Park Shore Power

[Happycarz]

RVUpgrades.com is excellent. I always have a good experience when buying from them.

If you have the room, mount the PI box next to your transfer switch. Then remove the shore power lead from the transfer switch and connect it to the input side of the PI box. Next, install a 3'-4' pigtail from the PI output side, back to the terminals on the transfer switch from which you removed the shore power leads.

If the PI box had to be removed in the future, it would be a 10 minute job.

[CA Traveler]

Originally Posted by ottffss

Not trying to nit pic, but a three prong tester (pic below) plugged into a 50 -> 30 -> 20 "dog bone" adapter will only check one "side" or only half the 50amp circuit no matter what you try. You have to build a tester as mentioned previously, use a voltmeter, or buy a specific 50A tester.

Actually it checks 3 of the 4 wires and as such is a "good" test. Realistically the remaining hot wire can only be open, shorted to the other hot leg or 240V. There is a home made unit that adapts the 50A plug to 2 120 plugs with 2 testers and 2 voltmeters and a 240V light.

[CA Traveler]

Originally Posted by Dr4Film

The Progressive Industries can be mounted BEFORE or AFTER the ATS switch, however, if mounter AFTER, that will leave your ATS switch vulnerable to damage and failure. If mounted BEFORE, then your ATS switch will be protected.

The ONLY reason for mounting it afterwards is to have protection from generator power. However, most generators made nowadays have self protected systems and provide excellent power to the coach such that it doesn't need to be monitored by the PI EMS unit. Dr4Film ----- Richard

That's one approach. The other approach recoginizes that gens do fail and it's better to sacrafice a relative cheap ATS rather than electronics that can get very expensive in case of a gen failure.

In many years of reading posts on this subject most favor installation after the ATS. However I've never seen any analysis or credible information other than opinions on this subject.

I'm in the process of installing the PI unit in my new to me rig and it will be installed after the ATS. Both the prior unit and the new unit were set up so that the original wiring was not modified in any way and can easily be resorted to the factory setup.

[RJay]

Originally Posted by CA Traveler

That's one approach. The other approach recoginizes that gens do fail and it's better to sacrafice a relative cheap ATS rather than electronics that can get very expensive in case of a gen failure.

In many years of reading posts on this subject most favor installation after the ATS. However I've never seen any analysis or credible information other than opinions on this subject.

I'm in the process of installing the PI unit in my new to me rig and it will be installed after the ATS. Both the prior unit and the new unit were set up so that the original wiring was not modified in any way and can easily be resorted to the factory setup.

By far, surges come from shore power more than from the generator and for the amount of time you will get power from your generator as compared to shore power you would be better served by your PI if you put it before your ATS, but it is your call.

[kketterling]

Harry: Your install is exactly the way I planned to do mine. What gauge wire do I need to get for the pigtail 10 gauge? I seem to remember some one using the telephone line in the coach to run the remote display inside the coach. Was that you? If so I'd be interested to know if you had to do anything unique to get it to work.

Thanks

[Happycarz]

Ken,
I used the same size as the incoming wires, I believe they were 6 or 4 gauge. 4' each of red, black, white, and green and flexible conduit (Seal-Tite, Liquid Tight or whatever they call it in your area) should be all you need. Mine is located on the ceiling of a bay, so I secured the conduit accordingly.

The data (telephone) cable comes with the remote, so it is plug and play. If you don't want a red glow visible, carefully choose where to mount the remote. I mounted mine in the bathroom cabinet that also houses the Intelitec modules and the circuit breaker panel.

The fault codes, printed on photo paper, are readily at hand above the display.

[nodine]

Originally Posted by kketterling

...... I seem to remember some one using the telephone line in the coach to run the remote display inside the coach. Was that you? If so I'd be interested to know if you had to do anything unique to get it to work.

Thanks

Ken,

The remote display requires all four wires in the standard telephone cable, red,green,yellow,and black. On our coach Monaco only connected two of the four wires. A telephone only needs two wires and I believe the other two where used in the old days to provide local power for things like princes phones to light up. To get the PI remote display to work I had to connect the other two wires at both the source and destination RJ-11 jacks.

Bob

[CA Traveler]

Originally Posted by RJay

By far, surges come from shore power more than from the generator and for the amount of time you will get power from your generator as compared to shore power you would be better served by your PI if you put it before your ATS, but it is your call.

An ATS is a rather simple device that is unlikely to be affected by surges. In most rigs the relays are in their default (non activated) position for shore power and as such any surges will just get passed through.

Gen voltage is used to switch the ATS to gen so that's not a factor for shore power surges.

The ATS design is reasonably robust and just passes whatever it receives to the output including surges, reverse polarity, etc.

[CA Traveler]

The ideal but costly setup would have protection devices on both the gen and shore input to the ATS.

I'm not suggesting that a single protection device location is black and white but rather that there are pros and cons to each location.

Gen problems including high voltage do occur and my preference in that situation would be to sacrafice the ATS rather than expose the electronics to out of spec gen output. To me the cost of the ATS (if it's even damaged by the gen) is minor compared to gen repair cost.

Today's rigs have more electronics than ever and protection of that expensive equipment should be a priority item.

In any event my hats off to anyone that has a protection device since most RVers do not use one.

[CLarence39]

This subject is getting much too complicated - I plan on using the standard inline and make the best of it. I talked to a Monaco rep and they said an inline is probably good enough - they said if this was a major problem, Monaco would install on their coaches. Thanks for all the input. Clarence

[recaffey]

I'm relatively new to this forum; but Clarence you probably spent 200k on your coach; I think 400 dollars is a reasonable expense to give you peace of mind and protect the thousands of dollars in electronics installeed in your coach.

[CA Traveler]

Originally Posted by CLarence39

This subject is getting much too complicated - I plan on using the standard inline and make the best of it. I talked to a Monaco rep and they said an inline is probably good enough - they said if this was a major problem, Monaco would install on their coaches. Thanks for all the input. Clarence

I'm not sure what an inline is? I would agree with the rep that it's not a major problem unless it's your equipment that is damaged.

[jfran304]

Originally Posted by CA Traveler

I'm not sure what an inline is? I would agree with the rep that it's not a major problem unless it's your equipment that is damaged.

An inline is a surge protector that you either install or in the case of a portable one plug in between the RV and the external shore power.

Personally I prefer the portable since I plan on removing everything I have installed if I trade coaches again.

Good Luck,
Jon