Autoformer - Montana Owners Club

Montana_283 · 10-07-2004, 04:35 PM

I hope this is in the correct forum. Has anybody considered or installed an autoformer (Hughes) in their Montana. I have been wanting to install one in my 2955, The local folks are not to excited about them. At Life on Wheels in Idaho the technician recommended a surge protector and new little about the Autoformer. Since I travel a lot in areas with questionalbe electricity, Mexico, and some parks with only 20 and no 30's I think it is a good idea to have one. The autoformer as I understand it will do several things, protect against surge, boost low amps to prevent from damaging appliances, and prevent overage going into the rig.

It was recommended that a surge/protector be placed before anything entering the rig, including generators. I would like to hear from others.

I would like to mount one permanetly inside the rig, The new ones show polarity and by mounting it inside It would be more secure from theft than using only when connecting to a land line by putting it between the land line and the rig.

If you have installed one on a 2955 let me know I could use some mentoring. thanks.

azstar · 10-07-2004, 05:27 PM

Hi Folks,
I reseached this a lot. The Hughes has a limited surge protection. It will boost voltage to your rig but at the expense of others in the park. To get the increase in voltage it draws more amperage, thus droping the park even lower. Some parks forbid the use of them. As the parks power gets drawn down the other folks in the park without protection will have their equipment damaged.

I wrestled with this issue and wound up with the Surge Guard. It has good surge protection and shuts the door "so to speak" if it sees low or high voltage and then resets it self. It works really well. I installed it before our summer trip this year to NY and it triped a couple of times. I checked the power and sure enough the park was low. This usually happened late in the day when the A/C units are really cranking.

Do a search and you will find an MOC'er that has installed the Hughes along with a good surge protecter. He has pictures a real clean looking job.

Wish you well, and Happy Camping

azstar · 10-07-2004, 06:07 PM

Took me awhile, tried to find the post I told you about using Search. Couldn't find it. But if you go to Members and look up countryguy, you will find a link to their home page. You will find it there. He wrote a very good explaination with great photos.

Or find @ http://geocities.com/genieyorks/
Just before the print turns red see Al's electrical improvements

Treecounter · 10-07-2004, 08:30 PM

surge protectors work to well in Mexico as they trip at 130 volts and most of Mexico runs at 132. Some of our Canadian friends plugged electric heaters in to draw down the voltage at the plug in. The park we were in had standard 15 amp house outlets but carried 30 amp wire and circuit breakers. It worked for them. We lost our converter charger once when a opossum shorted out two lines. But that is another story. Treecounter

8.1al · 10-08-2004, 11:35 AM

For more info on the Hughes autoformer try this www.autoformers.com
Some electical enhancers may steal park electric but autoformers do not (they say)

azstar · 10-08-2004, 12:32 PM

Hello again,
Checked the site 8.1al gave. There sure is a lot of miss-info. out there. Not being an Elect. Eng. I have to take other peoples input. There has been a lot of talk on RV.net on the subject. The supposeably Elect. Engs. out there disagree with the Hughes Web Site.
So all bets are off. Go with what you believe to be true.

8.1al · 10-09-2004, 02:39 AM

It sure is hard to make an informed decision sometimes, isn't it?

ols1932 · 10-09-2004, 12:08 PM

No matter what the Hughes (or Franks) sales people tell you, their autotransformer draws about 1.2 amps. If you're connected in a park where the voltage is minimal, you may raise you're voltage 10% but decrease some current to other campers. Especially if it is an older park and wiring has not been upgraded.

I have a surge protector as well as an autotransformer. If the voltage is low in the park, I connect the surge protector between the autotransformer and the input to my Montana. If it is hardwired in you cannot do this. That's why I elected to use mine as portable. I use a padlock and bike cable and connect the two units together and padlock them to my rear stabilizers. I also set the units up on about 4 to 6 inches of boards to keep them off the ground in the event of rain.

Hope this helps someone.

azstar · 10-09-2004, 02:34 PM

[quote]Originally posted by ols1932
[I connect the surge protector between the autotransformer and the input to my Montana.]

Orv,
Wouldn't you want to protect your Autoformer from surge by putting the surge/protector before the Autoformer?

Have you ever been told not to use it at a Park?

Thx.
Happy Camping

ols1932 · 10-09-2004, 04:05 PM

[quote]quote:Originally posted by azstar

Quote:

Originally posted by ols1932
[I connect the surge protector between the autotransformer and the input to my Montana.]

Orv,
Wouldn't you want to protect your Autoformer from surge by putting the surge/protector before the Autoformer?

Have you ever been told not to use it at a Park?

Thx.
Happy Camping

I'm not worried about the autotransformer. I can buy another one. It isn't in the circuit to protect the rig. Its primary purpose is to increase the park voltage. The surge protector is used primarily to protect your rig. In our case we have two full size computers, three printers, scanner and a laptop. We must protect them as well as the rig. I've friends who didn't use a surge protector who had to spend $2-3000 to make repairs in the rig.

You should never allow your rig to operate on anything less than 105 Volts, and surely not less than 102. If your voltage is that low and you don't have an autotransformer, the surge protector will keep you from operating at all.

The surge protector is designed to prevent low voltage inputs as well as high voltage inputs. When the park you are in has low voltage, putting the surge protector in front of the autotransformer prevents any voltage from being applied to the rig (unless you switch it off). So if the voltage is low, your autotransformer will not be able to increase the voltage (10% of nothing is nothing). So if you place the autotransformer in front of the surge protector (directly to the park voltage), then you increase the voltage high enough so that the surge protector will pass the voltage to your rig and you are still protected against spurious surges.

I have never been told by a park that I cannot use my autotransformer.

Hope this helps some.

azstar · 10-09-2004, 05:59 PM

Orv,

Thx. for your response.

That makes perfect sense.

When I read your post I was thinking, the Surge Protection you were using was the basic surge model and not the Surge Guard with High/Low function.

Montana_283 · 10-13-2004, 06:11 PM

I want to thank all of those who responded to my question. I learned a lot and appreciate the information and dialogue on surge protectors and autoformers.

Montana_31 · 10-14-2004, 05:07 AM

Not all autoformers work, at least ours didn't. It arrived yesterday and after reading the manual, I plugged it in only to find out our coach had no shore power. I checked the voltage at the campground post and it was 122 Volts. Out of the autoformer on one side was 125 Volts and the other side was 0 volts. So I called tech support and had to ship it back. They paid for it and I should get another one in about 10 days. It was a 50 amp autoformer by Hughes that I bought from PPL on-line, $499 plus $21 shipping.

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