Surge Protector for 30A Travel Trailer

[Altazi]

You say you wouldn't plug in if it looked chancy, but are you willing to be without power for a day or two? You won't always have options to go to another site or another park. Or run a generator.

I am inclined to get some sort of LED indicator unit to verify the proper wiring. But in a pinch, I can power the entire trailer from my truck, an F-150 hybrid with a 7.2kW inverter generator. It idles very quietly, and the engine only runs when the traction battery needs charging.

 

[sunrisor]

"Every time I blink we have spend another $300 on trailer stuff", and she is getting really tired of it.

Someone once described owning a RV (or a pool) as a big hole in the ground that you dump money into. I can't really disagree with that. However, I hope our payback is the enjoyment factor.

 

[sunrisor]

We are also RV newbies. Advice from a friend (and forums/FB) suggested some sort of protection. To us, our TT is sizable investment, and thought it was money well spent. We've only been out a handful of times and had a low voltage alarm come on once last fall. And, didn't think of it til now but it is an older campground.
We have a Progressive Industries 50A electrical protection. It's hardwired into the TT's electrical system, with a small display mounted inside next to the couch on the back wall. I honestly don't understand all the numbers that if flashes yet, but it does monitor all the time. Also makes for an interesting night light.

 

[Ex-Calif]

I am curious - I know there is a techie aspect to checking your line voltages upon arrival at a campground but in practical terms what do you do when the voltage drops below 108?

Unplug? If so thanks to all the guys shedding power for me - LOL...

But seriously, would you leave? ask for another spot? run the generator?

I'll be seriously honest - I have a pretty dumb Coleman Air conditioner, no fancy LED screens or remote control etc. I gotta believe old school electronics were/are a lot ore robust than modern stuff.

Once again my coach is 26 years old and has been to a lot of places and nothing in the RV has been fried in all those years. I am not advocating one way or another. Caveat Camper...

 

[sunrisor]

I am curious - I know there is a techie aspect to checking your line voltages upon arrival at a campground but in practical terms what do you do when the voltage drops below 108?

Unplug? If so thanks to all the guys shedding power for me - LOL...

But seriously, would you leave? ask for another spot? run the generator?

I'll be seriously honest - I have a pretty dumb Coleman Air conditioner, no fancy LED screens or remote control etc. I gotta believe old school electronics were/are a lot ore robust than modern stuff.

Once again my coach is 26 years old and has been to a lot of places and nothing in the RV has been fried in all those years. I am not advocating one way or another. Caveat Camper...

Ours disconnects shore power until the voltage comes back up and then reconnects. The one time it happened, it only lasted a few minutes. The alarm went off, but other than that, I didn't noticed anything else. For us, we can boondock for 3 days (without running the a/c) from the dual batteries and 2 solar panels. I should add 'supposedly' to this since we haven't tested that yet.

as to your 1st question. I haven't checked the power socket before plugging in. Probably should I guess, but as you said...not much I could do about it anyway.

 

[Kirk]

what do you do when the voltage drops below 108?

With any of the complete power monitor devices the power is turned off if it falls below that point. If you are desperate you can connect to such power but not use the air conditioner or any motorized device as they are what is harmed first and usually most by low voltages. But doing so also means that you won't be protected from any other problems either. The other possible answer is to use your generator, or move.

 

[John From Detroit]

What price for protection and what is the cost of what is being protected?

I am not that experienced in RV life and have not been to more than 15-20 sites. I have never had a surge at a campsite. My coach is also 26 odd years old, presumably has been to a lot of campsites and all the equipment (until recently) is original.

Earlier this year my kid was living in the RV and it was either struck by or a near miss by lightning. It fried the microwave and an $80 400w inverter.

Not bad for 26 years. I don't plan on adding surge protection any time soon.

I lost an air conditioner once.. (Also to a near-miss lightening strike)
In other news the Southwire Surge Guard unit I had hard wired into my Class A diagnosed a park problem and a few local issues over the years... It also helps when there is a power "Blink" (My name for it) when power goes out and then like a few seconds later comes back on. Very hard on A/C units.. but the Surge Guard held power down for 3 minutes.
I never plugged into a 240 volt outlet but did have someone ask me once if I'd tried the 60 amp outlet at a location (I had not but I had noticed ganged pairs of 60 amp breakers in the distribution panel) I found the outlet later.. Yup they used a TT-30 compatible outlet for 240 volts.

I however did not use it.

 

[Kirk]

Once again my coach is 26 years old and has been to a lot of places and nothing in the RV has been fried in all those years.

