difference between yesterdays campers and lifestyle and todays campers and lifestyle.
For what it's worth, we had a pop-up for 6 years. It plugged into a 20 amp outlet with no issues. It didn't even have an air conditioner, no electric water pump, no microwave, no water heater, not even a toilet, ... nothing, except outlets for a coffee pot and a toaster. Lights ran off the battery. It did have a converter, that if left on boiled the battery.
Times have changes, and things have gone astronomical expensive. EMS ... cheap protection when you REALLY think about it!