Something just for fun

Steve Collins · 10-10-2007, 01:14 PM

At the Adirondack M&G last weekend, one of our crew had a fun little item that I have been intending to make for a long time. Paul (pwb01) has a little section of 4x4 made up to look like a campground hookup post. He's got a water faucet, electric outlet, and a cable TV connection. (Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of it.) The whole idea is to set it up in a campground that doesn't have hookups, and then when someone asks about your hookups, you just tell them that you paid extra for the "special" site. Drives the "keep-up-with-the-Joneses" folks nuts, and the campground staff, too.

So, I got motivated to make up one of my own, and that's been my basement project for that last couple of days. I haven't got the cable TV and telephone connectors on it yet, but they're coming. I drilled a 1/2" hole in the base and drive a round stake in the ground to keep it upright.

Here it is:

My electric outlet actually works. It's hooked up to a 50' extension cord that would be plugged into our generator when dry camping. At home, it is used to plug the trailer into the house current. You can see the orange wire coming out the bottom of the conduit below the outlet. In camp, I just rake some pine needles around the base to hide that.

Paul, if you have a pic of your post, how about posting it? Yours looked so real standing in the fallen leaves.

Anybody else got one of these, or some other similar thing that you set-up in campgrounds just for fun?

partimcmpr · 10-10-2007, 01:35 PM

That is so funny. I think I may have to build one of those.

Thanks for sharing!

David

**PTHutch** · 10-10-2007, 01:55 PM

I had it in one of my pictures from the Fall M&G, so I cropped it and adjusted the color.
It's not the best picture; hopefully Paul has a better one.

mbart5fan · 10-10-2007, 07:39 PM

Here's one of Paul showing that it's a portable power/water/cable system.

Mike

emam · 10-10-2007, 11:45 PM

Oh Man, I gotta get me one of those!! That would be a hoot to have especially at all the Wal-Marts we stay at

Emagine the crap I could start when, like the last one we stayed in, there was 11 other RV's in the lot. If I set that up beside mine, I know everyone of them would be asking how I got full hook-ups!!

That's the best yet. You could even set it up beside a friends camper if you got to camp before them, and then once they hook up, they would be scratching their heads trying to figure out what they did wrong....LOL

Thanks for the great idea

Pat

Sun-n-Fun · 10-11-2007, 01:27 AM

Great one!!!!! Now all ya' need is a water & sewer hook up!!!!! to go with it!!!

Steve Collins · 10-11-2007, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun-n-Fun

Great one!!!!! Now all ya' need is a water & sewer hook up!!!!! to go with it!!!

There is a water faucet on my post and on Paul's. I just didn't connect a hose for the picture.

BTW, my faucet has a plug in the back so that water won't leak all over the place should the one-way valve in the water system begin to fail.

A sewer hookup would be very easy to dummy up, but I would urge great caution with that. One accidental pull on your grey or black water valves, and you've got a major mess on your hands.

And, I know that the campground staff in many parks where I might use something like this would be VERY upset (and possibly angry) about hooking up your sewer hose without connnecting the south end of it to one of those blue tanks.

Now, if you are talking about hanging an extra dummy connection on the trailer as well, it might work OK but I still think there'd be a confrontation with the park ranger. Since we camp in state parks quite a bit, the staff there have the authority to issue citations just like the police. And they really frown on dumping waste water any where except the dump station.

Sun-n-Fun · 10-11-2007, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Collins

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun-n-Fun

Great one!!!!! Now all ya' need is a water & sewer hook up!!!!! to go with it!!!

There is a water faucet on my post and on Paul's. I just didn't connect a hose for the picture.

BTW, my faucet has a plug in the back so that water won't leak all over the place should the one-way valve in the water system begin to fail.

A sewer hookup would be very easy to dummy up, but I would urge great caution with that. One accidental pull on your grey or black water valves, and you've got a major mess on your hands.

And, I know that the campground staff in many parks where I might use something like this would be VERY upset (and possibly angry) about hooking up your sewer hose without connnecting the south end of it to one of those blue tanks.

Now, if you are talking about hanging an extra dummy connection on the trailer as well, it might work OK but I still think there'd be a confrontation with the park ranger. Since we camp in state parks quite a bit, the staff there have the authority to issue citations just like the police. And they really frown on dumping waste water any where except the dump station.

I would also check with local electrical codes and make sure that the electric connection is the proper distance from the water connection.

pwb01 · 10-11-2007, 02:38 PM

I enjoy meeting new people and chatting and the utility post has done just that. Very few people walk by without saying something so it's a good conversation starter.

I do have some 4" PVC and caps but I thought if I made a fake sewer hookup, I'd spend a lot of time showing that it was in fact fake.

Steve, don't forget the telephone hookup. Might as well go for the works.