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  1. #1
    Seasoned Camper
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    Trying to figure out what one

    I'm looking at two different EMS for my new 5th wheel. 1st one is Surge Guard 35550 and 2nd is Progressive Industries HW50C. I know both of these are good units and wanted to hear what others experience with them. I will be wiring it into a 397TH when it gets here. Not sure on how hard that will be. I have never been in the basement area where all the wiring is located.
    2018 Ram CC,LB DRW Longhorn 6.7, AISIN, 4.10s

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    Site Team xrated's Avatar
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    I use the Progressive and have on two different trailers. They come with a lifetime guarantee....don't know about the Surge Guard brand, it may? Installing one in the basement isn't really difficult, if are familiar with doing some electrical work...and...working in a somewhat cramped area. A tip that I will offer is to do any of the wiring of the EMS that you can BEFORE crawling into the basement....that will save you some time in a cramped area and your back will thank you later. Most likely, what you will find is that the incoming power now goes directly to the transfer switch. The new installation will be that the incoming line will go to the EMS, then a piece of 4 conductor/6 ga. wire will go from the EMS to the transfer switch. I guesstimated the length of cable that I would need in order to make that happen and installed the short piece of cable on the load side of the EMS and didn't have to make that connection in that end of the EMS, while in the basement. You may be young and flexible.....I'm not, so working in there was a bit difficult for me and the least amount of time spent in there was a priority for me. Hope this helps.
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    Site Team Second Chance's Avatar
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    We've had the PI HW50C in both of our fifth wheels. The one in the Reflection saved us a bunch of money in damaged appliances on at least two occasions. As @xrated said, installation is not too difficult. The hardest parts (for me, anyway), are getting my bad back in the scrunched position to do it and bending the 6-3 wires to get them in the slots inside the EMS. I don't have any experience with the Surge Guard, but they seem to have a good reputation. Either way, make sure you get the remote display.

    Rob
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    Long Hauler geotex1's Avatar
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    Progressive IMO. Our unit has followed us through our last several campers, and they genuinely stand behind their products.
    Rob & Nikki + Cloverfield
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    Paid my dues 😁 FT4NOW's Avatar
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    I'm a big fan of Progressive as well. I've had both, portable and now hardwired version of the 50A EMS. In both cases I've been saved numerous times by faulty wired power pedestals or overloaded campgrounds where the voltage dropped too low. After I developed an issue in my shore power cord I opted to go the hardwired route, a portable EMS will not save anything if your shore power cord has any type of issue. Lucky for me one of the hot lines would intermittently lose power and did not cause any damage. After I got a new cord, everything worked.

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  6. #6
    Seasoned Camper
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    Quote Originally Posted by FT4NOW View Post
    I'm a big fan of Progressive as well. I've had both, portable and now hardwired version of the 50A EMS. In both cases I've been saved numerous times by faulty wired power pedestals or overloaded campgrounds where the voltage dropped too low. After I developed an issue in my shore power cord I opted to go the hardwired route, a portable EMS will not save anything if your shore power cord has any type of issue. Lucky for me one of the hot lines would intermittently lose power and did not cause any damage. After I got a new cord, everything worked.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
    I'm glad you said something about the hardwire one protecting you from a bad shore power cord. I did not think of that factor between portable vs hardwire units. I have used a portable 30A on my current trailer (Keystone). It has saved me a few times from low voltage in a CG in Maine.
    2018 Ram CC,LB DRW Longhorn 6.7, AISIN, 4.10s

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  7. #7
    Site Team traveldawg's Avatar
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    Hardwires PI for me on this and previous trailer. Even have the remote so I can monitor voltage and load from inside the rig as well as in the basement when I hook up.
    Larry KE4DMG
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  8. #8
    Setting Up Camp Troutd0g's Avatar
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    +1 on hardwired PI HW50C.
    +1 on advice to pre-wire the unit OUTSIDE of the RV (I didn't do this, I wish I had) with 6-gauge pigtails cut to length. It's simpler to just bisect the incoming power line, but the 6-gauge wire is SO STIFF and the room inside the EMS box so cramped that it is an exercise in frustration getting the wires into the screw-down terminal blocks.

    I think i'll document my lessons learned in a separate post since this topic has come up often in the forum.
    Mark
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  9. #9
    Long Hauler offtohavasu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Akfiredog377 View Post
    I'm glad you said something about the hardwire one protecting you from a bad shore power cord. I did not think of that factor between portable vs hardwire units. I have used a portable 30A on my current trailer (Keystone). It has saved me a few times from low voltage in a CG in Maine.
    The new Surge Guard portable will see issues upstream and downstream. This why I went with that model so I have that protection and during a surge event, it happens outside of my trailer.
    Curtis, Christine, Cole, and Charlotte

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  10. #10
    Big Traveler boyscout's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Akfiredog377 View Post
    I'm looking at two different EMS for my new 5th wheel. 1st one is Surge Guard 35550 and 2nd is Progressive Industries HW50C. I know both of these are good units and wanted to hear what others experience with them. I will be wiring it into a 397TH when it gets here. Not sure on how hard that will be. I have never been in the basement area where all the wiring is located.
    You're getting pretty much unanimous advice for the hard-wired Progressive Industries EMS-HW50C. I'll add another vote for it, plus a few tips that are worth everything you're paying for them.

    - I don't know your trailer. If you have a transfer switch as described by @xrated then you're good with his advice. If not, if your shore power comes in from the connector on the wall and travels all the way to the fuse panel, you might be tempted to cut that cable and insert the HW50C into it. Consider instead getting a new piece of cable, putting it on the back of the connector on the wall, and then installing the EMS between the new cable and the old. That way, if you sell/trade the trailer and want to keep your EMS for the next trailer, you won't have to buy expensive connectors and splice the original cable back together again. Ask me how I know about this.

    - The EMS comes with a status monitor showing what's going on and any error that has been detected. I thought I wanted this display up inside the trailer in the control center so I could easily look at it when we were inside the trailer. However getting its wire up through the mess of existing wires was a real challenge so I instead installed the monitor in the Nautilus water closet. I'm so pleased now that it worked out that way. I can watch the monitor and see any error conditions immediately after I've applied power to the trailer; the most critical time. Years later I've only once or twice gone out to look at the monitor after a power interruption. I now know I would NOT want it mounted inside the trailer.

    - The basement is dead-easy to access. One of the panels of its rear wall will have about three screws down each side. Removing them allows the panel to be removed and exposes the mess of wiring and plumbing and equipment that support the utilities in your trailer. You should have no trouble at all finding space on the floor to install the HW50C. You may have trouble resisting the urge to tidy up and even replace some of the very haphazard wiring and plumbing you'll see there.

    - Some people insist that a pedestal-mount EMS is safer than the internally-mounted one. Progressive Industries - with its lifetime warranty - has said repeatedly that it has never seen or heard of an internally-mounted EMS unit that posed even a threat of fire in the event of a surge. It carries UL and other ratings that say it will NOT cause a fire in the conditions in which it is used. Having started with a pedestal unit and soon wearying of the extra labor handling it and the extra worry about it walking away, I'm very firmly in the mount-inside camp and sleep very well at night.

    Good luck with your installation.
    Last edited by boyscout; 08-11-2020 at 01:36 PM.
    Mark - 2018 Solitude 310GK - 2017 F-350 diesel SRW short box - Pullrite Superglide hitch

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