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Portable or Hardwired EMS?

Powertour
Explorer II
Explorer II
To me it'd be a no-brainer to have a hard wired unit if we were full timers but we're not.

Wondering if it'd make more sense to get an exterior unit considering:

- We're weekenders
- I can see where we might change out rigs sometime within the next 5yrs

Also, I can see benefit in being able to test different pedestals w/out having to move the rig should a fault be found at an initially assigned spot.

Understand a big downside is potential theft of exterior EMS units, just wondering if other than that there's much of a downside to having one.
2015 Itasca 25b Ford E350 V10
35 REPLIES 35

TUCQUALA
Explorer
Explorer
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!!!!!!!
'16 Outdoors Timber Ridge 280RKS
Reese 1700# Trunnion w/ DualCam HP
'03 EXCURSION XLT V10 4.30 Axles

Powertour
Explorer II
Explorer II
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.
2015 Itasca 25b Ford E350 V10

deltabravo
Nomad
Nomad
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
2009 Silverado 3500HD Dually, D/A, CCLB 4x4 (bought new 8/30/09)
2018 Arctic Fox 992 with an Onan 2500i "quiet" model generator

WVcampground
Explorer
Explorer
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.
"Now the Subaru with the “coexist” sticker on the back doing 68 mph passing a semi that’s going 67mph in a 70 zone. Yeah I’ll slap the entitlement tag on them leaf lickers!" - Grit Dog - Warning, you may find the preceding offensive if you lick leaves.

Edd505
Explorer
Explorer
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 ........
2015 F350 FX4 SRW 6.7 Crew, longbed - 2017 Durango Gold 353RKT
2006 F350 SRW 6.0 crew longbed sold
2000 F250 SRW 7.3 extended longbed airbags sold
2001 Western Star 4900EX sold
Jayco Eagle 30.5BHLT sold, Layton 24.5LT sold

Lantley
Nomad
Nomad
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.
19'Duramax w/hips, 2022 Alliance Paradigm 390MP >BD3,r,22" Blackstone
r,RV760 w/BC20,Glow Steps, Enduraplas25,Pedego
BakFlip,RVLock,Prog.50A surge ,Hughes autoformer
Porta Bote 8.0 Nissan, Sailun S637

Route_66_Travel
Explorer
Explorer
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

time2roll
Nomad
Nomad
ScottG wrote:
I know me. If I had to plug it in I might not bother at times.
HW is always there no matter what.
Yes. Especially if the circumstances require someone else to do the plugging in.

Powertour
Explorer II
Explorer II
DutchmenSport - You make a salient point reference a portable setup giving you the option of whether or not to press forward with taking in power that any given EMS unit may consider to be substandard. Hand't thought of that scenario but I can see a person running into something like that.
2015 Itasca 25b Ford E350 V10

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
MDKMDK wrote:
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 uninstalling the hard wired versions or trying to replace parts in it.


Brilliant!


Aw shucks, tweren't nuthin. :W


Here's how I did my previous TT. The compartment where the power cord shoves back into from the outside was accessible form inside the camper by removing a panel. I then hinged the panel. I then cut the power cord attached to the traile just long enough to attach a new male end. I then used a 30 amp (mine was 30 amp) cord extension and simply plugged the new protector into the now trailer (short pigtale) and the extension cord into the protector. The male end of the protector was simply shoved back into the outside hole, and had only a few inches of movement. It worked magnificent.

The original cord attached to the trailer. I put a new end on it after cutting it free from the junction box inside the camper.



The cabinet (bottom) where the outside cord is shoved into.



This is actually the male end of the surge protector coming through the hole.



Here's the inside of the cabinet:



Simple, easy, and worked very well.

When we sold the trailer, I just removed the portable unite, and plugged the original cord back in to it's original existing wire. I let the dealer I sold to know about this, if they wanted to keep it that way, or simply remove the short pig tale from the junction box and wire it back in directly, or just leave it that way so the next person could slap in a portable protector or EMS.

We indeed, did sell that trailer and I did keep the protector.

The new 5er did not have a convenient way to do this, so ended up getting a Progressive Industry EMS portable. It came with a ring around the wire with a hole in it. I keep a bicycle cable lock in that hole all the time and the key to the lock with my set of keys for the camper. Works OK.

FYI, more and more portable unites, for example, Hughes Autoformer has bluetooth technology that sends all the read-outs to your cell phone. My current 30 amp (which replaced the one in the photo above) does that. It's really sweet when we are at a site that has 30 amp only, and not 50. The Progressive 50 amp does not do it.

