Surge Protectors

[doctor phreak]

i am not a electrical kind of guy...i was wondering if i could use surge protectors in unision to run my electrical devices...for example have the CG power come in the TD and then have a SP plug into there this would be in the galley and then have the SP in the TD cab plug in to the galley SP and the front SP plug in to the SP in the back of the cab of the TD....hope this all makes sense.....basically have 3 SP - 1 in the gallery and 2 in the TD ( front & back ) and all these are plugged together....would this make it safe or will there be to much amperage.....again not a electrical person and really do not know anyone that is...just trying to make it easy on me.....

[caseydog]

A surge protector can never be a bad idea, as far as I know. Campground electricity is not generally "clean," and a thunderstorm can ruin your electronics. If you have more than a coffee maker in your TD, it cant hurt.

I have an inline GFCI on my shore power cable. Maybe a surge protector should be on there, too.

CD

[wannabefree]

You can daisy chain surge protectors as many as you want. Nothing to worry about.

[Arne]

I cut the plug off a surge protector/power strip and hooked it up to an exterior shore power supply connector... So, when I plug into shore power, it goes through the surge protector first. Everything in the t/d is protected that way.

If you go to the link below, and click on the last page on the index on the top left side, you can see pics of it...

[Thefiredupk9]

Although surge protectors are ok protection from spikes it's probably better to get a good ups (uninterrupted power supply) system for you 110v it will stop all voltage spikes as well as bring up voltage drops I hope this is helpful. You can usually find a good price at tigerdirect.com

[Shadow Catcher]

I had wondered about this with camp ground power pedestals and have seen the ones made for RV's are way over priced.
The Progressive Dynamics converter has some surge protection but I am considering adding an Intermatic Panel Guard.
We do get substantial surges with thunderstorms at home and when I changed out our service panel I added one of these and down stream there is a UPS and surge protectors on the major electronics.

[Thefiredupk9]

I was just online at tigerdirect and a 350w ups was $50 and a 750w was $105 which aside from a microwave 750w should cover just about everything. -Luke

[Jason and Amanda]

Although surge protectors are ok protection from spikes it's probably better to get a good ups (uninterrupted power supply) system for you 110v it will stop all voltage spikes as well as bring up voltage drops I hope this is helpful. You can usually find a good price at tigerdirect.com

UPS's designed for computer electronics are not very suitable for this use. The battery will fail prematurely and also, the thing will beep at you constantly unless you physically power it down every time you disconnect from external A/C power. You can't just "unplug and go" if you use the type of UPS availabe for computers. It will need to be "hard powered down" every time you disconnect from power. And typically with that type of power down, once you reconnect A/C, the UPS will simply be a passthrough, you will have to reenable the battery backup function.

Also, computer UPS's are designed with software to interface with a computer's operating system to do a clean shutdown of the computer's operating system in the event of a power failure, which is all these batteries are designed for. Yes it will provide you with "clean" power, but is not designed to intentionally plug dirty power into it to clean it up. This will cause the UPS and it's battery to fail prematurely.

[Thefiredupk9]

Even though it was originally intended for the computer it is becoming more commonly used with all electronics TVs especially. And even if you burned out the battery let's say every 3 years it seem to me a small price to pay for the protection of a tv, a/c unit, etc that one spike could take out. If you do not run a 12 v system in your tear you are at the mercy of the camp ground to provide you with good power seeing as how that doesn't always happen this would give you an alternative to not using the power at all. Is it a perfect solution no it has it's draw backs like beeping at you when powered down but it is my opinion that it is better than having no power at all.