b'Electric vehicle chargers, like the one shown here, arent verypopular items for campground owners yet, but electricalequipment suppliers are keeping tabs on current trends asowners look to keep up with customer demands. BY BEN QUIGGLEElectrical Equipment Suppliers Weather theCOVID Storm, Look Forward to a Busy 2021L ike most suppliers to RV parks and camp-For Keego Harbor, Mich.-based tiously so that they dont overextend themselves at thegrounds,electricalequipmentvendors B&B Electrical, 2020 was the busiest moment. There is also a lot of red tape associated withsawadipinsalesduringtheinitial year the company has ever experi- expanding for many park owners, and that is takingCOVID-19 shutdowns, but then quickly enced,accordingtoownerTerry some time as well.rebounded as the summer progressed.Linnell.Maggie Linnell, owner of Lake Orion, Mich.-basedFueledbyanin-I think we purchased the busi- Your Electrical Solutions(YES), said many of the parkscrease in developments, expansions ness in 2009 and so this is the best she worked with reported a busierandmore,electricalequipment year we have had since then, she than normal summer and that invendorshaveremainedbusyin explained. Weve had a little bit of Terry Linnell turn reflected in the companys bot-2020.freight issues just because I think the freight industry tom line.April was scary, noted Wade El- in general has been so overwhelmed with COVID andMany park owners I spoke withliott, founder and owner of Kingston, then with the tragic forest fires and hurricanes. This said that they were filling up withWash.-based Utility Supply Group summer was a little sketchy getting everything to all of newpeoplethathadneverbeen(USG). We didnt know what was our customers, but we did. RVing before, she said. They weregoingtohappen,butafterApril Wade ElliottI think we are seeing parks expanding, continued putting people in spots they didnt Maggie Linnellthings picked up and we are actually ahead of 2019. Terry Linnell, but we are seeing them expanding cau- even know existed. Maggie Linnell said that as ownerstransitioned into the fall and wintermonths, she noticed that park ownersare working to expand. The biggest problem we have had isgetting the product to customers, sheexplained. One of our suppliers, Mil-bank, was having trouble getting partsbecauseoneofitssupplierswasntconsidered an essential business. Nowthat the parts are coming in, its a littlequicker to get more product, which isa good thing because its speeding upa little bit.LisaSenior,generalmanagerofHialeah,Fla.-basedHialeahMeter,said that her company is weathering2020andthatsheexpects business toincrease in the newyear. We are still see-inginterestinourmeters as park own-ers continue to up-grade and expand,she explained.Lisa SeniorWoodallsCampgroundManage-ment (WCM) spoke with a number ofkey electrical equipment suppliers inthe RV park and campground sectors.Below is the information we gatheredon some of the products they are offer-ing in 2021.22 -January 2021Woodalls Campground Management'