1st Trip out - Went GREAT, but I have some questions

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
mayfair said:
That's a pretty cool unit, but MAN $250.00 smacks? How often are there power problems at campgrounds?
Click to expand...
I have run across quite a few a few. At two for example, in the hot, hot, hot of the day, the power kept going out. At each there was a problem in the 30 amp circuits. At one, I was able to prove to the manager that the power was bad and he called the electric company and gave me another site. At the other, I used my 50 to 30 amp adapter and used the 50 amp circuit which was OK. If you call Progressive and ask, you may be able to get a better price. Ask if there are any show prices available.
 
Ron said:
The three light tester will identify it when checking BEFORE pugging in the power cord.  We found one once and really was glad we checked before plugging in.
Click to expand...

Ron,

The three light tester will ONLY catch this IF it is bad when you check it.  It the circuit is conected but only allows a few amps to flow, the voltage in one leg will go high and the other low.  if it them burns open, too you really could have a disaster.  The only way I know to test for this condition and be truely safe is to build a high wattage load tester that tests both legs at the same time. 

Here is a UL that describes the whole thing.  http://www.myrv.us/electric/ 
 
The problem with those small 3-light (sometimes 4) devices is they don't check for load capacity; as was mentioned earlier by Lou and James. They only check for the proper wiring of the outlet and 'health' of each leg. When you consider that many rigs are wired for 30A and people try to draw that much and more, it's easy to see that those 30A breakers will have been tripped many more times than those for a 50A wired coach and outlet. Each time a breaker is tripped by overload, it looses a portion of its' current carrying capacity; tripping at  lower and lower levels each time until the contacts may have become so badly burned from arcing that they will no longer pass anywhere near 30 Amps. A true load tester is the only accurate way to measure capacity.
 
James Godward said:
Ron,

The three light tester will ONLY catch this IF it is bad when you check it.  It the circuit is conected but only allows a few amps to flow, the voltage in one leg will go high and the other low.  if it them burns open, too you really could have a disaster.  The only way I know to test for this condition and be truely safe is to build a high wattage load tester that tests both legs at the same time. 

Here is a UL that describes the whole thing.  http://www.myrv.us/electric/ 
Click to expand...

This is true.  Guess another option would be to get the surge guard like Ned has.
 
Ron said:
This is true.  Guess another option would be to get the surge guard like Ned has.
Click to expand...

You guy's are really putting the fear of God into me, but I appreciate it. I agree Ron. Perhaps $250.00 is money well spent.

What do you do, plug that thing into the service pole and then plug your RV cord into it and leave it that way for the duration of your trip? I'd be a little nervous of it growing legs if that's the case.  :-[
 
They have two kinds.

One is just like you describe. And yes they can grow legs.

The other is hard wired. It is hard wired at the other end of you power cable. The power cable has to be disconnected at the RV end and connected to the input of the surge guard. Then the output of the surge guard is wired to where you disconnected the power cable.
 
Do you think the surge protector would be sufficent enough?

http://www.progressiveindustries.net/ssp_30.htm
 
mayfair said:
Do you think the surge protector would be sufficent enough?
Click to expand...

The surge protector will protect against electrical spikes but not against high or low voltage, open grounds, reversed polarity, etc. I've had a Progressive EMS for over 8 years and have seen the unit protect my power input against all of these problems. I'd recommend going with the EMS. Yes, the portable model can get legs, but there is a provision for locking the unit to the power pole. I've had both and prefer the hard wired model since it is one less piece of gear to lug in and out and it doesn't get legs.
 
Our Surge Guard protects against low and high voltage as well as miswiring and surges and is hard wired.  One advantage of a hardwired device is you won't be encouraged to skip it when it's raining out while hooking up.  It's always there protecting you.

The newer models offer a remote volt/amp meter that ours doesn't have.  I have considered replacing it just for that feature.
 
I'll have to poke around this weekend and see if I can figure out how to hard wire something like that in. If it looks easy enough, perhaps I'll give it a shot.
 
We to just went out on our first trip to myrtle beach and the new-used 5er went well for us but we had the same problem with the 30a power. When the wife turend on the hair drier while the air was on high and the ho****er heater was on electric It turned in to me taking the flashlight to the power pole. We switched the water heater to gas and had no other problems the rest of the trip.

Another Idea my brother-in-law let me in on was to use a 12gauge drop cord with 3 outlets on the end to power my electric frying pan and coffie maker. We plugged it in to the extra plugs on the power pole and this let me start breakfast and the coffee while the wife ran some other electric items in the camper (curling iron, Air, Microwave) Just a thought.
 
phil-in-nc said:
Another Idea my brother-in-law let me in on was to use a 12gauge drop cord with 3 outlets on the end to power my electric frying pan and coffie maker. We plugged it in to the extra plugs on the power pole and this let me start breakfast and the coffee while the wife ran some other electric items in the camper (curling iron, Air, Microwave) Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Someone else mentioned that earlier, however the campground that i stay at only has the 30amp plug, not a 110V outlet so unfortunately I couldn't do that. Sounds like it would work well though if I could.
 
That trick will work if the 20A outlet is on a separate circuit from the 30A outlet.  Some will be wired in parallel, on the same breaker, and you'll still be limited to 30A total.
 
Ned, I guess it will be safe to assume that they will be on separate circuits if there are 2 circuit breakers installed.

Now if there also is a 50 amp outlet and only 2 c/b's, all bets are off. Trial by error comes into effect. :)

carson FL
 
carson said:
Ned, I guess it will be safe to assume that they will be on separate circuits if there are 2 circuit breakers installed.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, the 20A breaker would protect the 20A outlet, but doesn't guarantee that it's not on the same feed as the 30A outlet.  The only way to be sure is to open the box and see how it's wired.
 
I've read through this discussion a couple of times and I'm still confussed / concerned.  We just bought a new TT that I'm about to install a new flat screen TV in. The last thing I want to do is have a surge or power outage damage it (or any of the other electronics for that matter). 

Do I need to install a UPS?  Is a surge protector (the one from Progressive Industries) a better way to go than a UPS?  Are either hard to install?  Based on what you've said Ned, I'll probably just run the hot water off of gas since it sucks up so much power.  Thanks in advance!
 
I would recommend a surge protector over a UPS.  You're more concerned about protection from miswired outlets and surges than in keeping the TV running in the event of a power outage.  The Progressive Industries units come in both hard wired and portable.  The portable unit plugs into the pedestal and you plug your power cord into the unit.  However, these have been know to disappear if not locked down.  I prefer the hard wired unit (which is what I have) as it's always there and isn't subject to theft.  It's not difficult to install, but you should have some familiarity with working with 110VAC wiring.
 
Job of UPS is to provide power long enough for you to SAVE AND EXIT when mains fail.  Though a good UPS will often have surge protection built in, and filtering and a bunch of other "Improvements" only a "Power line conditioner" type is as good as or better than a dedicated surge guard or Progressive power guard.

I use several Surge gards (Spike protectors) on my rig. Enough that the odds of a spike or surge getting past them all are low

All the delicate stuff hangs off the Prosine 2.0 (inverter/converter/UPS all in one) and it's part paranoid about line quality
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,166 (members: 24, guests: 1,142)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,932
Posts
1,387,726
Members
137,682
Latest member
duckyw7528
Back
Top Bottom