Surge Protectors Yes or No

Do I need to put a surge protector in my main cable. I have had no problems, but I see them advertised in RV mag. 2006 Gloden Gate

We don't have one and I haven't experianced any problem yet. I do have a meter plugged in so I can monitor the voltage of the park.
I take care to turn the ckt breaker off when I hook up or disconnect. That's about it.

Coop, consider this. Any kind of surge can cost alot of money. I had a case of the "Tim Allens" and accidently plugged mine into 240 volt. the short list of damage all of which were detroyed. The inverter, Bose Wave radio, coffee maker, 120 side of the fridge, built in vaccum. All in all about $1850.00 in damage. Luckily my homeowners ins has an IDIOT clause and covered the repairs.I now have a surge protector and NEVER plug in without it in line.

Thanks for the INFO

We had a surge protector added inside our unit by the dealer when we purchased it. As was stated earlier, the cost of the protector will be worth the headache of replacing electrical appliances.

Jim; What brand, model did he put in? I've been thinking about putting one in with an inverter but haven't come up with a good combination yet. I've been using inverters with good results for a good while but never tied it in with a surge protector. Any ideas will be appreciated.

The dealer installed a Surge Guard - model # 40240. It protects against surges and also if the power drops which can also damage appliances. There is also a bypass offered along with a delay. Here is the website http://www.surgeguard.com/

J-W&E
Would you please shair with me where they installed this Surge Guard on your Grand Canyon. I am thinking of putting one on our unit and may do it myself.

It was installed in the area to the left of the battery.

Hi
I would not be without a Surge protector of some sort. The one I have now is pluged into the 110VAC 50AMP shore power and the AC cord from the rig is pluged into the Surge protector. It not only protects your equipment for surges but also from low voltages. Ours turns off if the voltage goes below 101VAC. Could burn out motors with that kind of low voltage.
Lee

I'm married to an electrician. He has never felt the need for a surge protector. We have been campers for 18 years now.

I vote yes for a surge protector....after the repair guy fried 8 appliances...which they replaced....and they were fried again....Heartland highly recommended that we get a sp...and they were very happy when they came by and saw the sp....so YES on surge protectors

PK

Cheryl said:

I'm married to an electrician. He has never felt the need for a surge protector. We have been campers for 18 years now.

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Hmmm, "shoemakers children go barefoot"??? just kidding Cheryl. I am an Electronic Engineer, and I don't have a SP in my rig either. But I do have a good Fluke meter in my trailer, and always check the service before I hook up the AC line.

I have moved sites once when I didn't like what I saw on the meter.

Nelson keeps some kind of meter too. And, he always has me flip the power switch off before plugging in. But he says that is to avoid accidental shocking (of me).

I used to think all I needed was to meter the power before I plugged in and I'd be okay. Then I read on some other forums where the real sneak-up-and-bite-you-in-the-rear problem is with brown-outs and surges. This can often happen in the high heat of summer in a full park. You may meter the power when arriving and all looks okay. Then after hooked up and everyone running their a/c's at the same time, if the park's power set up isn't up to par, you can lose your appliances by low power that wasn't there when you first hooked up.

IMO, it's a very cheap insurance policy to have the protection.

Yeah, we had some low voltage problems where our Landmark is parked. I installed the Hughes Autoformer and that eliminated most of my problems with low voltage, and it has some surge protection too. My 2 neighbors in the RV park lost some appliances last year, 1 to low voltage and 2 to a surge (or vice-versa, can't remember now). I lost my cooling fan motor in my home refrigerator 3 times last year, and I know for sure that twice it was a surge because I discovered the fridge was not cooling a couple of hours after a momentary power failure. When the power came back on a second later I think it got the fan. The first motor went out while I was out of town for a few days, not sure what caused that. The appliance repairman said he had several other service calls of the same type at the same time on the other 2 though. I now have a whole house surge protector installed. Had the fridge not been under warranty each fan would have cost $250.