One of the upgrades on our wish list since we purchased Rover was a full-featured RV power protection system. Every week or two we’re plugging into a different RV park or campground, and there’s no guarantee that they all have consistent and reliable power circuits. We’ve heard from RVers who have had systems in their RV damaged due to high voltage, low voltage, power surges, and even by incorrectly wired RV park outlets that have an open neutral or a short.
From the factory Rover came with a built-in Surge Guard Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) with Power Protection. The main function of this device is the ATS: when the generator is turned on, it switches Rover’s power source over to the generator instead of the “shore line” connection to the RV Park. When the generator is shut off, power is switched back to the RV park power. The unit also does some basic surge protection for the whole RV, but doesn’t protect from many of the common issues we’ve heard about.
At the Quartzsite RV show we purchased a Progressive LCHW50 system. This unit will shut off power to the RV if the 120 volt power drops below 104 volts or over 132 volts, if anything is mis-wired in the RV park’s power pedestal, if there’s a surge, if the AC frequency is off, and in a variety of other conditions. It also has a display that will show the current status of the RV park’s power and if any error conditions have occurred.
The Progressive LCHW50 with its cover removed.
Buying it was the easy part, installing it was another matter! If you do attempt an install like this yourself, keep in mind that you’re working with 100 amps of 120 volt electricity… a mistake could damage your RV or even be deadly!
Installation Procedure
First, here’s what Rover’s power system looks like from the factory (Rover’s a 2014 Tiffin Allegro 36LA), with the Surge Guard system sitting between the RV and the generator/RV park power:
Our plan is to install the new Progressive unit in between the RV park power line and the existing Surge Guard. There are two ways to insert the Progressive into the power line:
Option 1: Purchase a short length of cable at a hardware store like Home Depot for about $6 per foot. Disconnect the existing RV power cable from the Surge Guard and instead connect it to the Progressive. Then run the new cable from the Progressive to the Surge Guard.
Option 2: Cut the existing RV power cable about two feet before it reaches the Surge Guard and connect it to the input of the Progressive unit. The two foot cable that’s still connected to the Surge Guard then gets connected to the output of the Progressive unit.
Option 2’s main advantage is that you don’t need to open the existing Surge Guard at all to remove the RV power cable and later connect the new store-bought cable. The disadvantage is that cutting through the RV power cable cleanly is quite difficult without the right tools. We purchased a short cable (option 1), but that’s because it wasn’t until halfway through the install that I realized cutting the existing cable (option 2) would have saved us a lot of effort reconnecting the Surge Guard.
The cable to buy is either “6–3 with ground” or “6–4”, where the first number is the size of each wire inside (“6” is a pretty thick wire) and the second is the number of wires in the cable. For 50-amp service, three wires plus a ground wire are needed, thus the “6–3 with ground” or “6–4” cables.
Getting Started
Hopefully it goes without saying, but unplug the RV from shore power, and ensure the generator is off. It can’t hurt to flip both the generator circuit breakers to “off” just in case!
Since we purchased a 2-foot long cable from Home Depot to connect between the Progressive and the Surge Guard, the first thing we need to do is open the Surge Guard to disconnect the RV power cord. Below you can see the two inputs to the Surge Guard: the generator input on the bottom and the RV park input on the top. I’ve highlighted in red and yellow the section I’m going to be working on:
Close-up of the existing Surge Guard. Reconnecting the red/yellow/black/green wires later is going to be challenging.
Next, we back out the screws holding the four wires in place, loosen the silver clamp holding the RV power cable in place (visible in the photo above), and remove the power cord:
RV power cord disconnected from the existing Surge Guard unit.
The RV power cord now gets connected to the “input” side of the new Progressive unit. The red, white (or yellow), and black wires go under the three screws, similar to how they were connected to the Surge Guard. Make sure they’re tight—we don’t want these wires coming loose and touching something inside the box! The green (ground) wire gets clamped to a ring connector (included in the Progressive box) and screwed to the ground plate of the box using a green screw and nut (also included in the Progressive box):
Connecting the RV power cord to the Progressive unit.
