HitchList

How to Hook Up an RV at a Campsite (Beginner’s Guide)

Your first campground arrival has an audience — the neighbors with the string lights have seen a hundred first-timers — and a sequence. Get the order right and hookups take fifteen calm minutes. This guide covers the three utilities in the order you should connect them: power, water, sewer.

Before any of it: park, level side-to-side, chock the wheels, unhitch (if towing), level front-to-back, and drop the stabilizers. Utilities always come after the rig is stable — the full sequence lives in our campsite setup checklist.

Step 1: Electric — test before you trust

The pedestal at your site offers a 30-amp outlet, a 50-amp outlet, or both (often with a household 20-amp too). Your rig takes one of them; adapters bridge the rest. If you’re not sure which service your RV has, read our 30 amp vs 50 amp explainer.

  1. Test the pedestal first. Campground pedestals live outdoors and get rewired by whoever was available. A plug-in circuit tester or the diagnostics on a surge protector reveals open grounds, open neutrals and reversed polarity — faults that can make the RV’s metal skin live. Thirty seconds, every site, every time.
  2. Breaker off, then plug in. Flip the pedestal breaker off, connect your cord — through a surge protector or EMS — then flip it on. Plugging in "hot" arcs the contacts and pits them a little more each time.
  3. Verify inside. Panel voltage should read roughly 108–132V. Persistent readings below ~105V under load are dangerous for air conditioner compressors; an EMS with low-voltage cutoff protects you automatically.

Step 2: Water — regulate, then connect

  1. Pressure regulator on the spigot. Always — see the FAQ below for why. The regulator protects the hose too, which is why it goes at the source, not at the rig.
  2. Flush the spigot for a few seconds to clear grit before your hose touches it.
  3. Connect a potable-water hose (the white or blue ones) — never a garden hose — with an inline filter if you use one. Hand-tight plus a quarter turn; a rubber washer does the sealing, not your grip strength.
  4. Open slowly and check for drips. Then check again in fifteen minutes — slow drips at the spigot side are the ones that soak a site overnight.

With city water connected, leave your fresh-water pump off — the campground pressure does the work. And before anyone turns on the water heater: make sure it is full. An electric heating element fired in an empty tank dies instantly.

Step 3: Sewer — gloves on, valves closed

  1. Gloves. Keep a box of disposables in the wet bay, used for nothing else.
  2. Connect to the rig first, twist-lock the hose onto the RV’s outlet, then run it to the campground inlet — using the rubber donut or threaded fitting so the connection seals.
  3. Support the hose on a slinky-style support so it falls continuously toward the inlet. Flat spots hold what you least want held.
  4. Leave the black valve CLOSED. Dump it only when it’s about two-thirds full so there’s enough liquid to flush solids out — the full technique is in our tank dumping guide. The gray valve can stay closed too, so you always have rinse water available after a black dump.

The fifteen-minute rule

After everything is connected, take one slow lap: listen at the water connection, glance at the surge protector’s status lights, confirm nothing drips at the sewer fittings. Most hookup problems announce themselves in the first fifteen minutes — catching them then is the difference between a two-minute fix and a wet morning.

Ready for the reverse procedure? The departure checklist walks the whole breakdown in order, including the dump-and-stow routine.

Frequently asked questions

What do "full hookups" mean at a campground?

A full-hookup site provides all three utilities at your parking spot: electrical service (30 or 50 amp), potable water, and a sewer connection. Partial hookups usually mean water and electric only — you use the campground dump station on the way out. Dry camping or "no hookups" means you run from your tanks and batteries.

Which do you hook up first, water or electric?

Electric first, water second, sewer last — but only after the rig is positioned, leveled and chocked. Power comes first because you want the fridge and systems running while you finish; sewer comes last because you handle it with gloves after the clean utilities are done.

Can I plug my RV into a regular house outlet?

Yes, with a 30A-to-15A (or 50A-to-15A) adapter — but a 15/20 amp household circuit powers only the basics: lights, fridge, converter and outlets. Air conditioning will trip the breaker on most circuits. Use a heavy-gauge (10 or 12 AWG) extension cord as short as possible, and never a light-duty indoor cord.

Do I need to use a water pressure regulator every time?

Yes. Campground water pressure is unpredictable — fine at 45 PSI at check-in, spiking past 100 PSI overnight when demand drops. RV plumbing and fittings are typically rated around 40–60 PSI, and one pressure spike can burst a line inside a wall. A $10–$40 regulator at the spigot removes the risk entirely.