Hughs Autoformer Hard Wired Installation Location

I received my Hughes 50amp Autoformer yesterday and off to the campground I went to try it.
Before plugging it in I had 114v at rv wall outlet with no load and 110 with AC running.
I hooked up the Autoformer at pedestal, now have 117 to 122 at wall outlet no load, and 115 to 117 with AC running. Woo hoo.
This thing works. Now I just have to hard wire it in.

First I need to describe the "INSTALL KIT" It consists of 3 main parts.

A short 50 amp cord
A 50 amp plug
1 50 amp socket

now.. The procedure... First you find a spot,, (I will describe that) then you decide if you are going to use the short cord on the oultlet or plug side.

IN your case, I assume there is storage below the fridge.. So find your power path.. IF you are HARD WIRED (I assume you are) remove the cord from the breaker box/distribution panel route it to the area where you plan on parking the auto-former and put the outlet on it.. Pay attention to where the wires go Green to the roundish pin, White opposite, red and black to the sides)

Put the plug on the supplied cable and route it from the hughes compartment to the transfer switch.. breaker box,, Same consideration, Red/Black to the breakers, Green to the bare wire buss, White to the White.

Now, turn off your main breaker plug the plug into the socket and plug in, take voltage measurements to insure you have it wired properly. IF so, unplug

Unplug the plug from teh socket and plug in the autoformer. Job done. ALMOST

Make sure storage compartment with autoformer is well vented.

IF YOU USE A POWER LINE PROTECTOR (What we call surge guards with an LCD display) you plug it into the autoformer and then plug the Distriution panel into it.

JoeH wrote:
The one I have gets slightly warm, not enough to worry about. When I put ours in, I added a receptacle on the end of the shore cord. The autoformer plugs into that. Then I put a plug on the house wiring to plug into the autoformer. In the event of an issue with the autoformer, it's just a couple seconds to unplug it from the circuit

That is similar to how we wired ours.

Thanks for the response. I'm bidding on a new 50amp Hughes on eBay right now. I'm only bidder. Under $500 inches shipping. Suppose to be new in box from an rv supply dealer. $100 cheaper than anywhere else.

My electrical cable enters my 5th wheel in an enclosed compartment that is about 1x3x3 feet. The compartment is used to store the electrical cable.

There was room to mount my Hughs transformer and hard wire it. Just last week we were in Boise and it was 98 degrees and the air conditioner was running almost full time. I checked the temperature of the transformer and it was only warm to touch.

The transformer was needed as the incoming voltage was about 108 at times.

I have my autoformer hard wired inside a closet .I was lucky it was easy to get to thru the bottom .It have been hard wired for 3-4 years now.No problems over heating.just be sure to strap it down so it doesn't fall over on its side.

The one I have gets slightly warm, not enough to worry about. When I put ours in, I added a receptacle on the end of the shore cord. The autoformer plugs into that. Then I put a plug on the house wiring to plug into the autoformer. In the event of an issue with the autoformer, it's just a couple seconds to unplug it from the circuit

The Autoformer get warm, yet not very hot. I don't know if they have a BTU rating, but my guess is they do not consume a lot of power, yet consumes more when you are using more power - such as running the A/C's and a lot of other stuff.

So if the transformer is putting out about 3,000 watts, it might itself consume about 30 watts in the process. 30 watts X 3.4 Btu's is about 90 Btu's per hour. Not a significant load.

I would not worry to much about burying it behind the refrigerator. Yet it might become difficult to wire. I guess I would extend all the Autoformer wires with some #8 (or is it #6 wire). Then you will establish a input red and black wire, along with input white. Then you will need to have a input red and black and white wire as well, that will connect to your power panel.

Then with blue wire connectors, the REALLY large ones, you can one at a time disconnect the red and black and white shore power wires from the main panel, and wire nut them to the new wires. Then extend the new output wires to the correct locations in the power panel.

Hopefully it will be easy to shove the autoformer into it's new home, without dislodging any of the wires.

Fairly straight forward process.

Fred.