Next I prepare both ends of the new 2′ cable from Home Depot. Since the ends were cleanly cut, I need to strip about 3″ of the outer insulation off. I use a utility knife for this but it’s extremely important to work slowly and be careful not to cut through the insulation of the inner wires:
Stripping 3″ of outer insulation off the 6–4 cable.
Next I remove about ½” of insulation from each of the inner wires, again using the knife and being careful not to cut the individual strands of wire inside each cable:
3/8″ of insulation stripped back. I later removed a bit more leaving 1/2″ of wire exposed.
With both ends of the 2′ cable prepared, I attach one end to the “output” side of the Progressive. This is particularly tricky since the black and red wires need to be threaded through two current sensors (the black plastic gadgets with black and white wires in the photo below). The 6–4 cable is stiff and hard to bend, and there’s not much space inside the box, so getting everything hooked up takes a lot of trial and error (and four hands—Kathie came to the rescue on this part).
Once the wires and cable are secured, I attach the LCD display and put the cover back on the box. The last part, and another big challenge, is connecting the remaining cable end to the old Surge Guard unit. Again this means lots of fiddling with bulky, non-flexible wires, but this time while curled up inside the storage compartment! Below, the connection is complete: the original RV power cable now goes into the Progressive unit, and the short Home Depot cable connects the Progressive to the original Surge Guard.
Connecting the Progressive to the existing Surge Guard.
I put the cover back on the Surge Guard, and it’s time for the real-world test. I have to admit, I’m a little nervous! I check that the RV park pedestal’s 50A circuit breaker is “off”, and plug the RV power cord in. With one hand behind my back, I flip the circuit breaker on. If I’m going to be electrocuted, I don’t want it running through my heart, so I always ensure that my other hand isn’t touching anything that could complete a circuit!
Fortunately, everything seems to work perfectly! The Progressive display turns on, and 15 seconds later it begins sending power through to the Surge Guard. A few seconds after that, the Surge Guard begins sending power through to the RV. We go inside and confirm that everything is working as it should. Whew!
All that’s left now is some clean-up tasks. I disconnect the power once more and mount the Progressive to the wall under the Surge Guard:
Progressive unit mounted to the compartment wall.
I want to ensure that the cable entering the Progressive unit never gets pulled or twisted, which might cause the wires inside to loosen or detach, so I relocate the two wire harnesses that previously held the power cord in place. Hopefully this arrangement will ensure that the connections remain solid, even if it means we can’t use quite the full length of the power cable:
Cable harnesses relocated to prevent pulling or twisting the connections.
Now that everything is up and running, I can check the power quality at each RV park, and feel reassured that bad power isn’t going to ruin our day. Here at Catalina State Park, one of the 50-amp feeds is running at 120 volts, and the other at 119 volts. Sounds great!
119 volts is just about perfect!
Wrap-up
At several points during the install I thought to myself “why didn’t I just pay someone to install this?” Usually it was when we were trying to connect the wires to the screws inside the two boxes. However, every time we successfully work on Rover ourselves, it helps us better understand how Rover’s systems work and makes us more self-sufficient for the future. Most importantly, I hope this write-up helps someone else with their install someday!
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Nice work. I am going to have to get one these. I also want an auto gen start as well. I have never got around to getting my 5 Star tune. Any thoughts on that now that you have had it for a while? I have lots of little things to do in our 36LA before April 23rd when we hit the road agin.
We love the 5-Star Tune. The increased engine power is really helpful on both small hills (e.g. highway overpasses) and large hills. It downshifts a lot less often, and the engine runs more quietly on the hills, mainly because it doesn’t downshift as far, since peak HP/torque is now around 3,200 RPM instead of 4,100 RPM.
I see that you have the newest circuit card for your transfer switch.
http://www.tiffinrvnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=550833#p550833
Thanks for the extremely detailed steps. I’ve been trying to decide whether to go with the portable or hardwired and really wanted to go hardwired but was nervous about the steps. Your bay looks almost identical to my 35QBA so your instructions should be perfect. Thanks again!
