Do KOA campgrounds allow EV charging?

As a rule, no. KOA prohibits charging an electric vehicle from the campsite pedestal company-wide and enforces it, with language like "strictly prohibited," "subject to damages," and "evicted without refund." Individual locations can differ (Boulevard KOA welcomed us), and KOA is beginning to add dedicated EV chargers at some parks, but assume a KOA pedestal is off limits unless it says otherwise.

Is it safe to charge an EV from a 50-amp RV pedestal?

Electrically, yes, within limits. A 50-amp pedestal delivers about 9.6 kW at 40 amps, which is less than a fully loaded RV running two air conditioners and a water heater already pulls. Dial the current down to 19 amps and you can run the camper air conditioning at the same time. The real caution is the park total electrical service, not the single pedestal, which is why responsible charging (a posted amperage cap, off-peak timing) matters.

Will I get fined for charging my EV at an RV park?

You can be. Some parks fine from $30 to $500 for unauthorized pedestal charging, and some will direct you to unplug or evict you without a refund. Ask at check-in and get a yes before you plug in; never assume a 50-amp hookup means permission.

EV towing · campground policy

Can you charge an EV at a campground?

Q: Can you charge an EV at a campground?

Sometimes, but you must confirm the park's rule first: capability is not permission. Across a survey of hundreds of RV parks only about 15% openly allow charging from the site pedestal, and close to 40% forbid it. On our own 6,000-mile trip we were allowed to charge at 15 of 19 campgrounds, 3 prohibited it, and 1 had no hookups.

Pull into an RV park with an electric truck and the first question is not where the pool is. It is whether you are allowed to plug the truck into your own site pedestal overnight. You would think a 50-amp full-hookup site, built to run two air conditioners and an electric water heater, could spare a few amps for a truck. Often it can. Often you are still told no.

By the Wattreach crew, from 6,000 miles of towing a Rivian and an Airstream. Every verdict below is our own stay, logged on the campground reviews.

The white Rivian R1T and silver Airstream parked at a Colorado campsite at golden hour, plugged in for the night with the awning out — Lyons, Colorado Plugged in for the night at camp. When a park lets you do this, the truck fills up while you sleep and the whole trip relaxes.

The receipts

What we actually found, park by park

We stayed at 19 campgrounds we can name on our San Diego to Chicago loop. We were allowed to charge at 15. 3 said no. 1 had no hookups at all.

That 15-of-19 is better than the national picture. Across a survey of hundreds of RV parks, only about 15% openly allow charging from the pedestal, and close to 40% forbid it outright, some with fines from $30 to $500. Capability is not permission, and a 50-amp hookup is not a yes.

15 let us charge

Boulevard KOA / Cleveland National Forest Boulevard, CA
American RV Resort Albuquerque, NM
Mingo RV Park Tulsa, OK
Indian Point Campground (USACE) Branson, MO
Kamp Komfort RV Park & Campground Carlock, IL
LaVern M. Johnson Park Lyons, CO
Clear Creek RV Park Golden, CO
Sun Outdoors Moab Downtown Moab, UT
Thousand Lakes RV Park Torrey, UT
Ruby's Inn RV Park & Campground Bryce Canyon City, UT
Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort Las Vegas, NV
Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay Chula Vista, CA
Sweetwater Summit Regional Park Bonita, CA
Pala Casino RV Resort Pala, CA
Rancho Los Coches RV Park Lakeside, CA

3 said no

Holbrook / Petrified Forest KOA Journey Holbrook, AZ
Amarillo KOA Journey Amarillo, TX
Rockwell RV Resort Oklahoma City, OK

Plus Zion South Campground (inside the park): no hookups, so we arrived charged.

The blanket ban

The KOA problem

The most consistent no comes from KOA, and the reason it gives does not hold up.

KOA prohibits pedestal EV charging company-wide and enforces it: the language runs to "strictly prohibited," "subject to damages," and "evicted without refund." Amarillo KOA spells out "NO type of EV charging in the park or at the pedestals" right on its own site.

The stated reason is that campground pedestals were built for the non-continuous loads of an RV, not the steady draw of a charging car. It sounds technical. It does not survive contact with how an RV actually uses power. A 50-amp RV running two air conditioners, a water heater, and a microwave is a heavy, sustained load, the exact thing the pedestal is rated for. An electric truck dialed to 40 amps, or to 19 amps so the camper air conditioning runs at the same time, draws less than a busy RV on a hot afternoon. The wire does not know whether the electrons are cooling a fridge or filling a battery.

The real constraint is the park's total service: a hundred sites all charging cars at once could overwhelm the transformer. That is a genuine limit, and it is solved the way every shared resource is solved, with management. A posted amperage cap. Off-peak charging. A per-night charging fee. A few dedicated stalls. A blanket ban is not the only tool. It is the laziest one, and it leaves money on the table.

The case

EV towers are exactly the campers parks want

Banning EV charging turns away one of the best customers coming through the gate.

We book. Range planning means we reserve ahead and we show up. We are not the walk-up who might or might not appear.
We stay put and spend. An overnight charge means the truck is parked and so are we, at the camp store, the restaurant, the extra night.
We are quiet. The truck is the generator, silent. No two-stroke drone at the next site at 7am. Parks spend real effort policing generator noise; we bring none.
We pay up. We book the 50-amp premium sites because we need them, not the cheap seats.
We are growing, and we talk. Electric-truck towing is early, so the people doing it now are enthusiasts who write reviews, run channels, and tell every other camper which parks welcomed them and which turned them away.

Welcome us and we come back and bring the group. Turn us away and, well, you are reading the reason we drove past the next KOA.

Where the money goes

The parks that say yes get our repeat business

The parks that get it are already winning it back. Boulevard KOA, a rare exception to its own chain's rule, let us charge and could not have been nicer about it; it is our shakedown base every trip now. Sun Outdoors, Pala Casino, and the county parks around San Diego all said yes without a fuss, and all of them will see us again. That is the argument in one sentence: the parks that let us plug in are the ones we come back to.

So we vote with the rig. We route around parks that prohibit charging when we can, we favor the ones that welcome it, and we tell you which is which on every review. It is the first rule we check now, and the first thing we log.