Surge guards

[Skipper Tom]

Recently while on our shake down cruise, a fellow RV'er told me that I needed to get a surge guard to protect us when plugging into shore power.

My question is: is this fact? If so, how fobi find the best one for the best price?

[vsheetz]

Progressive Industries is very popular vendor. They make both surge protectors and more advanced units that also protect against miss-wired RV park power pedestal, over and under voltage or frequency, delayed start to protect air conditioning, etc. The more advanced unit is highly recommended. Available in permanent and portable units - 30 or 50 amp.

I have 30 amp portable advanced unit - a great unit and protection.

A search here will find many threads discussing and describing.

[RV Wizard]

Check out RV Tech Library - Surge Protectors

and http://www.irv2.com/forums/f44/surge...ot-156408.html

I won't plug my coach in without one. I have seen many coaches with fried electronics from pluging into bad receptacles and power sources. There are many to choose from but I would recommend a 50 amp even if your coach only has a 30 amp source. Most if not all will work down in amperage and if you ever upgrade to a coach with 50 amp service, you will already have a Surge Guard you can transfer to the new coach. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Gary RVRoamer]

It's one of those things that is very good to have, in the sense that it protects you from external power problems. Like most protective devices, you might get along fine without it, especially if you only visit places with well-maintained power systems, but you only have to need it once to make it really, really worthwhile.

They are called surge protectors, but that is a relatively minor part of their function. If you get one, be sure it includes power monitoring, i.e. a check for proper wiring of the hot, neutral and ground wires on the receptacle and also for high and low voltage.

The top two brands for RVs are Progressive Industries and Surge Guard. They are available in portable models or hard-wired (permanent installation). You can buy the portable models online at discounters and simply plug it in, but they are expensive enough to be a target of theft. The hard-wired models have an installation cost (most are pretty simple to install) but no theft worries.

[RickO]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Great advice so far... don't plug in without one!

Best of luck.

Rick

[MSHappyCampers]

I too strongly urge you to get the Progressive Industries HW-50C electrical management system for complete protection of your RV! Cheapest insurance you can buy!

[GaryKD]

Hi Skipper Tom,
I use the Surge Guard Brand products. I have a surge guard and a voltage regulator. Basically the surge protector protects the coach from high and low voltages. The voltage regulator tries to maintain voltage within accepted tolerances.

[stearn]

Good advice. Progressive seems to have much better customer support! I would not recommend Surge Guard!! One year warranty after that you are on your own.

[Sweetbriar]

I've had mine a few days longer than I had the coach. Has yet to even come off the end of the power cord in three years. Cheap insurance to protect the 120VAC systems in the coach.

[Dakrism]

My neighbor and I installed the Progressive EMS 50 yesterday.It took about 1 1/2 hours total. We took our maiden voyage without the protection and I feel a lot better now after hearing many horror stories about low voltage and such.I hope I never have to use it but now I feel better about plugging into CG power pedestals.
We took the end of the power cord out of the transfer switch and hooked into the EMS 50 and used a jumper cable about 3 ft long to hook up back to the transfer switch.It seemed to be an easier install using the stranded wire of the #6/4 instead of cutting into the bigger power cord and also we didn't have to shorten the cord.The inside 6 wire is easier to work with and bend in that small space inside the surge protector