Faulty Surge Guard?

[zipmart]

My 2018 FR3 29DS is currently at an outdoor, covered storage facility with 30a service about a mile from my house. The MH is equipped for 50a service and is plugged into a Southwire Surge Guard Model 44290 which is plugged into a 50a female to 30a male dogbone adapter plugged into the 30a receptacle at the storage facility. I stopped by yesterday to check on it as I periodically do and noticed the Surge Guard LED lights indicating "L1 & GND REVERSED". I had never seen this indication before. I immediately unplugged the MH from the Surge Guard and the lights switched to the normal all green "POWER ON" indication. Plugging it back in caused the lights to go back to the "L1 & GND REVERSED" indication. I'm thinking the 3 year old Surge Guard has failed and is faulty. Any thoughts from someone more knowledgeable?

 

[llr2800]

Hard to say but I would guess an open on the MH side of the surge guard allowing a voltage to be detected on the ground wire, it is possible it is on the other side of the surge guard and the shorter wires are reducing the feed over.

Do you have a voltmeter and are you comfortable with a voltmeter and live power? If not ask someone local for help. If you are then come back for guidance

 

[zipmart]

I have a voltmeter, am comfortable around live power, and standing by for guidance. I appreciate your taking the time in this.

 

[llr2800]

I received your PM, the RV 50A is the same as the household 240v with the exception the the 2 hot lines are on separate sides of the main breaker so you can't have a 240v branch circuit from the panel.

I would start by unplugging the RV cord from the surge guard. Then measure between common and ground at the output of the surge guard, this should be near 0. Then measure one at a time from each hot lead to common then ground, these should be about 120v each. Post your results.

The terminals can be a little difficult to reach with the probes of the meter.

There should be diagrams in the library section if you need to see what each conductor is.

When the surge guard indicates a problem does it remove power from the camper?

 

[NavyLCDR]

Open all of the circuit breakers in the power center in the MH, except for the two main (50 amp circuit breakers). See if the surge guard indicates normal. Then close each individual circuit breaker one at a time and check the surge guard each time until you find which circuit is causing the problem.

 

[zipmart]

Thanks to both of you for the advice & guidance. I'll follow your instructions tomorrow and let you know what I find.

 

[zipmart]

When the surge guard indicates a problem does it remove power from the camper?

No. The refrigerator and the heat pump were still powered and working.

 

[zipmart]

Went to troubleshoot this morning - LED lights were all green, no faults indicated. I hadn't done anything or touched anything. So I'm thinking it was indeed the Surge Guard giving faulty indications. But thank you for the advice. I printed out what you guys wrote and added that to my library of info I keep with the MH for future reference. And I'm starting to look at higher quality surge protectors.

 

[llr2800]

Good that it went away, but bad as intermittent issues are much harder to find.

One thing to try is have someone watch the lights and someone else move each connection from the outlet to the camper. Not a lot of movement, just a little up, down, left & right if the light comes on or flickers there is probably an issue there

 

[zipmart]

I did move the connectors at the storage facility receptacle and at the Surge Guard itself while watching the LED's. No change or even flickering. But I will continue looking further into this and let you know if I find anything.

 

[zipmart]

After another instance where my surge protector started indicating "L1 & GND REVERSED" intermittently, I went ahead and ordered the Progressive Industries EMS-HW50C. It arrived 3 days ago. Reading the installation instructions and comparing what I saw out of the box, my current sensors didn't have arrows on them (they were supposed to be directional), the sensor for the L1 black wire only had a green felt tip mark on it vice the green tape stated in the instructions, and there was no jumper for the time delay. I did find the jumper which was loose in the box. I contacted tech support (outstanding by the way) and was told the new current sensors are bi-directional and the tech support division has recommended that the installation directions be changed to reflect that, which hasn't happened yet; and the green felt tip marker instead of the green tape is unexplainable. I finished the installation yesterday, which took several hours longer than I expected, as this 71 year old body just can't contort enough to easily get to the existing wiring where I wanted to install the unit. I also found that the recommended "about three (3) inches" to strip the outer insulation for inserting into the control box is definitely not enough when trying to bend and get the individual wires positioned correctly when they are 7 strand 6 gauge wire. It is now installed and works great.