Portable or Hardwired EMS?

Powertour wrote:

MDKMDK wrote:

Depending on where your 30A/50A shore power cord is stored, you can plug a portable EMS like the PT-30X into your shore cable, keep the portable inside the (lockable?) electrical bay compartment, and buy a second 30A shore power extension cord, and use that between the electrical bay/EMS and the c/g power post. Cheaper to lose an extension cord than the EMS. It's how I do it.
If your portable ever fails for any reason, and you're under warranty, it's easier to send it back, than unistalling the hard wired versions or trying to replace parts in it.

Brilliant!

that won't power you at 50 amps, so you would need two 50 amp cords and one is heavy enough to lift and store. Mine hangs unlocked at the pedestal. I get acquainted with my neighbors as soon as i can so they know who belongs in the site. I know things get stolen but I have never lost anything. Do you use a king pin lock or coupler lock on a TT? A thief could just come in and hook up. Way too many other things to worry about than a small theft.

I did 25 years LE with a SP and over a million a year visiting, one theft from an unoccupied tent ........

Route 66 Traveler wrote:
The both have their advantages and disadvantages. I have seen instances where hard wired units either malfunctioned or had a tremendous surge and came close to catching fire producing a lot of smoke. There is an example on the Jayco forum. It's for that reason I use a portable EMS so if anything goes wrong the smoke and fire potential is on the outside of my RV.

Burned Ems

Yikes.......well not really. That's the only time I have ever read of that happening despite more than a dozen years of hanging around RV boards. When you go through the thread most seemed to think due to a loose lug and not what the OP claimed it was as to the cause, none of which was a tremendous surge or a malfunction. If I was going to worry I would be more concerned about the connections done by the RV manufacturer at the panel/breakers/converter or the lugs on the backside of the shore power connector. I have seen more than a few of those cooked over the years in forum posts where they're left loose right from the factory.

Lantley wrote:
I'm in the hard wired camp. I touched my hardwired unit once. That is the day it was installed. I have not needed to handle it again.
No locks,no storage,no worries.
It alerts me when it needs to. I can check the remote display if I need to.
Otherwise it just does its job without any interaction with me.
Leaving me free to complete my camping goal of just relaxing.

Me too. And if I sell or trade, 15 minutes, a $2.00 J box and a couple of wire nuts, will take care of moving it over to the new rig.

I had a hardwired style in my Arctic Fox truck camper.

The problem with it, is that any time I wanted to run the A/C on generator power, it was an exercise in futility. The EMS would kick the power off when the compressor kicked on, then the compressor stalled and went in to a locked rotor condition, and wouldn't attempt to start up again for several minutes.

The only solution was to enable my inverter, so the inverter would pick up the load momentarily while the EMS kicked power off.

This happened every time I wanted to run my A/C on a small portable generator.

I finally gave up on that nonsense and removed it last year and sold it on eBay and went to a portable unit.

Here's my video on the portable unit

Ended up going the external route via a Hughes Power Watchdog EPO unit. Extremely pleased with it. The unit's Bluetooth link & associated app was up in running literally in seconds..... zero trouble with it since the initial firing up. Love the fact if it ever gets fried by a surge the unit's modular design allows for end-users to be able to replace just that board (rather than the whole unit needing thown away).

Would buy again in a heartbeat.

Just installed the Power Watchdog EPO 30A internal, and it works great. For me easy install, power into trailer right inside removeable panel, and if we ever were to change trailers, easy to remove. Bluetooth is great, works well with good info about usage. I always check with homemade devices just like others have posted. Even if I didn't, the Watchdog would act if there were problems!!! Installation ease should be a determining factor in your choice.

MDKMDK: "you're most likely going to have to exit the vehicle at some point to resolve the problem" How did you plug in in the first place!!!!!!!