Community Forums

mak1 · 11-10-2012, 12:44 PM

I want to purchase a protecter for our MH but dislike, because of health, dragging out the 50 amp line for hook up. I now use a 30 amp line adapted to the 50. Is there a reason I need to buy a 50 when a 30 is adaquate? There has only been a few times when I needed more amps, but survived, with one AC (in Corning, Ca. 117d). I guess my real question is: It's not the cost as much as the convience for me to run the 30 line to the post. Is the 30 protecter ok for that or is there more to this whole thing. I am only considering the protecter because of what I have been reading. Never had a problem in 45 years of RVing, but never had a sophiticated, electronic unit before.

BFlinn181 · 11-10-2012, 01:33 PM

If you are talking about a portable unit, then go ahead with the 30 amp if you are sure you aren't going to overpower it. You could of course use a portable 50 amp on the end of the stowed 50 amp cord, attach your 30 amp adaptor and cord to the end of the portable EMS and plug it in. The portable EMS would then stay 'safe' in you locked power bay with only the 30 amp cord hanging out. If you are talking about a built-in, I'd go with the 50 amp to be safe and valuable to the next owner.
I've not had that much issue 'wrasslin' the 50 amp cord except in cold weather when it gets a bit stiff. Other than that, I just am patient to pay attention to twisting on looping it back in storage. If you don't pay attention to the 'lay' of the cord, you can end up getting tired trying to fight it. Same used to go with coiling lines on a boat, just pay attention to the lay of the line or cord. (or even garden hose)

Mike Canter · 11-10-2012, 01:59 PM

Make sure what ever surge protector you buy has protection for loosing neutral in the campground supply. If you lose neutral than all your appliances see 220 volts for a fraction of a second before they fry.

Dutch Star Don · 11-10-2012, 02:26 PM

I think you would be wasting time and money to put a 30 amp Surge protector on a 50 amp coach. There are going to be times when you'll want to use your 50 amps (hot weather) and you'll lose the abillity to use the Surge Protector that you paid good money for.

Purchase a permanent mount 50 amp protector and have it installed in your power bay. This way, you can run the 30 amp cord like you've been doing without any changes, but still have 50 amp protection when needed.

danes-on-tour · 11-10-2012, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diplomat Don

I think you would be wasting time and money to put a 30 amp Surge protector on a 50 amp coach. There are going to be times when you'll want to use your 50 amps (hot weather) and you'll lose the abillity to use the Surge Protector that you paid good money for.

Purchase a permanent mount 50 amp protector and have it installed in your power bay. This way, you can run the 30 amp cord like you've been doing without any changes, but still have 50 amp protection when needed.

I hate it when he is right, but he is

From a re-selling purpose it would not be good move to install other than a 50 amp protector.

deSanford · 11-10-2012, 05:13 PM

All you need along with the 50amp protector is a electric power reel for the "heavy" cord. I have installed both. deSanford

mak1 · 11-11-2012, 12:58 AM

Thank you all for saying what I figured you would. I'm not very interested in the resale reason but the rest are good ideas. We try our best to stay out of hot weather and move along in the 70-80 zones. Might want to head down to Florida sometime so the 50 would be essential there...

Dutch Star Don · 11-11-2012, 12:40 PM

mak1......I have the Surge Guard model and it has worked well. If I were to do it again, I would buy the Progressive Industries model....it has more features and a cool display.

Installation is relatively straight forward. I like the permanent mount so that there are no theft issues. You can buy the 3'-4' of 50 amp power cord you need from Home Depot to do the install.

Your power cord runs into a large black box (transfer switch) in your electrical bay. Remove the cover and disconnect the four leads. Those four leads get connected to the new surge protector (power in) and then take your section of 50 amp cord from Home Depot and connect it to the surge protector (power out) and then connect the other end back to your transfer switch. Mount the surge protector in the box and your done. The only difficult part is wrestling with the cord while screwing down the connections. You really need to make sure all the connections are TIGHT.

Buy installing it this way, you're only protecting your coach from the shore power. It can be wired differently to protect both the generator and shore power, but I trust my generator to provide the correct power, where I don't trust the shore power connections.

Some people wire in a couple of large 50 amp receptacles so they can unplug/plug in the shore power cord back to stock in case the surge protector quits. My Surge Guard has a bypass if that happens, so I didn't worry about the receptacles.

Side Note: There were a few years where they recalled the IOTA transfer switch because of failures. Your year coach is not included in that recall, but your transfer swicth is old if it's the original one. They now make a combination transfer switch and surge protector that they use in the new coaches.

trabuco · 11-11-2012, 02:56 PM

I have the progessive industries EMS-HW50C with remote readout. This is the hard wired unit so once it's in you never mess with it again. It's tied to a power cord real so wrangling the 50 amp cord is no issue.

On a recent trip through Eureka, CA we stopped at a KOA and our EMS got a real work out. In the first 2 hours we were plugged in the progessive unit shut down power 3 times. Once the unit determined power was OK it would return power to the coach. The error code was was E-4 which was a line 1 voltage drop below 104 volts.

It's already payed for itself our 3 night out!