Timing is everything........(w/pictures)

[Glenn and Lorraine]

As did a lot of the east coast we had a horrendous storm pass directly thru Saratoga County and the Saratoga RV Park on Monday afternoon. The storm had it all; thunder, lightning, torrential rains and pounding hail the size of a quarter. Actually the sites that Sandy and Frank (Newbies) and Lois and Stewart (Potvin) had used became a lake. The motor home that pulled into Lois and Stewart's site was completely sourronded by water.
BUT the worst part of the storm was the wind and Tiffany and Ed (Kozzy54) can be very glad they had to leave and couldn't stay over Monday night. The following pictures are the site that Tiffany and Ed had occupied.

[FredG]

Wow! Talk about timing! We left Monday morning and the storm tracked South of where we were traveling, so we lucked out.

Fred

[CountryGuy]

GULP!

Love trees, don't love em when a storm with winds come up. Have seen some nasty damage in our years of camping and rving. One time a tornado came through where we were, sent a limb right through the boys pup tent, luckily, we had them OUT of the tent before the storm hit. We were all in our pop up, and for the life of me, I cannot figure why I thought we would be safe there. We got real lucky, nothing came down on us. Campsite just a few down, tree through the tent, the bed of his brand new pick up truck, totaled ALL his brand new camping gear. He was also very lucky, he had removed his entire family (small children) to the block bath house!

I ask now, if the weather is getting snarly, what is your emergency plan. Some campground owners don't like that, but, I don't care! If they won't tell you (had that happen, would not tell us until the reports were that the tornado was less than 5 miles from us, which meant it probably was about 1 mile from us), I search out the buildings, concrete block bathhouses are our preferred choice. Proactive pre-planning when possible.

Nope, don't like wind. SIGH

Carol

[steves]

We were lucky as we got home about 20 minutes before the storm hit our area. No problems but had a lot wind and lightening. About 8 miles from me someone was struck by the lightening....it was a dangerous storm.

Steve

[Bowie]

Glad that Ed and Tiffany were home and that no one else had occupied the site!! That was a really nasty storm. Our Air Force SIL called about 10:30 that morning to let us know that his weather reports showed especially dangerous storms with tornado potential headed our way. Pat was at our campground--she notified the owner and they drove round warning folks who were there of the storm. Pat,the camp owners, several other residents and Bailey rode out the storm in the basement of the owners home. Having already had tornado experiences, Pat was happy to be down there. Heavy wind flipped a number of awnings over trailer tops, knocked over storage sheds and blew chairs and other unsecured stuff about. Lots of thick hail. Our Monty did fine with the slides in and awning rolled. No injuries and no trees down.

[Montana_2785]

WOW!

That could ruin your whole day....

Guess it wouldn't hurt to look over the trees I park next to during spring storm season.

Eric

[uhftx]

Marge is one of the campground owners. She did make a point to notify us that there was a tornado warning in effect for our area. And recommended to secure our site. It was nice to know she made the effort to notify campers.

We were so thankful no one was at that site, and no one got hurt.

It pays to keep an eye on the weather forcast and have a contigency plan for emergencies. Witnessing this storm will make me more aware of the weather and my future site selections.

I think I'll develop a plan to disconnect everything quick and head for a shopping center with a big parking lot and let the building block some of the wind.

I couldn't imagine driving through all that hail and wind.

In fact there was another montana owner who pulled in about an hour or so before the storm hit. Marge let him know he just missed the rally. He was on I87 heading home (about 2 hrs away in NY). He said the winds were so bad he didn't feel comfortable towing. We lost power at the campground. After the storm passed and with no power at the CG he packed up and headed out figuring he may have power at home.

Around 11:30pm my propane alarm started beeping. I had experienced this with my last travel trailer. When the voltage in the battery gets low the detector goes into alarm mode. I had a 12vdc cooler plugged in which draws 8A/hr that I didn't remember to disconnect when we lost power. The DC lights in the montana were getting dimmer so I automatically knew what was up.

I first hooked up the trailer connector to the truck. But this is on a relay for the 12V charge circuit. So I ran the engine for a while. Which I'm sure didn't make Glenn and Lorraine very pleased with me and the people in the motorhome a few sites away. Just that dang alarm.
I ended up turning the truck around and just connecting the jumper cables to the trucks dual batteries for the remainder of the night.

Power was restored by 4:30am and Glenn and Lorraine had already departed by the time I was finally up and about.

So I owe you guys an apology for my noise after quiet hours.

Lessons learned.

My last truck trailer combo would drain both batteries if I left the plug for the trailer connected w/key off. I found this out the hard way.

That is not how this truck / trailer charging circuit works.

Disconnect any high current 12V devices when on battery. Stove light has the least current draw of all the lights (one bulb). Turn off all other 12V lighting except when needed.

Last trailer had switches on lamps for one bulb or two, but the monty is either both on or both off.
Think about LED replacement bulbs.

Do I dare say this "remove power for propane detector to silence the alarm in a low voltage condition. This is NOT in the best interest of safety so I guess thats only a last resort with the windows open and no one sleeping on the pull out sofa. Propane is heavier than air and at least the bedroom is up hill.

[CountryGuy]

GREAT POST CHRIS!! Lots of great ideas and information!