Hope it goes smoothly! As mentioned, the biggest issue is wrangling those really stiff wires into the screw holes. Good luck,
Mike
Great photos and detailed descriptions Mike. Installed the same model as yours on our 36LA a few months ago. Install went very smooth. The only difference was our Transfer Switch was lower on the wall, so I mounted the EMS above the Transfer Switch. Works very well and can see the display very well. Thanks Mike. Enjoy all your adventures. Safe Travels!!
Glad the install went smoothly!
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Mike, Kathie,
Know this post is an older one, so not sure if you still follow the comments or not. I have been following you for some time, and just came across your blogs on solar and power. We are seriously considering putting some solar on our 2013 Itasca Meridian 34b for the same reasons you listed in your articles.
I just read through this article on power protection. As you are much more experienced than we are, I am sure you have already thought of this. One of the key problems with power it the pedestal at an RV park. My coach already has a power control system like you installed in yours as you explain in this article. But that still leaves you with the problem of backing into a site, plugging into a pedestal, only to find out the pedestal is not good. And what you and I have will prevent any power from getting to the coach, so you are dead in the water. Especially after you already went to the trouble of backing in and starting to get set up.
To help prevent that, and also to make sure I understand the quality of power I am getting out of the pedestal, I built a tester to test the 50amp power. I found this on line, http://www.myrv.us/electric/Pg/tester_50amp.htm and made my own. It was very simple. I am not an electrician and it still was pretty simple. With your experience it will be a breeze. I ordered the meters and plug from Amazon and the outlets, gang box, wire and plate cover at Lowe’s.
Now, when we get to our site, before I back in, I plug this unit in and make sure that everything is good with the pedestal. If it is not, I can go to the office and have then move me or address the issue. Plus, my tester will prove it to them.
P.S. keep up with the great articles and interesting blogs.
Travel safe,
Craig
Craig,
Luckily, in our almost three years on the road and 100+ campgrounds we’ve only had two times that I can recall where we got parked and found a problem with the power pedestal. The first time (NY State Park), we called the office and they immediately sent someone out who replaced the breaker. The second time (FL RV Park) they moved us to a different site.
A 50/100A tester is a great idea if you want to check out the power in advance. For us, we usually back in and immediately plug in the RV before dealing with leveling, slides, etc. so it wouldn’t save us much time/effort and would be one more thing to carry around in an already crowded toolbox :-)
Have you had a lot of issues with campground power? Maybe we’ve just been very lucky?
Thanks for sharing! I’m sure some folks will be interested in picking up (or building) one of these…
Mike
Mike
No serious problem yet. Just heard stories of the damage that can happen, even with protected systems
Just thought I would share.
Enjoy reading your posts. Keep it up
Mike
Wanted to let you know that I got my Progressive Industries EMS-HW50C installed this weekend. I was motivated by your article to boost my protection. So based on your bravery and detailed exploits, I decided to install it my self. The only two times I questioned myself was when I cut my main power cable in two, thus cutting all power permanently and marking restoration totally dependent on me! The other was trying to get those large wires into the box and into the set screws. This whole thing was even more traumatic as it has been 90 here in Tucson this week and I just ensured we would not have any air conditioning unless I figured this out.
Your article and photos were great. I would not have done this and could not have installed it my self without your help and advice. Thanks!
Awesome! Glad it worked out. It sure is a pain getting those large wires into the right spots. You’re brave for doing it in the Tucson heat. Funny, looking back at the comments above I have something to add: just in the last two weeks we’ve been at two RV parks (Picacho Tucson KOA and Mesa Apache Trail KOA) where our Progressive cut off our power due to low voltage… the pedestal was putting out less than 104 volts. At Mesa we complained to the office and their suggestion was “just disconnect your power management device”!! Fortunately I could reply that it’s hardwired and can’t be disconnected, but that was definitely the wrong answer to a power problem.