What do you use for surge protection?

cgmartine wrote:
Hondo, excuse me for jumping in on the op's thread, but I need to ask you....in your first photograph, you show a picture of the shore power outlet, and state that it is used when not hooked up to shore power. I have a Tioga with an Onan generator with a power outlet that looks the same, but whenever I have the generator running, everything works inside, without plugging anything in the receptacle. I am just wondering, have you tried it without plugging in the cord?

Posted By: Its_Hondo on 04/28/14 08:15am
Without the shore power cord plugged into the receptacle the generator's output doesn't reach the coach electrical system.
I found out because I forgot to plug it in when I 1st got it and nothing worked. When I plugged it in everything worked normally.

Of course it would help if I typed my comment:
I have had the same thing happen. We had the RV in for service when we first bought it. Someone unplugged the power cord from the generator. Nothing inside the RV worked. Our RV is a 2005 Fleetwood 26Q

Great looking installation.

Its_Hondo wrote:
This is my installation of the Progressive Industries EMS-HW30C Surge Protector.

Here's the shore power cord storage compartment-



The outlet on the left is where you plug the shore cord into when not hooked up to external power. This allows the coach to be powered by the generator. Next to that are connections for cable tv & telephone - installed by the previous owner.

Here's the EMS-HW30C mostly installed with it's cover off. In order to orient the unit with the output on the left & the input on the right (the shore cord) I mounted it upside down-



Then I plugged it in to household power and got 120 volt, 60 hz & no error messages-





I installed the cover right-side up (it will install either way) so that I could read the error codes . I installed the remote display above the surge suppressor as I thought it would be best to have the display in the compartment so I could read it when hooking up power. I also secured the main cable with a steel/rubber adel clamp-



In the last image you can see that I have the cord stowed & plugged into the receptacle. Now the surge suppressor reads & protects the generator output.

cgmartine wrote:
Hondo, excuse me for jumping in on the op's thread, but I need to ask you....in your first photograph, you show a picture of the shore power outlet, and state that it is used when not hooked up to shore power. I have a Tioga with an Onan generator with a power outlet that looks the same, but whenever I have the generator running, everything works inside, without plugging anything in the receptacle. I am just wondering, have you tried it without plugging in the cord?

Without the shore power cord plugged into the receptacle the generator's output doesn't reach the coach electrical system.

I found out because I forgot to plug it in when I 1st got it and nothing worked. When I plugged it in everything worked normally.

PI HW50C, better specs than Surge Guard, slightly less cost, field replaceable parts.

sljkansas wrote:
Synergy - The cheater box lets you use the 30amp and the 15amp outlet as leg 1 and 2 if you have a 50anp service on the RV. With it I can run both ac units at the same time, but do have to watch that I don't start the microwave or use the water heater with both ac running. The draw back is with the EMS 50 you cannot have a GFI outlet in the pedestal (you have to change the outlet to a 15 or 20amp, witch most campgrounds will not allow The EMS doesn't like it.

That all said, id you are not running a EMS, you can plug the cheater box into the pedestal and your 50amp cord into it. (BUT you won't be protected.)

Thanks for explaining this!

Synergy - The cheater box lets you use the 30amp and the 15amp outlet as leg 1 and 2 if you have a 50anp service on the RV. With it I can run both ac units at the same time, but do have to watch that I don't start the microwave or use the water heater with both ac running. The draw back is with the EMS 50 you cannot have a GFI outlet in the pedestal (you have to change the outlet to a 15 or 20amp, witch most campgrounds will not allow The EMS doesn't like it.

That all said, id you are not running a EMS, you can plug the cheater box into the pedestal and your 50amp cord into it. (BUT you won't be protected.)

gwol wrote:
Would something like this work: Plug a 30 AMP extension cord into the shore outlet, then run the other end of the extension cord into the basement locker. Plug the surge protector into the extension cord, then plug my MH into the surge protector. This will allow me to lock my basement and no one will be able to walk off with the surge protector.

Yes, I could have done that, but I'm going hard-wire instead. I don't want to have to worry about it, just plug and play!

Would something like this work: Plug a 30 AMP extension cord into the shore outlet, then run the other end of the extension cord into the basement locker. Plug the surge protector into the extension cord, then plug my MH into the surge protector. This will allow me to lock my basement and no one will be able to walk off with the surge protector.

In the last image you can see that I have the cord stowed & plugged into the receptacle. Now the surge suppressor reads & protects the generator output.

Oh man, thanks soooo much for posting pic's!
My Navion has a very similar set up except it also has another junction box next to the recepticle like you have; not sure what's in it. My space is a lot tighter than yours so I'm sure my install will be a pain to do.
I should get my unit in the mail in a few days and hope to have it installed before next weekend.

I will definately reflect on your pictures and comments. Thanks!

Hondo, excuse me for jumping in on the op's thread, but I need to ask you....in your first photograph, you show a picture of the shore power outlet, and state that it is used when not hooked up to shore power. I have a Tioga with an Onan generator with a power outlet that looks the same, but whenever I have the generator running, everything works inside, without plugging anything in the receptacle. I am just wondering, have you tried it without plugging in the cord?