50 Amp Hughes Autoformer 28’ Install

[Spaggs]

I bought the Hughes EMS and am wondering “where the heck do I put this thang?”
I’ve searched on this forum as well as the www and can’t anything pertaining to AS.
Where/how do I access the electrical components for installation?
Thanks.

[LilPeanut]

Your shore power inlet has wires that go to a circuit breaker box. Put it between the inlet and the box.

[Spaggs]

Originally Posted by LilPeanut

Your shore power inlet has wires that go to a circuit breaker box. Put it between the inlet and the box.

I’ve got the 50 amp Autoformer with the Internal Hardwire Mounting Kit.

1) Do I cut the wires coming in from the AS outside receptacle/female and connect them to the Kit receptacle/female? (Assumption: insert the attached Autoformer male plug into the Kit receptacle/female).
2) Do I then connect the cut circuit breaker box wires to the Kit Male Plug wires? (Assumption: insert the Kit Male Plug into Autoformer receptacle/female).
As my mother used to explain my behavior to the neighbors, “he’s not stupid, just slow.”
Thanks.

[kb7our]

This is not a how-to but rather how I did mine:

It fits behind the converter panel under the fridge but we like this latest location (under microwave) best for easy access should there be a need. Small amount of space to sacrifice.

Since we have 2 30A plugs, one front and one side, I added a manual lever switch to share 1 surge and 1 autoformer between the two outlets. You have to get behind the converter to hard wire from the 30A to input on the surge then output from surge to input on converter. I have both the surge and autoformer wired before the converter.

Wade

[Spaggs]

Thanks for the added info. I put mine in the exact same place as yours:
I called up Hughes and asked if I could rotate the female receptacle on the box, which the rep said “yes.” It made for an easier route for the power cord. I had to drill out the rivets up top and replaced them with slightly larger ones, since I didn’t have their size. I used some painters tape with half of the sticky part facing upward to catch the metal shavings. 6 gauge butt connectors were used for the wires. I didn’t have that large of a crimper, so I used a big old hammer crimper. Had to spread out a big two foot wide sheet of plywood and towels underneath to spread out the impact of pounding on the new Airstream floor.
The most time consuming, and back breaking, part of this project was measuring/cutting and filing down the cutout portion of the board so it wouldn’t look like a hack job. Also, a major pain was measuring where to screw down the bracket. Had to allow enough room to engage those red clamps that tighten down the very heavy box.
With the time and money spent on this project, it better make pancakes for me in the morning!

[ITSNO60]

besides boosting voltage, does the Autoformer do everything an EMS does as well or is it advisable to have both? I noticed the first pic you have a Hughes surge protector in there.

[Spaggs]

Yes.
They have a “Replacement Surge Module” you can buy for $39.00, in case the one inside the heavy box fries. I went ahead and purchased one. This means having on hand a few rivets and a rivet gun. Hughes was kind enough to install this piece of equipment on top with just a couple of snap off/snap on connectors. Also, carry a few small zip ties and small zip tie snipper.

[kb7our]

Install looks good. The replacement autoformer surge component comes with screws to replace the lid rivets which makes it super easy to get inside.