When we bought our EPro 19FD, I was informed that I should buy a good surge suppressor and power monitoring device to protect our new trailer and all its valuable electronics. My first thought this is overkill… right? After all we had camped with a tent trailer for 20 plus years and never had an issue. To be fair the tent trailer only had the basics when it came to electrical equipment. So after thinking about what it would cost to replace any of the appliances in this trailer I started looking at options.

Choosing the EMS

I quickly realized that I did not want a dog bone style EMS or surge suppressor. I wanted the device installed in the trailer so I wouldn’t have to worry about it, loose it, or have it stolen. After some searching I settled on the Progressive Industries EMS-HW30C. I liked the feed back on the voltage, current, frequency and any errors, the remote display is easy to read in any lighting conditions (that can be a con as well – more on that in a minute), and I liked how easy it was to install.

My question to the trailer manufactures is why is this not already installed? I mean… I know why… its all about cost. As trailers get loaded with all the goodies, it would seem to me that this would be a good addition. Considering how many dog-bone versions of EMS and surge suppression devices I see hanging off of pedestals in the parks, I don’t think I am alone.

Installation

Our shore power connector is located about 3/4 of the way back on the drivers (non camp) side of the trailer. Our existing DC controller is located below the fridge. After a bit of investigation I found there was sufficient space behind the DC controller and sufficient slack in the cables to install the EMS.

Before starting the installation, I covered the solar panel (overkill I know), disconnected the battery, and disconnected the trailer from shore power. I double checked that all AC and DC circuits were dead with a multi-meter.

The installation was straight forward, however if you are not 100 percent sure about your abilities here, I would highly recommend professional help, either a talk to licensed electrician or a certified RV tech. I am neither of those two things.

I cut the AC power feed (it has a orange jacket on our trailer) somewhat midway between the DC converter and the shore power plug. Next I stripped back the conductors as per the instructions provided in PI installation manual and secured them into the contactor. Also ensure that the input and output cable clamps on the EMS-HW30C are tightened. On the load side you will need to ensure that the L1 Hot (black) goes through the current clamp. If you are installing a EMS-HW50C you will need to install a second current clamp on the L2 Hot (red) leg .Make sure you pay attention to the arrow on the clamp, see the Progressive Industries manual for the correct orientation. I have seen different markings on current clamps so you should always check the documentation.

For the definitive help on installation always refer to excellent installation instructions provided with the EMS-HW-30/50 from Progressive Industries.

The biggest decision you will have to make in regards to the installation is where to install the EMS module, remote display and how to route the data cable that connects them. Once that decision has been made the rest is straightforward.

Mounting the Remote Display

I mounted the remote display under the sink in a small cabinet at floor level. The actual EMS module is mounted directly behind the remote display shown in the picture, so cable routing was dead simple. The display is mounted inside the cabinet to eliminate any additional light pollution. While the display is easy to read in all lighting conditions the LED’s flash every couple of seconds which can make it super annoying if you are trying to sleep in a small trailer. With the display in the cabinet, it is out of sight, but easily accessed. I also mounted my Level Up Pro device in the same cabinet as the display (sorry shameless plug).

Running a Generator with the EMS

This is just a heads up if you ever have to run your trailer off a generator, you will have to switch the EMS into bypass mode. This is done with the little slide switch on the remote display. This is because the EMS is checking for wiring issues and ensuring there is a ground. Since the generators are not grounded or bonded to the neutral the EMS will throw an E-2 error (Open Ground) and it will not transfer AC through the EMS and into the trailer.

The main reason I don’t like this idea of the bypass switch is that if you forget to put the EMS back to normal mode after using the generator and you happen to connect your trailer into a pedestal with a wiring issue your trailer is unprotected. My preference is to always leave it in normal mode. To solve the problem with running the trailer off a generator, I purchased a neutral ground bond plug from Amazon. You simply plug it into a spare AC plug on the generator. This neutral ground bond plug essentially shorts the neutral and ground pins to make the EMS happy.

Data on Display

The EMS will cycle through the error code, the previous error code, along with AC Voltage, AC Current and Frequency. The EMS updates the display about once every second. There is a table of the error codes in the manual you can reference if you need additional information. If I remember correctly they include a little cheatsheet of the codes with the product you could post near the display.

If you connect your Progressive Industries EMS HW30C to our Level Up Pro you will get all of the above, but you also get two other error indicators and more human readable error descriptions. You also get voltage, current and frequency along with voltage, current and frequency over time, up-time stats, power in watts and a visual of the state of power at the pedestal as well as the trailer. All of this is available over Bluetooth through our mobile app oneView.

Conclusions

The Progressive Industries EMS HW30 is a solid bit of kit. After all I liked it enough to integrate it into Level Up Pro. I installed the EMS HW30C into our trailer in the spring of 2021 and it has not let us down.

We have not had a lot of power issues in the parks we have been too, but I have noticed that if the power in the park has been out, its rare for the restored power to restart cleanly. To combat that the EMS ensures that voltage and frequency are within parameters for the duration of the delay timer before the EMS transfers power into the trailer.

Given that Murphy’s law says that power will only ever go out in the middle of the night while its pouring rain, its really nice to be able to just grab your phone and check what’s going on. If I find that the power is out at the pedestal I can just roll over and go back to sleep, because I know that is someone else’s headache to deal with.

My favourite all time feature is that I can plug in the trailer and not worry that our time away is going to result in costly fixes… well at least not the electrical kind.

I think that’s it for this one. Cheers!