Flaky surge guard?

[Richpatty]

100% agree...but ours is stored at home, plugged in so that risk is minimized...

 

[Rich W.]

So in the next park if you try it both with and without your surgie, you should have a good idea what‘s going on. I just ordered a Progressive 50XL using Neal’s link (Thanks Neal!) as I have been plugging in without protection until now and I‘m heading out for a couple weeks on the North Coast next week staying in locations that are new to me. I‘ve been meaning to research surge protectors but I figured Neal probably did his homework and the price was right.

As I start to veer off topic (again…), Neal why are you using two surge protectors: the 50XL through the Autoformer and then into the HW50C? Just curious.

 

[Neal]

Neal why are you using two surge protectors: the 50XL through the Autoformer and then into the HW50C? Just curious.

At Newmar they installed the hardwired EMS. I later added the Autoformer. I then learned of people having cord reels taken out presumably from electrical storms so I bought one for the pedestal and it also gives me an indication immediately of pedestal wiring. And my ATS has a surge protector but it's a one and done deal from what I hear. Yeah, too many, or can you have too many? That's my MO - excess!

 

[Rich W.]

At Newmar they installed the hardwired EMS. I later added the Autoformer. I then learned of people having cord reels taken out presumably from electrical storms so I bought one for the pedestal and it also gives me an indication immediately of pedestal wiring. And my ATS has a surge protector but it's a one and done deal from what I hear. Yeah, too many, or can you have too many? That's my MO - excess!

Well that makes sense. The SSP-50 should be good enough then. I dont have the OE surge protection (that I know of - PD52 xfer switch) but I do have the Precision Circuits EMS. And I’ll tale advantage of the lock ring and chain it to the pedestal - I would guess some parks have rules about this so I’ll be discrete about it.

Edit - Confirmed PD52 does not have surge protection, but the PD52DCS does.

 

[Rich W.]

So R&P are you in a new park? Have any issues? Please advise.

I got my PI Surge Protector SSP-50XL (Figured Neal did his homework and if it was good enough for him…) today in time for our pending departure. Had to plug it in to my home “pedestal“ to see it working and it seems to. Green and blue LEDs. I plan to lock it to park pedestals and hope park mgmt. doesn't have a problem with this. Seems to me I read about that somewhere.

 

[HookupAndGo]

So last month we had pretty much the exact same issue -- only difference was we were on a 30A site.
Essentially, the voltage was very low during the day when everyone had their' AC's running hard -- it would drop as low as 108. At night or first thing in the morning it was 122 or so.

I too have a Progressive Surge Guard so used to just look out the bathroom window so I could read the voltage at the pedestal (I also had a unit inside -- but also used the Progressive unit so I could monitor my Amp usage).

After a week of being very concerned about the voltage I ordered a 50A Autoformer -- had to pull that trigger and spend the money. Finally, nice steady power coming into the RV.

Then, after about a week of watching it, and seeing it boost, one morning we woke up and the AC control indicated no power (the inverter took over for everything else). So i looked out the window and sure enough, the Progressive Unit had tripped -- Over Voltage, and it was still high (i think 134).

I tried resetting at the breaker, everything. Finally got my meter out and measured... 122. Hmm, So the Autoformer essentially was "latched" in full boost mode. I did some reading on the internet and found others with this latching problem. So, I disconnected the Autoformer and applied the old "calibration" method -- "the 1" drop" (others used a rubber mallet). Bingo. It "un-latched" and was back to normal mode.

Things were great for another 5 days and it happened again. Repeated the attitude adjustment and all good again.

So, it is sounding like your Autoformer is latching like mine did -- only difference is you are 50a and I was only on 30. I think what is happening is the voltage goes up at night/early morning since it is cool and power usage is down. Then your autoformer latches and you are pretty much done until you get it reset.

 

[Richpatty]

Thanks all. So we have been here at Mayberry Campground since Sunday and even with my suspected surge protector online, I have not had any issues. So the verdict (for now) is that there must have been something flaky with the shore power that the surge protector didn’t like. Odd that the Autoformer logic did not see it…

 

[Fatboy2004]

100% agree...but ours is stored at home, plugged in so that risk is minimized...

Off subject, but storing it at home plugged. One is it needed to be plugged in all the time and if so is it pulling a lot of power on my bill ?

 

[Richpatty]

Off subject, but storing it at home plugged. One is it needed to be plugged in all the time and if so is it pulling a lot of power on my bill ?

When I had LA batteries, I felt I needed to keep it plugged in as they like to be topped off…. Not sure it pulled that much power…as I had it plugged into a 15amp outlet. Was not running anything else.

With the lithiums, I do not plug it in as they stay charged with very little self discharge. I do put a small trickle charger on the chassis batteries to keep them charged…. That uses very little power.

Hope this helps.