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Circuit Testers
04-02-2018, 14:59 (This post was last modified: 04-02-2018 15:42 by cmillsap.)
Post: #1
Circuit Testers
I’ve been reading about surge protectors regarding the best way to protect your coach from possibly bad power supplied at a RV park hook-up. I’ve always used a portable surge protector connected right at the RV parks source. The one I use also monitors and reacts to low or high voltage shutting the power supply off if detected.

The downside is if there is bad power at the connection box and you plug your surge protector into it you run the risk of sacrificing and destroying your surge protector. That’s certainly better than damaging all the electronics in your coach.

A better way to protect your surge protector and your coach is build yourself a circuit tester. There are receptacle plug-in circuit testers available that will tell you if there is an open ground, open neutral, open hot, hot/ ground reverse, hot/ground neutral, and good to connect. Here’s one as an example.
http://www.filmtools.com/idcirtes61.html

Have an electrician properly wire a 120V duplex receptacle (2 separate circuits) to the proper RV male connector such as shown below and plug 2 circuit testers into the 120V receptacle. Test the RV park’s shore power with the circuit tester first to confirm good power on each leg before connecting you surge protector and coach.

İmage İmage
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04-03-2018, 12:47
Post: #2
RE: Circuit Testers
That's clever Chuck. I'm going to make one of those. Thanks for the tip.

david brady,
'02 Wanderlodge LXi 'Smokey' (Sold),
'04 Prevost H3 Vantare 'SpongeBob'

"there is no perfect forum there are only perfect forums"
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04-06-2018, 11:38 (This post was last modified: 04-06-2018 15:22 by travelite.)
Post: #3
RE: Circuit Testers
During my last trip I had to replace my voltage regulator on my Powertech. A quick scan of the gauges showed the genny voltage fluctuating wildly hitting voltage peaks in excess of 140VAC. My inverters immediately detached from the generator and resumed inverter power to the loads. I bring this up to illustrate the power protection provided by our Trace SW4024's. These inverters provide hardware protection (not software) against shore power under and over voltage and frequency deviation. Within nanoseconds of detecting these conditions the Trace SW4024 will trip the relays to disconnect. Without missing a beat the inverters will instantly transition to inverter power. It's not lightning surge protection, with the associated high amperage (80,000+ amps) which will weld a relay closed, but it is over and under voltage protection.

Vantare runs all loads through the inverters, so all circuits in the coach get this protection.

david brady,
'02 Wanderlodge LXi 'Smokey' (Sold),
'04 Prevost H3 Vantare 'SpongeBob'

"there is no perfect forum there are only perfect forums"
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04-08-2018, 18:30
Post: #4
RE: Circuit Testers
Clever. You might want to use a plastic outdoor box to prevent a shock from the metal case if the outlet has a bad ground. Add a 240V detector and it will have fully tested the campsite wiring.
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