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Surge Guard and Power Issues

February 22, 2013, 07:52:26 pm

Well, I got to Fort Wilderness a couple days ago and plugged in and everything was working fine. Then the second morning I was awakened by the transfer switch slamming open and the cpap stopping for a second till the inverter kicked in. SO I thought oh well I did not have on too much power as it was cool and there was no power coming in. SO out to the panel I go and put my small tester in. There was power but nothing in the coach.  So I took the top of the bed off and saw only one line was getting power. I was late to leave for the park so I hooked up the 30 amp adapter and it worked fine.  SO we left it at that for the day. Today I was walking the pups and saw there was a maintenance man in the site across from me.  He was checking the power pole. I walked over and asked him if he was in maintenance and he said he was the electrician. I laughed and said just the man I need. Told him what happened so he came over and looked at the box.  He tested it and saw power but opened it up and saw that the breaker was fried on one leg.  The surge guard did not let the power in as it was not showing power on both legs.  Interesting that all it took was asking. The guy sai dthat he had a couple complaints from this area and one guy had an issue afterwards with some stuff in his coach.

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Re: Surge Guard and Power Issues

Reply #1 – February 22, 2013, 08:17:03 pm

We just left there after a 9 day stay a couple of weeks ago.  Were in the 400 loop and had no problems with power.  But when we first arrived it seemed that the previous camper had removed the cable face plate from the post.  All that was left was a stripped piece of coax.  Maybe he drove off while still connected.  Guess Fort Wilderness needs alot of maintenance given the high usage. 

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Reply #2 – February 22, 2013, 08:19:36 pm

"Maybe he drove off while still connected." I wonder how often that happens. I know I've seen a few campers going down the road with some sort of cord or hose flapping behind.

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Reply #3 – February 22, 2013, 09:29:25 pm

I am in the 400 loop. It was pretty widespread as people were talking about it.  They took care of it and that is important too.

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Reply #4 – February 22, 2013, 09:40:35 pm

It is amazing what lengths Disney goes to in order to prevent bad news, bad mouth about any part of their park spreading.  My son has worked there  as a lucky 15%er for 25 yrs, we have had many informative talks, just amazing.
Enjoy, the Disney park is more safe than most any place you could vacation.
The 15% is fulltime employee, 85% are temp employees at Disney.
Dave M

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Reply #5 – February 22, 2013, 09:50:08 pm

Yes Dave you are right. They do go the extra mile to fix what is wrong. They get huge numbers of people coming in and out of the campground too every day.

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Reply #6 – February 22, 2013, 09:55:22 pm

With multiple sites having trouble, I wonder if they had a supply or power distribution panel issue?  It makes you wonder about those who don't have surge protection equipment (or even voltage readout).

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Reply #7 – February 22, 2013, 10:20:23 pm

Justa funny note about Fort Wilderness, have been there 3 times with the MCI conversion, always felt people looked at me as if I had a 3 pound pimple in middle of forehead, but 99% were in Winnys or Fleetwoods, I just laughed as usual, I was the happiest dude in the Fort.
Sometimes you just have to laugh
Dave M

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Reply #8 – February 23, 2013, 06:49:21 am

There is a MCI in the spot across from me. He is from IL and did the conversion himself. Also there is a 91 Neoplan home made conversion as well. Nicely done by both guys but ou are right lots of fleet woods and Tiffens. I think they had an issue at the main box too and most are not even aware of what we have in the coach for power management. They do spend a lot repairing their AC units though.

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Reply #9 – February 23, 2013, 09:04:36 am

We were in a RV park back in early Dec ( still on the road ) and we lost power in half of the coach. Did my usual checks and didn't find anything wrong with our systems. The park hooked us to an open post for the night. Next day they found the electric meter had a open leg and replaced it. All was good then.

Also plugged into a post (another park) that the owner claimed the 30a was off. NOT

Will install the Progressive EMS-HW50C surge protection when we get home.

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Reply #10 – February 24, 2013, 10:17:56 am

I received my Progressive EMS-HW50C a couple weeks ago. I guess I need to install it!

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Reply #11 – February 24, 2013, 11:49:15 am

Had collected all the goodies to make my out version  of the 50 amp, but can not make compact enough, so I surrendered and ordered the fancy $333.00 unit.
Now I can relax & sleep.
Dave  M

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Reply #12 – February 24, 2013, 10:11:27 pm

We are on our second Surge Guard. Used the first for several years, until it began to just "chatter" and would not operate. The company advised me that they cannot be repaired ... it had just taken enough "hits" and had done it's job and was fried. We got another one as soon as we could ... they are really worth the peace of mind.

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Reply #13 – February 25, 2013, 01:51:38 am

Regular Surge Guard models in my opinion are not as good as Progressive Industries EMS, which have great customer service and will send out new parts for any problems and protects against 60 cycle anomalies.

Surge Guard Plus model 40240 specs out as a copy of EMS, but I don't know if they will replace any problematic parts.

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Reply #14 – February 25, 2013, 02:53:20 am

We've had our shore-side Progressive EMS-HW50C for 5 years now with no problems.  It has protected us from a number of supply irregularities and glitches.  Just keeps working.

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Reply #15 – February 25, 2013, 09:16:55 pm

I swear by my Progressive EMS-HW50C. Had one in our first RV, and I'll have one in our last RV and every RV in between. The best $300 I ever spent.

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