Planned Escape 19' modifications

[cpaharley2008]

Installed some "bug" screening on favorite bug hanging out places, water heater, furnace,refer vent.

[cpaharley2008]

added some gutters over the side windows

[cpaharley2008]

replaced the factory MaxxAir fan shroud which was opaque with a smoke, see thru cover, lets in more light night and day.
After owning nothing but Fantastic Fans, I'm sold on the MaxxAir fans, variable speed and operable in rain and with vent closed.

[cpaharley2008]

Installed a 7 way pin protector on the propane cover. a battery motion step light, a battery wall sconce and a bathroom door heat vent.

[cpaharley2008]

Added Progressive 30 amp EMS with remote

[Raz]

Good to see you have been keeping busy. Is the screen over the furnace vent designed for that purpose or your own adaptation and how is it fastened? Raz

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by P. Raz

Good to see you have been keeping busy. Is the screen over the furnace vent designed for that purpose or your own adaptation and how is it fastened? Raz

The furnace screen was from Amazon, I also purchased other bug screens premade for the water and refer but they did not fit. So I returned them and made my own from screen scrap pieces.

[rabbit]

What is the incidence of over or under voltage in campground power distribution?

jack

[cpaharley2008]

It has happened to me at least 4 times in past 3 years. It all depends on how many electrical components you may have. If no a/c, your risk is the converter and anything plugged in. With a/c your risk is doubled. I helped a neighbor fellow camper replace his a/c and converter a couple of months ago, as a result of camping without any "protection".

[rabbit]

You get one of those spring pushers with your furnace vent basket? I made my own (after of course seeing the commercial one). A little head scratcher!

jack

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by rabbit

You get one of those spring pushers with your furnace vent basket? I made my own (after of course seeing the commercial one). A little head scratcher!

jack

Yes, basically a type of screw driver with a notch in it.

[cpaharley2008]

Camping World has the basic surge protection device for $80 which is fine if you do not have a lot of 120v appliances like a/c. If you do have a/c then the more expensive $250 models that protect from over/under voltages as well as surges/spikes would be needed. A hard wired system can be purchased for about the same from Tweety's or Dyers.

[Jane P.]

Hey Charlie,

Those look like great, well thought out mods to an already high quality trailer.

You've owned this new 19' for a couple of months. When you are ready to upgrade to the 21' Escape (hopefully, soon) please send me a message.

[Jane P.]

Originally Posted by rabbit

What is the incidence of over or under voltage in campground power distribution?

jack

There are several folks on this site who have never had a problem and therefore decided to forego surge protection devices. A decent one will cost over $200.

But, I keep running into people who had to replace their appliances due to voltage problems. The electrical lines run underground and are pray to all sorts of rodents, dampness, etc. The problem is that even the best campgrounds have trouble detecting defective lines ... until disaster strikes someone's trailer.

Because I have an AC, I wanted a surge protector that can handle over and under voltage situations. After much research, I invested in a portable 30 AMP Surge Guard (Model # 34730) and a 25 foot RV extension cord. A great investment for your piece of mind. The extension cord allows me to keep the surge protector (which is expensive) in the battery cubby hole. I got both items at Adventure RV.

Before I unhook the trailer, I test the campground's electric hookup. It takes an extra 3-5 minutes to take out the extension cord and hook it up with the Surge Protector. Once my Surge Protector verifies the electric hookup is safe, I go ahead and set up camp.

I can take off for the day, and don't have to worry about voltage problems or theft.

Because it is portable, I can take it to my next trailer!

Once again, a great "piece of mind" investment. I put it up there with my break controller, safety chains and weight distribution bars, and wheel cocks.

[Don W.]

Per Jim's advice, I recently purchased the surge guard model. It is a great test, pre-camp setup.

Jim, Where did you get the7-pin protector, and the gutters? I would like to install one on our casita.

We are planning to attend the October Rally so I will talk to you more about things, after this week of camping we hope to make some mods to our Casita and get something larger.....

Consider me in line for this 19 as well if you ever sell.

Don and Brenda

[honda03842]

There's nothing wrong with insurance. It can make you feel comfortable. I do get a flu shot every year.

It seems that many of today's electrical components are naturally immune to over and under voltage.

For example, the AC electric portion of must refrigerators and electric hot water heaters are simply heating elements and probably could care less about over or under voltage. Ditto for electric heaters.

The only item of significance left is the TV and computers. I suspect that all of them have an input switching supply that protects them from anything short of a lightening strike. To protect our computers we generally only charge them when we're around in case of a superious lightening strike while away.

The remaining item in our trailer is the converter that we rarely use because of a solar panel. I suspect that it also easily can withstand any thing short of a lightening strike.

For me the purpose of a device like this would be to protect against lightening and not over or under voltage.

In our 11 years of RVing amounting to well over 2500 nights on the road, we have never had an electrical issue.

On second thought, as I get ready to send this, probably the moxt vulnerable component is the air conditioner. It would not like undervoltage.

[cpaharley2008]

"On second thought, as I get ready to send this, probably the moxt vulnerable component is the air conditioner. It would not like undervoltage."
Particularly if you are away from your rv and you fail to take action, your a/c can burn up real fast in your absence. These EMS work and would turn off the electric if it falls too low.

[Jane P.]

It just so happens that AdventureRV is having a sale on that portable Surge Guard:

Portable Surge Guard 120V 30 Amp - $219.79

This price of $219 is about $60 less than Amazon.com.

You can also pick up a 25' extension cord for about $26 to secure the Surge Guard in your trailer.

As I said this is a great investment for those who have appliances or electronics that may be harmed from power problems at the campground. This is a very good price for an excellent product.

[Tim Wood]

Originally Posted by Jane P.

It just so happens that AdventureRV is having a sale on that portable Surge Guard:

Portable Surge Guard 120V 30 Amp - $219.79

This price of $219 is about $60 less than Amazon.com.

You can also pick up a 25' extension cord for about $26 to secure the Surge Guard in your trailer.

As I said this is a great investment for those who have appliances or electronics that may be harmed from power problems at the campground. This is a very good price for an excellent product.

Just wondering why do you need an extension cord to hook up the surge guard ? And is there any problem using a less expensive unit like this?http://tweetys.com/30-amp---portable...ty-tester.aspx

[rabbit]

Hi Tim:

No problem with the EMS SSP-30 but according to the specs it won't act as a breaker in over- and under-voltage conditions. (I assume that under-voltage current is equivalent to a "brownout." I don't know what over-voltage would equate to in the vernacular, maybe a protracted "spike" or surge.)

My very brief investigation tells me that the options are: 1) a 25$ line tester that indicates reversed polarity and open neutral. Or learn to use the multimeter to test.

2) The "hundred dollar" variety such as the SSP-30 which detects the above conditions and on that basis controls whether the juice flows.

3) A TRS pigtail type similar to the EM SSP-30 which in addition to the above breaks the circuit in reaction to over-current condition but not to under for a few dollars more (the "hundred-fifty dollar" variety).

4) The "two hundred dollar" type which reacts to all the undesirable conditions above and also to under-current condition. Cheapest of these I've seen is the Surge Guard #34520 available eBay and Tweety's $200+. This is a hard-wired rather than pigtail unit so has to be spliced in between your shore power cord and your 120VAC main breaker. Most of these units are really three hundred dollars +. Advantage over the "at the pole" pigtail type is that these aren't so susceptible to theft.

jack

CORRECTION TO ABOVE: the 30amp model SSM-30 is manufactured by Progressive Industries rather than EMS. Sorry