Perry Mack
Far from a DIY project - there will be trenches required for the installation.
Words and photos by Perry Mack
If you commonly plug into an RV pedestal at a full-service campground, you clearly understand all of their benefits. They offer lots of power, convenient cable/internet and city water with good pressure, eliminating the need to use the water pump. Then you go home, often parking in the driveway, plugging into an outside 15-amp outlet, using the garden hose to fill the water tank and wishing your WiFi was strong enough to get a connection in the RV.
It’s too bad because a functional trailer or motorhome at your residence can be a great place for guests to stay in while visiting, extra office space, and they even serve as a comfortable dog house when the mouth of your significant other gets ahead of their brain. If your local bylaws allow it, you can also rent it out as an Airbnb to make some extra cash.
Perry Mack
The unit comes pre-wired for the breakers and receptacles but you’ll need to hire a qualified electrician to make the connections.
However, the services are not as good as they are at an RV park where you have 30-/50-amp power to run appliances like an air conditioner, heater, toaster oven and coffee maker simultaneously. Although water via the water pump is great while boondocking, being connected to city water and having strong pressure is really living the high life on the road.
My wife and I ended up full-time RVing while waiting for our new house to be built. Our previous home was sold, and numerous COVID-19-related planning department and construction delays left us homeless, except for our Montana High Country 305RL fifth wheel and Outdoors RV Black Rock 22RKS travel trailer.
While our plan is to live in the fifth wheel until our house is ready, it was the perfect opportunity to fulfill our lifelong dream of owning an RV pedestal. Perhaps a lifelong dream is a slight exaggeration but if you’ve ever used your RV at home, you will appreciate all of the benefits of a pedestal that delivers proper power, water and good, reliable WiFi.
Perry Mack
The pedestal now provides three of the four RV life essentials – power, water, and internet.
We’ll be upfront and say this isn’t a DIY or inexpensive proposition as there is extensive excavation and utility work to be performed. Depending on where you live, you’ll likely need to have some permits and hire a certified electrician. Some of you will say that you still can’t dump the tanks in the driveway. Well, that’s not entirely accurate since the friendly folks who empty septic tanks and port-a-potties are fully capable of handling this for you.
With the preliminary obstacles out of the way, we contacted Ace Manufacturing Metals Ltd. to install an RV pedestal as they are one of the professionals that supply them to RV parks. Ours is a Parkside Series Pedestal model, which can be buried directly in the ground or mounted to a base plate and bolted to a pad.
This model allowed us to customize our connections so we requested 30-/50- amp receptacles, a standard (household) 15-amp receptacle, CAT-5 data jack (internet connection) and hose bib. We went with both 30- and 50-amp power as you never know what type of RV you’ll own down the road. The 15-amp circuits allow us to connect hose heaters to keep water flowing through the sub-zero temperatures in the winter and offer outdoor power all year.
It isn’t a project for everyone, but it is worth a little research to see if it is available to you.
Ace Manufacturing Metals Inc. https://acemfg.com/products/