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Old 12-31-2018, 10:11 AM   #28
KA0WS
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Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Sioux Fals, SD
Posts: 3
Default Surge gaurd usefulness

When my wife and I bought our fiver, dealer service installed a new power connector to the cable as the previous owner had removed the original, for some strange reason. I installed a hardwired surge guard with the remote readout as I wanted the protection it afforded. Several years later my wife called me at work and said we lost power and the CG said it was a problem on our trailer. The next day we lost and gained power a number of times as the surge guard kept kicking out and resetting. I found that when the new connector was installed one wire was much shorter than the others and the cable weight was pulling on the shorter wire causing a make and break situation. The shorter wire was the neutral line. So when it broke connection, the surge guard dropped out as it sensed a bad the improper situation. I reworked the wiring in the connector and there have been no problems since. Had the surge guard not been there, what might have happened to the trailer? Fortunately, I'll never know.

Since that time we have been to several campgrounds and found bad power on the pedestal as the remote readout from the surge guard told us so and the system refused to engage. I relied on the surge guard to look out for us and it was flawless. As with everything, there are pros and cons to a surge guard but from my experience it was money well spent.
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Pilot: Art
Navigator: Donna
Crew Chief: Felix (rescue cat)
2013 F-450 diesel dually w/aux tank
2011 Cedar Creek 39' fiver
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