I just finished installing a Progressive Industries surge protector, model EMS-HW30C in our 2001 RB. I must say I am very impressed with the unit so far. It turns the power off if the voltage is <104V or >132V (with override possible), and has 35,000A surge protection. The remote indicator shows the voltage, frequency, and current coming into the LD, and error codes indicating any problem, including need to replace the surge protection.
For the 2001 RB, the installation was very easy. (I can't speak for other models.) After partially disassembling the circuit box and converter and looking further into installing after the transfer switch as originally planned, I took a much easier path and installed it for shore power only.
In the 2001 RB, the shore power cord is tied to the LD wiring in a junction box under the bottom closet drawer beside the water pump.
By replacing this junction box with the surge protector box, I was able to install with no additional wiring, and not even having to strip any wires. It was just a matter of undoing the quick connectors, tying the wires together, removing the junction box, and putting the wires into the surge protector box. VERY EASY.
(Talk about LD building well, the metal junction box, which only serves to connect these two wires together, was screwed to the floor with 4 long screws. The screw-type quick connectors were screwed on and taped with lots of electrical tape as well.)
OK - let's get to work:
I removed the three drawers below the wardrobe. This gave adequate room to work.
The junction box is a square galvanized box on the floor to the left of the water pump. It has two wires going into it, one the rubber-covered cord coming from the outside and one a normal house wiring white plastic covered cable coming to the front of the closet floor.
After checking to be sure I wasn't plugged into the shore power <g>,
1. I removed the cover plate on the junction box. Inside three wires are joined together by screw-on connectors and electrical tape.
2. After removing the tape and screw-connectors, I loosened the clamps on the cables on each end of the junction box, unscrewed 4 screws inside the box holding it to the floor, and removed the junction box. This left the two wires on the floor.
3. I unscrewed three clamps holding the rubber-covered cable to the floor to let me to work with it more easily.
4. I clamped the ring cable connectors (provided) to the ground wires. (green wire on the input side and bare wire on the output side) I also cut off the already stripped wires slightly to leave about 3/8" of bare wire. (LD had left a longer stripped section bare wire to use the screw-on connectors.)
5. Being sure the black progressive box had the end marked 'Input' pointed toward the rubber-covered cable, and the end marked 'Output' pointed toward the white cable, I put both cables into the box. Note that the black wire on the output side needs to go through the black ring on two wires in the box. This is the current sensing ring. The ground and white wire do NOT go through the ring.
6. I inserted the wires into the screw clamps on the relay (having previously loosened the screws), being sure that white on the input end was on the same side as white on the output side, and that black was on the other side and tightened the screws. (The black went to black and white went to white, i.e. were on the same side)
7. I connected to two ground wires (input and output) to the side where the holes were with the provided bolts, washers, and nuts.
Before going further, I plugged in the remote indicator, plugged into shore power, and checked to be sure that it worked OK. When it did, after unplugging from shore power,
8. I tightened the cable clamps on the cables going into each end of the black Progressive box, screwed the box to the floor (it has screw holes on the outside lugs), and re-screwed the three clamps on the black rubber-covered cable to the floor. (Note that the Progressive box went at an angle, i.e. was not square to the side or front, but this allowed me to use the original cables without cutting them except to shorten the stripped part slightly. Note also that the cable clamps did not match up with the original locations, but were screwed into the floor as the cable ended up.)
9. I screwed the cover onto the Progressive box.
10. I drilled a hole to the left and behind the vent pipe for the remote indicator cable. (The Progressive uses a phone cable, and I used a wood bit just large enough to pass the phone connector through the hole.) It turned out to be much easier to drill the hole from the bottom (inside the drawer cabinet) up through the floor of the closet.
11. Using small stick-on cable troughs from Home Depot, I ran the cable up the left side of the closet beside the vent pipe and then along the underside of the shelf in the closet on the left-hand side of the front of the shelf. The remote indicator is exactly the right size to mount on the left front of this shelf. I also cut to fit and pasted the error card to the side of the indicator shelf.
12. I plugged the phone cable into the Progressive box and into the remote indicator and tested with shore power again.
13. After using cable ties to ensure that the cable was fixed so the drawers would not catch it, I replaced the drawers and was through.
Contributor: Barry Barnes
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