FYI, the Progressive unite has a 2 minute delay after plugging in, or after power is restored at the source. But the unit begins immediately to check the power and send out readings on the display or error codes on the display before activating power to the camper. If there is anything wrong with the incoming power, the Progressive portable EMS will display that right away, giving you a chance to unplug if you don't like what you see. Then, you still have the option to plug the power cord directly into the power source if you want, instead of being locked out because the EMS is hardwired in your camper. I've never plugged in directly when an error was thrown, but I have reported errors to the campground management and breaker boxes and plugs were promptly exchanged by campground maintenance (3 times now over this last Summer).

Roger10378
Explorer II
Explorer II
neschultz wrote:
Hardwired!

In addition to the other advantages that were listed:

Why add another plug and socket? I often see where the plug or socket have burnt up on the portable units. If the receptacle on the portable gets a high resistance, you will get low voltage in your unit. I remove the wire from the input of the power panel, connect it to the EMS and then add a short cable from the EMS output to the input of the power panel.

And if it’s a 50 amp unit, the hardwired will protect your unit from a power cord fault. IMHO, an open neutral on the power cord (or source) is the most important protection.


This is the way I did mine 10 years ago. We are not full time but average 10 to 12 weeks a year on the road. Only one time in all those years has it detected a fault and kept me from receiving power(the campground had a bad 50amp breaker). It has shut down a few time for low voltage in the middle of a hot afternoon. If anything needs repairing the parts are plug-in and Progressive will send the new ones as needed.
2005 Cardinal 30TS
2007 Chevy 2500HD D/A

neschultz
Explorer
Explorer
Hardwired!

In addition to the other advantages that were listed:

Why add another plug and socket? I often see where the plug or socket have burnt up on the portable units. If the receptacle on the portable gets a high resistance, you will get low voltage in your unit. I remove the wire from the input of the power panel, connect it to the EMS and then add a short cable from the EMS output to the input of the power panel.

And if it’s a 50 amp unit, the hardwired will protect your unit from a power cord fault. IMHO, an open neutral on the power cord (or source) is the most important protection.
Norman & Janet with Minnie the Weiner Dog
2005 SunnyBrook 38 BWQS 5th Wheel (stationary in FL for snowbirding)

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Explorer III
THanks Southwire is the name on the box

For the "Attached cord crowd how to "install" the easy way
you will need
A hacksaw
Two 50 amp plugs
Two 50 amp outlets (Or if your RV is 30 amp make that 2 pair 30 amp)
These can be RV type or Twist lock.

Find space or the unit behind the breaker box.

Using hack saw cut the cord leaving enough attached to the breaker box that you can work with it.

Install a 50 amp MALE plug on this

Pull the cord out (or in) and whck off a section.

For southwire TRC surge guards wack of 2 sertions about 10"
For Progressive Industires HW-50C I'm not sure The following will be or the TRC product

To one length attach an matching the plug 50 amp outlet (Female)
Attach the other end of this wire to the Surge Guard Load side (output)

Tape over the terminals to protect from accidential contact.

To the other segement put the plug and hook to the INPUT (Line) end of the surge guard

TRape over those contacts as well

Put the remaining outlet on the cut end of the shore cord

Plug in

Plug in Reote and enjoy


I'm not sure if the Progressive needs two short sections like the TRC
or one longer one with some special attengion to how the wires are connected
But the connections are, as I recall, inside the box (Do not have one just read the instructions)
Home was where I park it. but alas the.
2005 Damon Intruder 377 Alas declared a total loss
after a semi "nicked" it. Still have the radios
Kenwood TS-2000, ICOM ID-5100, ID-51A+2, ID-880 REF030C most times

MDKMDK
Explorer
Explorer
fj12ryder wrote:
I'm not really sure I understand this "One more thing to remember to do". My portable EMS is always plugged into my electric cord, and the EMS is what is plugged into the pedestal. Last time I checked you had to plug into the pedestal to get power to the RV.

In order to use a hardwired EMS, I'd have to do some fancy rigging, plus it would not be easily accessible if I needed to have it repaired/replaced.

OTOH my old SurgeGuard bit the dust after suffering water intrusion. The PI I have now looks to be much more watertight than the SurgeGuard.

I have never heard of anyone having their EMS stolen, not even any rumors or hearsay.


X2 on all counts. Except water intrusion. I keep my PI PT30X portable tucked away inside the (smallish) electrical bay, out of the weather. Only the 30A extension shore cord gets wet. Or tripped on. Or whatever-ed.
Mike. Comments are anecdotal or personal opinions, and worth what you paid for them.
2018 (2017 Sprinter Cab Chassis) Navion24V + 2016 Wrangler JKU (sold @ ????)
2016 Sunstar 26HE, V10, 3V, 6 Speed (sold @ 4600 miles)
2002 Roadtrek C190P (sold @ 315,000kms)