If you’ve seen comments on social media about buying surge protectors and it prompted this question, there are a few points to cover.
There are cheap surge protectors that act like a big fuse. While quite affordable, once they’ve done their job, you throw them away and buy another one (risking your RV electrical system until you can replace it)
There are also EMS surge protectors. They protect you from a lot of stupidity from mis-wired electric posts, to actual surges like lightning strikes or someone hitting a transformer. They also reset themselves, check the power situation and if everything is okay, they will feed power to your RV. EMS is the way to go and they come in two forms. The portable ones that go between your power cord and the outlet at the post and the built in units that go at the coach end of your power cord.
Here is the best part, if you look in the bay where your power cord is or possibly the one next to it, you should see the EMS Surge system box. The box has a wire that runs to your display in the coach to tell you how it’s working. The best on the market (in my opinion) is Progressive Technologies. That’s probably what you have in your rig and with it, you don’t need to buy another one. You’ve already got built in what everyone else is scrambling to buy.
I learned all about this when I was shopping for my must have items while reading the Facebook Forums. I spent over $500 on the EMS that plugs into the pedestal before I realized I already had its big brother installed. I quickly returned it in exchange for my 10 sensor tire minder system.
All that said to say this, you “can” buy another one to use at the other end, but you won’t be protecting anything but the heavy gauge power cord in between the two.
