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  1. #1
    Fireside Member quiglenj's Avatar
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    New Converter and Surge Protector - Still learning how to Trailer....

    Ok a bit of a story....and not sure if this is the correct forum for this post.....

    On a trip earlier this year, I had a problem with the 30A pedestal tripping almost immediately. I looked at the breaker and it seemed a little loose, so I got out my 50A to 30A adapter plugged into the 50A plug and all was good. A few days later down the road I noticed the 50A/30A adapter plugged was pretty cooked and went after a replacement.

    A few months later we were camping with no hook-ups so was charging batteries on a portable generators and was taking forever. I checked my battery monitor and noted that batteries were only getting at 13.0 volts and only pushing 2 amps into the batteries.

    After more research, I concocted a theory that I might have cooked the WFCO-8955 converter at the same time I cooked that 50A/30A adapter. I then looked at my surge protector and noted its plug was cooked also. Possibly very low voltage causing very high currents into the trailer. I don't know.

    I decided to replace the converter with Progressive Dynamics PD4655, direct swap for the WFCO that the trailer came with and picked up the Hughes PWD30-EPO surge protector and their plug-in voltage monitor.

    The replacement of the converter was a little tedious, transferring a bunch or wires and fuses, but all worked well. I hotted the trailer back up and right away the converter was pumping 25A into the batteries.

    Then we moved to a campsite for 2 days with no power for 2 days living on the fully charged batteries we can do pretty easy. We then drove to a campsite inland where the temperate was quite a bit hotter, but had full hookups. I plugged in the trailer, started up the air and turned on the electric water heater and my new surge protector did it's job.

    Come to find out, it also will open the circuit at 30 amps. We had been on the road prior to all of this for about 3 months and never had a problem with the trailer 30A breaker or the pedestal breaker tripping. I have tripped the trailer 30A breaker when we were learning how to trailer and believe it is still in good order, but I guess not as fast acting as the one in the PWD30-EPO. Of course, I didn't have the PWD30-EPO to protect the trailer during that time. With the blue tooth app that talks to the PWD30-EPO, I could see that I was pulling over 30A when I slowly turned-on loads. I did note that the "new" was drawing 4-5 amps, which is what was putting me over the breaker setting. I assume the old converter wasn't pulling as many amps as it wasn't using the bulk charging mode.

    And with the new plug-in voltmeter and the app, I could see the park voltage at the pedestal was down to 108-9V with another 3 volts lower in the trailer, helping to drive the amps up.

    I hesitated some to pull the trigger on the converter and surge protector because I was getting by. But I reality I may have been cooking the wiring in the trailer.
    I also figured out that you can reset the PWD30-EPO internal breaker with the app, don't even have to go out in the heat.

    So, I'm still learning, I just hope I can keep the cost down on these lessons...
    Last edited by quiglenj; 09-17-2021 at 08:15 AM.
    2020 Imagine 2500RL
    ProPride P3
    2021 F250 6.7L PSD

  2. #2
    Site Sponsor Petrovsky's Avatar
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    I too experienced a similar but not quite the same experience. On our third outing last summer at a site in Charleston Lake, Ont. Upon arrival I plugged into the shared pedestal my surge protector. No issues. Turned it off, plugged the line from the trailer in and then turned it back on. I used 30A. It shut the line down almost immediately. It did this a few times. I asked my neighbor to see if I could use his supply as a check....no issues there. On my side, I found that if the 15A circuit on the pedestal was off, I had little problems with the 30A circuit. However, over the course of the week, the voltage was low as you indicated and in one case it tripped the surge protector (low voltage protection). I alerted the powers that be and they indicated they would look into it.

    With the amount of use these posts get over a season, season after season, they do see quite a bit of wear & tear. A partially faulty breaker on the post, overheated wiring, poor connectors....etcetera. Thank the industry for providing surge protectors.

    Had no issues for the rest of the season.

    When I picked up my surge protector I got one with all the bells and whistles. Yes it was costly but I did want it to be able to check and act on as many issues as possible.
    Pierre & Tara

    2021 Imagine 2600RB
    2020 GMC Sierra SLE 1500
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  3. #3
    Site Team Redapple63's Avatar
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    Couple of things to check, first is your 30 amp breaker. It should NOT let you pull more than 30 amps. You should asked check for loose connections in your rig between the shore power connection and your 30 amp house breaker.

    Good Luck!
    Bill
    2019 GMC 3500 SRW Sierra Denali Duramax
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  4. #4
    Site Sponsor Petrovsky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Redapple63 View Post
    Couple of things to check, first is your 30 amp breaker. It should NOT let you pull more than 30 amps. You should asked check for loose connections in your rig between the shore power connection and your 30 amp house breaker.

    Good Luck!
    Bill
    Bill, I meant to say I use the 30A connection on the post. I did not draw 30A immediately as the surge protector kicked off after kicking in. There appears to have been a fault at the 15A plug when the breaker was tripped on. When tripped off there were no issues and we managed to last the week. However, I did indicate that, due to high temperatures and many running their A/C's, the voltage was low. The surge protector kicks off at 102V. Also, you are correct on the 30A breaker in the RV. It will allow for overdraw up to the time it heats up and trips.

    I have the 34931 Surge Guard from South Wire.
    Pierre & Tara

    2021 Imagine 2600RB
    2020 GMC Sierra SLE 1500
    1200/12000 Equalizer Hitch

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