A very good reason Not to scrimp on surge protectors.

[ACZL]

This past w/e we went to a new to us CG that said they had a 50 A site. Mind you, was told this was a older CG as well. Once on site, hooked up power via PI 50A EMS, went inside, turned on fridge and rear A/C. few seconds later, poof, nothing. Waited a minute, tried again, same thing. WTH? Go out to EMS box and lo-n-behold it's saying low voltage on 1 leg. Again, WTH? Have CG come check the outlet and their little radar says the same thing (low 100 volts). Just below it is a elect meter (ton of seasonals so more so for them), removes the meter, checks wires, same thing. Goes to main panel down by office and reports back that has same reading as well. Calls his electric buddy who says to call utility company cuz the problem lies w/ them/transformer. So needless to say we were able to run the BR A/C at least, micro at times. Oh, fridge even tripped the power on that leg alone. So we had both the fridge and water heater on gas.

All I can say is, "WHEW" and Thank God we had the PI EMS other wise it could have been very ugly for us. It DID it's job!!

[Acdii]

philh wrote:
Stupid question, can I buy a 50a unit and use it with a 30a trailer? Longer term plans have us upgrading to larger 5th wheel

If pedestal type that plugs between the pedestal and RV cord, double check with the manufacturer, but it should if plugged into a 50Amp socket. If the permanent installed type, it might not. Pretty sure it needs to see both legs in order to activate.

I just bought and brought home an Arctic Wolf 3660SUITE. It is 50 AMP, runs fine on 30 amp and surprisingly enough both AC's will run at the same time, they must have soft start kits already installed, the second one started up without issues and the running one didn't even give a grunt when it did. Of course that was just a test and I am running on just one AC.

However, my plan was to install a fixed 50 Amp Surge/line condition unit, but after looking where the line comes in, it is sealed up, so not going to touch it, so looking for the pedestal mount one instead. Suggestions?

[Lynnmor]

philh wrote:
Stupid question, can I buy a 50a unit and use it with a 30a trailer? Longer term plans have us upgrading to larger 5th wheel

Yes.

[philh]

Stupid question, can I buy a 50a unit and use it with a 30a trailer? Longer term plans have us upgrading to larger 5th wheel

[Dtank]

Thermoguy wrote:
Seems like I am not quite up on these things. I have read quite a bit of these posts about electrical issues and such. As an owner of a 30AMP RV, do I need one of these? Should I be as concerned about surge and low power? I do have a couple different meters and could measure the outlet before plugging in. I also do not have any delicate electronics, just typical fridge, A/C, TV, lights. I haven't seen a problem yet, knock on wood...

Thanks

Here's another - *VERY*- good reason not to scrimp on surge protectors !! (Preferably a PI)

"......measuring the voltage at the 30 amp pedestal".

Note the "typical" items (in your post) that *were* damaged...:(
(LOTS of "reasons" by LOTS of RV owners!!)

THE ELECTRICIAN SAID... "OOPS"

:W

.

[pianotuna]

work2much wrote:

pianotuna wrote:

work2much wrote:
Went with the Hughes watchdog hardwired on our new 5th wheel. I liked the bluetooth monitor and alerts it sends if there is an issue. I thought about their auto former but we can run a long time without shore power or use the hybrid inverter to boost voltage in load sharing mode.

Hi work2much,

Hybrid inverter chargers do not do voltage support unless you "force" them to do so. This may result in damage to the unit. DAMHIK

According to Magnum low voltage from shore will be raised during load support. Not as an advertised feature by as a byproduct of the inverter adding higher voltage and the two combining.

Hi work2much,

Load support is NOT voltage support. I have a Magnum 3000 hybrid. Trust me. It does NOT do voltage support unless you deliberately lower the input amps, which forces it to do so. When that is done the majority of the load may be coming from the battery bank.

Further, I've spoken to the tech support desk who told me the Magnum product load support is not designed nor intended to do voltage support.

It is true that when connected to a 15 amp source you can prevent the breaker tripping by setting the input amps to 15. That allows you to run a load that totals 24 amps for a time. If, during that time, the battery bank becomes exhausted, the shore power 15 amp breaker will trip. DAMHIK

In my experiments with load support, which were done on a 30 amp pedestal, it was a heck of a hot summer day. I had to reduce the input amps to just 11 amps on the ARC remote before voltage support happens and I stopped when voltage was 107. I had the fridge on propane, and the water heater off. The air conditioner was drawing 1900 watts.

