Technology Research Corp's Surge Guard and the EMS Power Protection series from Progressive Industries are two comparable, I think, products. There may be others. Maybe even at less cost.

Any opinions on this concept and the actual protection needed in the real world?

Rockhouse,
Many of us think they are more than worth while and have them. You will find a large number of posts if you search using "surge guard" or "progressive power protection".
Good luck

I feel they are a must have for the money. A little more insurance if you will. I have the Pro Inds hard wired model with the inside monitor.

One of the first items we bought/installed for our then new coach was a hard-wired surge guard. We now have about 37,000 miles of camping experiences under our belt. My evaluation of the surge guard is very positive.

The most frequent situations I have encountered are power pedestal problems - no power or one side open of 50 amp service. A quick glance of the indicator lights quickly advises of the problem without breaking out the meter. The other advantage is the surge guard is always 'on duty' monitoring for problems.

DriVer (Mike aka 'Sparky') found out a direct lightning strike will bypass the surge guard and still cause problems - Mike wrote up several posts about his en-lightning experience

I, too, have a Surge Guard which I hard wired into my rig as soon as I got it. We were at a Life on Wheels conference in Moscow Idaho a year ago and it saved our bacon (and a lot of appliances). The problem was voltage that was too high from their generators. The Surge Guard turned off the power and protected my rig. Something inside the Surge Guard did not allow the power to come back on so I sent it back to the factory and it was repaired for free. I would not be without it!

The other 50% protection from shore power is..protection from low voltage...

See Forum for Product Evaluations...voltage boosters..

Whatever you decide....I highly reccomnd you not consider Frank's boosters...I say again..buy other than Frank's. Enough negative is posted already about performance problems with Frank's boosters. Been there...done that...lucky to have refund!

http://irv2.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2156094452/m/21910396541

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pubtym,

I have a portable Surge Guard that I have used for five plus years and over 40,000 miles. As with others it has "saved" me from electrical problems over the years. One thing that hasn't been stated is that the unit is doing its thing all of the time and I am sure there are times that it has provided protection when I didn't even know it. I also had an occasion when it protected me from a problem and then didn't work. My only cost for repair was postage to the factory. It is expensive to purchase but the longer I have it the cheaper it gets.

True, they are not cheap but one occurance of a mishap and it's cost is probably less than your insurance deductable. I have not had to repair a coach that did not have one where the owners did not buy one before they left the shop. I will not plug in without mine in line.

In over 25 years of RVing, we have never used an EMS/Surge protector of any kind.....but having said that, we now don't take chances anymore and use the Progressive Industries 50 amp portable EMS (wired inside my electrical compartment with a plug-in pigtail), for those possible low voltage situations.

As far as brands, the Progressive Industries is a much better protector than the "Surge Guard" that Camping World sells.

HERE is a comparison chart showing that the PI EMS has digital displays and a higher joule rating than the Surge Guard.

My progressive hw50c has protected me from 2 situations that I know of.....low voltage of 101V and reversed polarity...but it will protect from several other abnormal situations that could be very expensive if not detected.....