Hughes autoformer watch dog.

[patrickemb]

Last year my old transfer switch with surge protector had to be replaced. I couldn't get a replacement. Had to get the transfer switch and install a separate surge protector. I went with the Hughes hard wired watch dog. My question and problem is when I have all 3 a/c units running and both electric heating elements on my Oasis are heating the water I get an error on the watch dog which stops the power coming into the coach. This never happened with the old setup. I have a good idea that with everything running at once, I am at the top and a little over the 50 amp range. Has anyone else had this problem and found a fix or work around. I have to run the Oasis on the diesel burner all the time when the electric elements would be sufficient in the summer. The code on the watch dog is E3 which is over amps.

[shootist]

If you have blue tooth watch the amperage being drawn on your phone and see if you have three of the four on the same leg. If no blue tooth you’ll have to put a clamp on amp meter on the legs individually in your breaker box or maybe your coach can display the loads on each incoming leg

[macnut]

I wonder if the voltage is low on the pedestal, so amps drawn are higher than normal.

[patrickemb]

Originally Posted by shootist

If you have blue tooth watch the amperage being drawn on your phone and see if you have three of the four on the same leg. If no blue tooth you’ll have to put a clamp on amp meter on the legs individually in your breaker box or maybe your coach can display the loads on each incoming leg

I do have Bluetooth to monitor and have watched the amps. The amps do go slightly above 50 on each leg. 2 of the a/C's are on one leg while the other one and the Oasis elements are on the other leg. I don't think the park electric is the problem because it has happened at several different parks I've been in, unless they all have the same issue. I'm sure the watchdog is more sensitive than the old unit. Wondering if it's possible that the elements would draw more amps being old. My guess is they are the original ones and my coach is a 08.

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by patrickemb

I do have Bluetooth to monitor and have watched the amps. The amps do go slightly above 50 on each leg. 2 of the a/C's are on one leg while the other one and the Oasis elements are on the other leg. I don't think the park electric is the problem because it has happened at several different parks I've been in, unless they all have the same issue. I'm sure the watchdog is more sensitive than the old unit. Wondering if it's possible that the elements would draw more amps being old. My guess is they are the original ones and my coach is a 08.

50 amps per leg is the maximum you could expect, and will trip the breaker if this is continuous. The breaker is only expected to allow about 85% of maximum continuously without overheating.

If the ac compressors ever cycle on simultaneously, the startup current will greatly exceed the 50 amps limit, hopefully the thermostat prevents this from happening.

[rondi]

Originally Posted by patrickemb

I do have Bluetooth to monitor and have watched the amps. The amps do go slightly above 50 on each leg. 2 of the a/C's are on one leg while the other one and the Oasis elements are on the other leg.

iirc--the 50amp is made up of a 30amp leg and a 20amp leg---not 2 50 amp legs.

If you were to use a 50amp male to 30 amp female adapter you would be using the 30 amp leg, and the 20 leg is not used--as an example.

[Dutch Star Don]

Just an idea and not a resolution to your issue, but if it's hot enough to need all three AC units, you only need to run one Oasis element. We're in 95 degree weather and one element is making the shower water hotter than you can use when turned to full hot.

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by rondi

iirc--the 50amp is made up of a 30amp leg and a 20amp leg---not 2 50 amp legs.

If you were to use a 50amp male to 30 amp female adapter you would be using the 30 amp leg, and the 20 leg is not used--as an example.

I don’t believe this is true.

[macnut]

Originally Posted by pasdad1

I don’t believe this is true.

Yes, there are 2 50amp legs.

https://www.thervgeeks.com/50-amp-rv...s%20of%20power.

[patrickemb]

Originally Posted by rondi

iirc--the 50amp is made up of a 30amp leg and a 20amp leg---not 2 50 amp legs.

If you were to use a 50amp male to 30 amp female adapter you would be using the 30 amp leg, and the 20 leg is not used--as an example.

Yours might not be 50 amp legs but mine are definitely 50 amp legs.

[tnedator]

Originally Posted by patrickemb

Last year my old transfer switch with surge protector had to be replaced. I couldn't get a replacement. Had to get the transfer switch and install a separate surge protector. I went with the Hughes hard wired watch dog. My question and problem is when I have all 3 a/c units running and both electric heating elements on my Oasis are heating the water I get an error on the watch dog which stops the power coming into the coach. This never happened with the old setup. I have a good idea that with everything running at once, I am at the top and a little over the 50 amp range. Has anyone else had this problem and found a fix or work around. I have to run the Oasis on the diesel burner all the time when the electric elements would be sufficient in the summer. The code on the watch dog is E3 which is over amps.

I have the same thing happen with the pedestal version of watchdog and am not using it at the moment. I think I'm going to try and move one circuit from leg 1 to be 2, as my unit isn't quite balanced.

Issue seems to be two fold. First, Newmar going right to the edge on load per leg, and not having a load shed device when on shore power. Second, parks having voltage drop, cwhich increases amps and we cross over 50 amps, which triggers a watching shutdown

[tnedator]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Just an idea and not a resolution to your issue, but if it's hot enough to need all three AC units, you only need to run one Oasis element. We're in 95 degree weather and one element is making the shower water hotter than you can use when turned to full hot.

At least on mine, AC1 is on the leg that goes over 50 amps, and AC2 on the lower loaded leg. Last summer when it was happening, I turned off electric and just used diesel burner.

[1averageguy]

Originally Posted by rondi

iirc--the 50amp is made up of a 30amp leg and a 20amp leg---not 2 50 amp legs.

If you were to use a 50amp male to 30 amp female adapter you would be using the 30 amp leg, and the 20 leg is not used--as an example.

This is incorrect. A 50amp service is two 50 amp legs.

[Suburbazine]

The issue is the Bulldog has emergency power shutoff and it's set to exactly 50A per leg. Sometimes during normal usage you can push a leg over 50A and the Bulldog does what it's supposed to do and disconnects before the breaker trips. Since you can reset it via bluetooth you usually don't have to go outside.



The caveat to this is that you get disconnected during transient events that wouldn't normally affect the pedestal breaker. There is no good fix for this unless you stop using the Bulldog or start using the Autoformer instead.



The only other option is to refit with energy efficient AC units plus soft starters. I can run all 3 AC units plus burners on mine because my 3rd AC is a high efficiency model. My peak draw on each leg is 41 amps.



I've also been looking at adding a 30A connection to the pedestal from my sub-panel side on a transfer switch. Since almost every place I stay with 50A has a 30A as well, I could split the entire sub panel with inverter into its own power source. A bit overkill but would permit using the power outlets without ever worrying about power limits.