electrical question

[late_bloomer]

I have 50 amp service at my pole barn, where my rv will be stored. My rv is a 30 amp tt. Would I be better off using a 50 amp surge protector, then plugging in a 50 amp to 30 amp adapter; or, using the 50 amp to 30 amp adapter, then plugging in a 30 amp surge protector?

Surge protectors are progressive industries ssp 30xl or ssp 50xl.

[wa8yxm]

Fact first then opinion

UNLESS you plan to upgrade within the year the Surge Guard or EMS should match the RV that is 30 amp RV 30 amp Surge Guard or EMS (EMS is Progressive industries name for it)

Opinion
PI's are better than TRC's (Surge guard line) or at least a better warranty BUT..

Camping world has Surge Guard on sale 25% off if you have the coupon and it's not yet expired (I got mine) and if you are hard wiring Surge Guard is easier to HW.

Opinion 2
HW is better than portable.> WHY? up to 3 reasons
`1: Security: hard wired is "out of sight out of mind" for the five finger disount crowd
2: Security: You never forget to put it in line if it's there all the time. On an overnight you might think "oh it's too much trouble" and well there is a story around here of someone who blew up their electronics plugging into a proper 50 amp outlet Seems the hots made contact BEFORE the neutral and ZAPP the Surge guard will protect you if you do that.

3: in my case I have an INSTALLED autoformer So the surge guard drops me if voltage drops.. but the autoformer brings the voltage back up so

Park--Autoformer--Surge Guard--Auto Transfer Switch--RV

My Surge guard is installed. but in the same manner as the Autoformer (I put a pair of pigtails on it from an older portable unit that died.. Twice I fixed the first death) and it seems to be working well. I also "restored" in a manner of speaking the bypass feature should it fail. (They used to have a bypass feature but they removed it)

How to bypass mine

Turn off park breaker
Unplug (Surge guard from autoformer)
Unplug ATS from Surge guard
Plug ATS into autoformer
Turn on park breaker

[2chiefsRus]

either way would work. It sounds like you are going to purchase a Progressive Industries product either way which are both good choices. If it were me, I would purchase the 50 amp product if there is any possibility you may upgrade rv's at some point. Cheaper overall to purchase one PI product now than to purchase one now and then another one later.

[DutchmenSport]

time2roll wrote:
If you have a 30 amp RV get the 30 amp surge protector...

Agree.

[time2roll]

If you have a 30 amp RV get the 30 amp surge protector.

And skip the simple surge protection and get the EMS-30PTX or the equivalent hard wired version.

[Flute_Man]

I have the PI PT-50C.
Jerry Parr

[late_bloomer]

Thanks y'all. I'm pretty ignorant about electrical stuff. Living in FL we have lots of power surges and outages though. Time to get educated!

[cavie]

either one will protect your unit. Do you understand the difference between a Surge Protector, EMS, and an auto-former? 3 different pieces of equipment. You probably won't need any of them at home. At a campground all bets are off. EMS and Auto-former would be my choice. Low voltage is most common in campgrounds. especially older ones.

[Flute_Man]

Use the 50 to 30 adapter and a 50 amp surge protector.
The reason I suggest a 50 amp is that sometime in the future you may upgrade your unit and have 50 amp RV.