Bought an autoformer today

[sreigle]

I was out running some errands today and went on over to the Don-Wes flea market. I found one stall with five 50-amp Hughes Autoformers. The guy claims they are brand new but I suspect they're refurbished. No manual with them. I asked how much. $200 and tax, which is $216 total. No plastic. Personal check or cash only. Of course, I left the checkbook at home so checked my wallet. I had exactly $198, eighteen bucks short. They guy took it. So, I got a 50-amp autoformer for $198. It's hooked up and running right now.

Soon I'll catch Al (of the CountryGuy team) and see how he permanently wired his.

If anyone else is in the RGV and wants one of these, the stall is on the main "street" into the flea market, on the west side of the street. The business card says "Made In The Shade" so I guess that's the name of his stall. 956.793.3452. He has four left.

[CountryGuy]

geesh Steve, we must have just missed you, we priced them out for you (same guy) and were gonna come tell you all about it! HA HA, small world, great minds and all that stuff!

Carol

[harleyrider]

Steve you are the bargain shopper aren`t you???That is one GREAT price on the autoformer.I`am still debating on getting one.But for that price I wouldn`t be debating to long thats for sure.Lucky you Steve.

[Lstierw]

Good job Steve...we just paid 200 bucks for a nearly new 30 amp and we though that was a great deal....Les

[fulltimedreamer]

Steve,

Congrats on the purchase of your autoformer. What a great price!!! We have really appreciated ours for those times when the shore power is not as high as it should be. It certainly adds an extra layer of protection for your appliances.

Here's a link to our installation. http://www.geocities.com/fulltimedre...ofrm_inst.html

Maybe you can get some ideas even though ours is a 30 AMP and yours is a 50 AMP. Hope you're having a great ime in the RGV.

[Northstar]

Sometimes you can't turn down a gift horse in the mouth. Or something like that.

[Bill and Ann]

Same place I got mine Steve.

[Dano]

OK I give up, What is A autoformer (New at this)

[Emmel]

Ditto Dano, I'm not new at this, but I'm still in the dark as far as an Autoformer. Help me out Steve!

[richfaa]

Don't you hate it when you see a deal that you just can't pass up.Was at our local flea market last week and although we have a set of Wheel chocks I saw a set of The bal chocks with a price of 25.00, I figured each so I said well I will give you 20.00 and he said Ok and he gave me BOTH of them for 20.00.With a little cleaning up they look like new. I just love flea markets and vendors who are unaware of what they have????

[315RLS]

quote:Originally posted by fulltimedreamer

Steve,

Congrats on the purchase of your autoformer. What a great price!!! We have really appreciated ours for those times when the shore power is not as high as it should be. It certainly adds an extra layer of protection for your appliances.

Here's a link to our installation. http://www.geocities.com/fulltimedre...ofrm_inst.html

Maybe you can get some ideas even though ours is a 30 AMP and yours is a 50 AMP. Hope you're having a great ime in the RGV.

Lamar,
Thanks for posting the installation overview. I've a 315RLS and assume that generally our layout is much like yours in that the shore cord is in the center in the back of the coach and goes into the box that sits between the 2 chairs. I had thought if I was going to add one of these I'd put it inline within this box. Was there an advantage to installing where you did versus the cord collection box? thanks

[fulltimedreamer]

315RLS,

I actually removed the box/table you are referring to, so it was not an option for me. Otherwise I think this would be a great place to install it. I seem to remember that some of the other MOCers did put their autoformer in this space. You may want to consider putting a vent in the box so that there is adequate ventilation.

[azstar]

315RLS,

It's a great place for your AF.

I put mine in that box and did vent it with a couple of soffit vents. Here's a link to some Pics. www.msnusers.com/azstar If you'll go there click on the "Pictures" on the left side and see the pics. that show the Mod. I did for the cord cover. You'll be able to see the two vents I installed.

Happy Camping

[sreigle]

Thanks, Lamar, for the info on your installation. I saved that page. I also talked with Al (other half of CountryGuy) as he has theirs permanently installed, too, and their Montana is within site of ours. I have to give some serious consideration about permanently installing this one.

Steve (Emmel) -
"why do you need it" - http://autoformers.com/index.php?id=why
"how does it work" - http://autoformers.com/index.php?id=how

[Montana_3696]

we recently had an electrician cut the main power cord inside our camper and install a male and female 50 amp plugs ... if I could figure out how to do so, I'd post a picture showing our surge protector plugged into that main line with an Autoformer plugged into the surge protector ... should either the surge protector or Autoformer ever fail or if/when I trade our camper it will be a simple matter to unplug them and plug the two ends of the main power cord back together

Jim

[fulltimedreamer]

Jim,

That's how ours is done too. If I ever sell this unit the autoformer goes with me.

[sreigle]

Well, my "deal" turns out to be not quite as good as I thought. It still works ok for us and is not a bad deal, though.

I heard back from Dick Hughes, owner of Hughes Autoformer. What I bought is a model discontinued when he bought the company. He discontinued it because this model boosts only one leg of the 5-amp service. He found that unsatisfactory and rightfully so since it was sold as a 50-amp booster. The newer model boosts both legs.

The new model has an amber light and two red lights. A red light signals boost is occuring. Mine has one amber and one red, as does the 30-amp model. However, mine has 50-amp receptacle and plug and is sold as a 50-amp booster.

Since we connect to 30 amps 99 percent of the time this works ok for me. I will just plug into the 50-amp source or use an adapter to plug into the 30-amp source. And I use an adapter on the downline side of the autoformer to connect to my 30-amp power cord.

Disappointing but still an ok deal I guess.