More recent RVs without question have more sensitive electroics but your older air conditioner has well aged motors that because of that age could also be more likely to fail if subjected to high or low voltages. It isn't just what is in an RV that has changed over the years but the things connected to your power supply have changed as well and the sort of electrical interfearance they may inject intothe power have changed with some that didn't even exist when your RV was built. Using one of the power line monitors is like buying insurance for some risk that you don't expect to ever have. Most home owners do not buy flood insurance unless they are in a floodplane where it is required, because it is expensive but that is also the reason that so many are uninsured when a flood does happen.

 

[Ex-Calif]

It isn't just what is in an RV that has changed over the years but the things connected to your power supply have changed as well and the sort of electrical interfearance they may inject intothe power have changed with some that didn't even exist when your RV was built.

I don't see how anything can be "injected" into the AC supply. 3 wires direct into the power panel. through some breakers and into the loads.

I do have a power supply but it is a 120V device that makes DC. It can't have any effect on the 120V A/C as far as I know.

I understand that "something" will eventually wear out the A/C and I can see that low voltage could be a big contributor but maintenance and equipment replacement is just part of the game. I am extremely pleased that my 26 year old A/C, fridge, water heater and furnace are still chugging along. Especially as I only have about $6k invested in the whole RV.

I expect maintenance and insurance to run about $200 a month and over 2 1/2 years of full timing that's about right.

 

[LarsMac]

I keep a surge suppressor/protector on my power feed all the time.
I have had two of them get blown and had to replace them.
But I have never had any damage to any of my appliances or electronics.

 

[Kirk]

I don't see how anything can be "injected" into the AC supply. 3 wires direct into the power panel

If you look very closely at the wires to your RV you will find that they go both ways. Arc welders are notorious for what they send back down the power line. That is also what happens when lightning strikes a nearby structure. While it isn't a frequent happening, it does on occasion happen.

Do I think that you should get one of the line monitoring devices? Not especially. It is, as I said before, a matter or risk tolerance. I never used one until I went fulltime but I did then for several reasons. First of all, at that time the RV was the only home that we had so I wanted to protect it as much as possible. Second, in my opinion when you travel the country connecting over and over to unknown power sources, your degree of exposure increases. And the final reason that I got one was that I had a chance to buy on that was less than 6 months old, complete with the warranty paperwork for half what they cost. If I were in your situation, I might not get one either. I have owned 2 of them and both were purchased lightly used, the second one in need of repair which I did. Like most things in life, there is no one answer that is the best for all and each one must make the choice. Do you run a tire pressure monitor? If you read the posts of those who do so you might get the impresson that everyone must have one but to me it is the same as this choice. I don't have a tire pressure monitor and never have had. This is a simiar type of choice.

 

[Ex-Calif]

If you look very closely at the wires to your RV you will find that they go both ways. Arc welders are notorious for what they send back down the power line. That is also what happens when lightning strikes a nearby structure. While it isn't a frequent happening, it does on occasion happen.

>snip<

Do you mean that the appliance I plug into the 120V of the RV can affect the quality of the power on the RV? If so I agree but there isn't anything but standard RV appliances generally plugged into the RV. Occasionally I might plug in a powered hand tool like a drill and commonly fans or an electric heater.

Not sure about the noisiness of them.

I agree with all your caveats in the rest of your post. At the end of the day it's got a lot to do with personal experience and risk tolerance.

 

[Kirk]

Do you mean that the appliance I plug into the 120V of the RV can affect the quality of the power on the RV?

I suppose that it could but if you were using an arc welder in your RV it could put some interesting things out on the power line, but more important, if the shop across the street from the RV park has a defective arc welder in use he could send spikes down the line that might reach you in your RV via the power line. It would be unlikely for you to cause a problem for your neighbors, but not impossible.

As an example of the fact that things can travel both ways, nowadays most electric companies read your meter by transmitting a signal to your meter via the power line and the meter sends your use data back to them, over those same power lines. That sort of thing harms nothing and nobody but it an example of the kinds of things that exist on our power lines today and of the two way ability of our power lines. there is a lot going on via the electric supply lines than just sending power to us.

 

[Bob K4TAX]

OOOOH! Many switching or switch mode supplies, namely wall warts, TV's, computer supplies, converters, and inverter generators, touch-sensitive lamps, do generate a good bit of electrical noise. There are two classifications of this noise. One is on the AC line or conducted noise, while the other is radiated noise much like a radio or TV broadcast signal.

I find most of these signals are low-level and won't cause harm to other appliances. On the other hand, line-induced (conducted) noise and radiated noise are hated sources for us ham radio operators. In fact, many campgrounds are full of this type of noise, making radio communication nearly impossible. It is devices like these aforementioned, which do allegedly meet Part 15 of the FCC regulations, that have largely caused the demise of AM radio broadcasts. (Program content notwithstanding.) Digital TV, satellite TV, and cable TV are rarely affected.

73
Bob, K4TAX