Just returned from Puerto Penasco

[kalynzoo]

Returned home today after a week at Puerto Penasco and a few days in Tombstone. Great trip, the road from Lukeville to Puerto Penasco is indeed a "No Hassle" zone. Mexican border inspection was cursory, with a very young man with weak English asking politely to inspect the interior. Took all of one minute. We stayed at The Reef.
WARNING: as much as I enjoyed The Reef, large sites, level, friendly, we had a problem with the electricity. The voltage at the post is 137volts on each leg. This may be universal in the town. The result was the Transfer switch/surge guard in the Tiffin would not accept any shore power. Could not use 50amp, 30amp or 15amp. Our friends had no problem. Other people in the park said they bypassed the transfer switch or jammed the transfer circuit closed. I was not so brave. We camped with our generator in use part of the day and on battery in the evening. Later in the week we used our emergency battery hot charger to keep the batteries charged without the generator. Anyway, it worked and we had a great time. Weather was a bit windy and cool, I think next year we will try to late March or April.
Mexico is lovely. The people are all friendly. There were no Pemex protests, there was no discussion of border closers or walls. Everyone accepted US dollars, or credit cards. We had dinner one night at The Wreck at the Reef. Excellent, not cheap, but well worth the fare. Happy Trails.

[Talleyho69]

We opted not to hard wire ours in. It rides in a plastic bin, and when we need it (like right now) we put the bin on the power post or ground and plug into it and plug it in.

They come with directions for hardwiring them into a house. However, if you go to their website, and call them, you can buy a unit that is designed for RV's. We didn't go that route because it was extremely heavy. Because we didn't hardwire ours in, we bought a 30 amp RV cord, cut it and wired each end in as input and output.

[Alison_and_Neil]

We missed getting to Mexico last year. We have a new to us RV with 50 amp and are heading down this Winter
I will buy the Sola Basic 4000.....how do you wire the unit?........hard wire or portable?Would like the option to disconnect as is only 40 amp service
Interested in your responses from those who have them

Neil

[Canadian_Rainbi]

Last year I bought an Ecowise EW50/1 which is a electronic voltage stabiliser for a lot more money but it DOES NOT manage under voltage. This can also be a problem in Mexico.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

garyemunson wrote:
hbill... I think you will find $138 IS the shipping. About 3K for those things...

I paid 3,500 PESOS. In Mexico, $ signifies Pesos. If US Dollars are quoted it will be specified as USD.

Bought one a few weeks ago in Zihuatanejo. Ordered through a local Electronic store (Elecronic Mitron), it arrived in less than a week.

The Sola Basic 4000 is a 4000 Watt unit. They also make an 8000 Watt unit.

Note that the wiring is NOT Canada-US standard; there is no provision for an earth ground (though there is one inside the unit that grounds the circuit board to the chassis). The enclosed wiring diagram shows ONLY hot in, hot out and combined neutral. You need to be relatively comfortable with 120VAC wiring to install this. I used 30A Pigtails on 8-3 cables for in and out. Won't fit though the small hole provided without stripping off all the outer cable.

[Galvanizd]

kalynzoo ,

What did management at the park say could be done about the high voltage?

[Talleyho69]

Just bought one for a neighbor here in Mexico, 3,000p

There have been several long threads about this unit-search for it.

[mexicoruss]

OP I am glad you had fun and a good trip to our little beach town.

[peterth]

I picked one up in Guadalajara for a fellow rv,er earlier this year the price was 2,900.00 pesos

[garyemunson]

hbill... I think you will find $138 IS the shipping. About 3K for those things...

[hbillsmith]

I find it online from a Mexico source for $138_US plus shipping.

[peterth]

We live in Mexico with our coach and have seen voltages any where from 97 to 147. So to correct this we installed a Sola Basic 4000 unit which is a voltage regulator available in Mexico which brings voltages up or down as needed. No more surge guard popping on and off. We have used it going on 4 years, wouldn't be with out it.

[DancinCampers]

Thanks for the update. We are heading there on 21 Feb for 2 weeks, and we have a SurgeGuard installed. I am not sure I would want to bypass it. May just bring my Honda 2000 with me.