My testing, using my autoformer with a 15 amp circuit which under "no load" was at 100 volts I had 113 volts inside the RV.

shore power 100-->autoformer-->RV 113.

The sola basic autoformer boosts at 110, 100, and 90 volts as it comes from the factory. It is possible to tweak those numbers and I have done so putting the first boost at 113 volts.

I should also mention that my first Magnum with no shore power displayed 120 volts no load. That does drop as the load increases.

The replacement unit does a no load voltage of 122.

The above data was gathered in 'real life' using a watt meter and a kill-a-watt meter.

[work2much]

pianotuna wrote:

work2much wrote:
Went with the Hughes watchdog hardwired on our new 5th wheel. I liked the bluetooth monitor and alerts it sends if there is an issue. I thought about their auto former but we can run a long time without shore power or use the hybrid inverter to boost voltage in load sharing mode.

Hi work2much,

Hybrid inverter chargers do not do voltage support unless you "force" them to do so. This may result in damage to the unit. DAMHIK

According to Magnum low voltage from shore will be raised during load support. Not as an advertised feature by as a byproduct of the inverter adding higher voltage and the two combining.

[pianotuna]

Thermoguy wrote:
Seems like I am not quite up on these things. I have read quite a bit of these posts about electrical issues and such. As an owner of a 30AMP RV, do I need one of these? Should I be as concerned about surge and low power? I do have a couple different meters and could measure the outlet before plugging in. I also do not have any delicate electronics, just typical fridge, A/C, TV, lights. I haven't seen a problem yet, knock on wood...

Thanks

There is less risk on 30 amp, but it is still there.

There are computer boards in most if not all fridges. The same is true for most air conditioners with a thermostat on the wall.

There is far more damage caused by low voltage than by surge. Low voltage is endemic in campgrounds in the summer time. If there are 36 or more spots, the current electrical code allows for just 41% of the total demand be provided. No wonder, when a park is full and it is 30 C (86 f), the voltage is low.

There is no affordable surge device that protects an RV against a lightening strike on the feed to the campground.

I never plug in the RV until I have tested for polarity and voltage under load.

I do have surge protection--but it was hand made for me and incorporates 3 different methods.

[pianotuna]

work2much wrote:
Went with the Hughes watchdog hardwired on our new 5th wheel. I liked the bluetooth monitor and alerts it sends if there is an issue. I thought about their auto former but we can run a long time without shore power or use the hybrid inverter to boost voltage in load sharing mode.

Hi work2much,

Hybrid inverter chargers do not do voltage support unless you "force" them to do so. This may result in damage to the unit. DAMHIK

[Veebyes]

We have a PI 50amp. First thing that happens after the brakes are set is the DW gets the box out & plugs it into the post to check the voltage. If that passes we continue with the setup. Sites have been refused more than a few times due to power issues found by the box.

[ronday]

Have EMS in my 5ver in Florida (50 amp) in my 5ver at home (30 amp) and my truck camper (30 amp). Saved me several times. Ron

[Allworth]

In the past 5 years my PI (50) has tripped three times. Twice for low voltage (both times in Canada) and once for no ground when my neighbor drove over his ped while leaving the CG.

[Lwiddis]

"As an owner of a 30AMP RV, do I need one of these?"

Yes! You can FRY a 30AMP rig just like a 50 with voltage under or over. Checking when plugging in is a great habit but voltage may be fine then but when everyone starts their A/C...bingo.

[Acdii]

Nice, about the same cost as progressive without the remote

[Thermoguy]

Seems like I am not quite up on these things. I have read quite a bit of these posts about electrical issues and such. As an owner of a 30AMP RV, do I need one of these? Should I be as concerned about surge and low power? I do have a couple different meters and could measure the outlet before plugging in. I also do not have any delicate electronics, just typical fridge, A/C, TV, lights. I haven't seen a problem yet, knock on wood...

Thanks

[work2much]

Went with the Hughes watchdog hardwired on our new 5th wheel. I liked the bluetooth monitor and alerts it sends if there is an issue. I thought about their auto former but we can run a long time without shore power or use the hybrid inverter to boost voltage in load sharing mode.


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