30 Amp Auto Transfer Switch Fail-Safe/Backup
Our first Class C did not have an ATS. It was never that inconvenient to plug the shore tie cable into the generator output socket before traveling, then move it to the campground pedestal on arrival. My nightmare scenario - CG power failure in the middle of the night during a summer thunderstorm - never happened.
Now we have an ATS and I must admit it's really cute. But they aren't bulletproof reliability-wise. I know I could change connections on the ATS to bypass it, leaving it in Generator or Shore Tie mode only. But it's under the bed and behind a trim panel that runs the length of the bed. That's not very good access.
Has anybody added a manual backup feature? I can see where a couple simple switches could be used to restore power, but a simple plan could also result in back-feeding the generator in shore tie mode and the shore tie cable in generator mode.
Boats use a paired switch with a sliding lock that requires one to be OFF when the other is ON. But that switch isn't also trying to work with an ATS wired into the same circuits...
Now we have an ATS and I must admit it's really cute. But they aren't bulletproof reliability-wise. I know I could change connections on the ATS to bypass it, leaving it in Generator or Shore Tie mode only. But it's under the bed and behind a trim panel that runs the length of the bed. That's not very good access.
Has anybody added a manual backup feature? I can see where a couple simple switches could be used to restore power, but a simple plan could also result in back-feeding the generator in shore tie mode and the shore tie cable in generator mode.
Boats use a paired switch with a sliding lock that requires one to be OFF when the other is ON. But that switch isn't also trying to work with an ATS wired into the same circuits...
