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RV-Dreams.com Home -> RV-Dreams Community Forum -> Community Chat -> Thomas Fanelli - Progressive Industries
Post Info TOPIC: Thomas Fanelli - Progressive Industries
RVKevi


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Thomas Fanelli - Progressive Industries
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Thomas Fanelli, owner and president of Progressive Industries is absolutely terrific! 

We moved into our new 2011 Big Horn this week.  We are staying at a great park, Spring Hill, in Chapel Hill, NC.  We set up on Monday, and moved in on Tuesday.  Wednesday we went back to the apartment to clean and clear up a few loose ends.  When we got back to the park our 5er had no power.  The Progressive EMS had shut us down.

To explain what happened I need to give a bit of background.  Once upon a time Spring Hill was a mobile home park.  The owner, Tom Pritchard, has been turning it into an RV park as the mobile home sites have become available.  He currently has more than 60 sites with only 15 (I think that's what he said) still being mobile home sites.  The site we are on was a mobile home site until a couple weeks ago and Tom was turning it into 2 RV sites.  He got the right hand site ready first and put us in that one until the left hand site, which we wanted, was available.  He was working on getting the electric post on the site we would be moving to ready when we started having power problems.

He checked the electric post in our site with a multimeter and all the numbers looked right.  In fact they also looked right on the progressive readout showing 119 to 122 volts on each leg.  But everytime we turned the power on the EMS would trip us out and we'd have no power.  Every once in a while we'd get a PE code showing low power.  We called the person who installed our surge protector and he was no help.  Tom P. had checked the post with us watching so we thought we had a problem in the rig.  But he kept helping us try to find out what the problem was, even though we were all convinced that the problem was with us.  I got out the operating instructions for the EMS to try to see what we could figure out and we noticed that Progressive Industries was in Morrisville, which is only about 30 miles away.

At that point Tom decided to call Progressive to see if they could help us.  That turned out to be a great idea.  By that time it was after hours at Progressive but Thomas Fanelli, the president and owner of the company was there and answered the phone.  This is getting long so I'll skip all the details and just say that on Thursday he actually came here in his blue smart car to look at the unit and make sure it was working properly.  At one point we thought the rig had a terrible electric system flaw.  Thomas figured out the problem.  It turned out to be a problem in the old mobile home electric hookup which was part of the post that was the main for the 2 new RV sites.  It would arc, but only when it was under load.  The power would drop when it arced.  If it wasn't actually drawing power everything looked good.

Thomas put the EMS back together with a brand new board at no charge and left with our fervent thanks.  And Tom got to work fixing the problem.  It took a few hours during which we had no power, but he got the problem fixed.  And we got moved over to our new site and are happily settled.

I can't say enough good about Thomas Fanelli and Progressive Industries.  We just couldn't believe that the owner of a company like that would take the time to drive out here and spend hours helping ordinary people like us!  What a wonderful man!! 

Needless to say, the EMS saved our rig!!  The Progressive EMS prevented the damage that would almost certainly have occured without it.  And the remote readout which is installed where we can see it easily is a great feature!  We are fans forever!!  We will always trust the Progressive EMS!!



-- Edited by RVKevi on Saturday 29th of September 2012 10:32:33 AM

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Dave Buck


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We just bought the Progressive Ind. EMS for our RV. Have not had any problems with it or the power. The best price I could find at the time was from http://www.dyersonline.com/ with free shipping. Ordered it on line and got it in three day.

Dave

Edit by moderator:  Activated link.  Terry



-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 29th of September 2012 05:15:37 PM

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Terry and Jo


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First of all, it is good news that your power situation is now fixed.

Secondly, it is good news that the president of the company isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty.  It helps one make decisions sometimes when one knows that the "people behind the product" actually go the extra mile to help.

Sadly, our purchase of one of their systems will have to wait until we see what Jo's medical issues have cost us.

Thanks for the good report.

Terry



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Jack Mayer


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My position has always been that every RV should have an electrical management system in it. No exceptions. And my choice has always been Progressive. You situation is a perfect example of why every coach needs an EMS....as to which one to choose....it seems obvious to me. :)

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Hdrider


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 Now thats a good story right there. They always say the best or worst advertisement is word of mouth. And unfunately most of what we hear is bad. Just human nature.

I have been researching surge protection for our MH and I think I have now made my choice. Just need to figure out if I want to go the easy plug N ply route or have one wired in. Either way it will now be a Progressive Industries unit.



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Bill and Linda


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One again this is a fine example of why, as Jack indicated, every trailer / coach, whatever needs a quality EMS system.  I have always tried to be fair with my recommendations but this again proves the Progressive Industries product is the best due to both specifications and exceptional “value added” service.

 

There are many threads concerning these types of electrical issues and the absolute need for a very high quality protection device.  I and others post only as a warning in hopes of preventing others from having very costly repairs should the park power, of any type of park, go “bad.”  By the way – it will go bad someday – even near a large city.  Been there – seen that last February.  My rig was fine.  Others, not so much.

 

Safe travels

 

Bill



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RVKevi


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btw, the Progressive EMS-HW50C now has a lifetime warranty. According to Thomas, because they are so confident of the quality and dependability of their product, even if you got yours before they had that, it is covered by the lifetime warranty. Maybe all their products have that, but I don't have any information about anything but the model we have.

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Bill and Linda


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Dave Buck wrote:

We just bought the Progressive Ind. EMS for our RV. Have not had any problems with it or the power. The best price I could find at the time was from http://www.dyersonline.com/ with free shipping. Ordered it on line and got it in three day.

Dave

That price for the HW-50C 50AMP / Hardwired unit with the remote read out is VERY competitive with what I paid for me 6 years ago.  Good find.

 

Bill

 



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Bill & Linda
Hdrider


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Let me ask a question if I may, without trying to interupt this topic.

If you have the hard wired unit and something DOES go wrong with it. Even if it is warrantied for life you may have some down down until it is repaired or replaced. Is there a way to bypass the hard wired unit?

I guess this is why I keep getting stuck on a hard wired or plug in unit. 



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Dave & Diane 

"40' New Horizon Majestic 5th wheel  

"2018 Ram 5500 w/Classy Chassis Hauler Bed

2014 Tiffin Phaeton 42LH "for sale" SOLD 

http://daveanddiane.wordpress.com/2012/07/

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RVKevi


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The hard wired we have, which has a remote display that is installed in an easily accessible spot, has a button you can push to bypass it. Very simple.

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2011 Heartland Big Horn 3670RL, 2012 RAM 3500

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Bill and Linda


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Hdrider wrote:

Let me ask a question if I may, without trying to interupt this topic.

If you have the hard wired unit and something DOES go wrong with it. Even if it is warrantied for life you may have some down down until it is repaired or replaced. Is there a way to bypass the hard wired unit?

I guess this is why I keep getting stuck on a hard wired or plug in unit. 

 

Progressive Industries does make a plug in unit but that unit does not have all the features of the hardwired unit including the meter which is extremely helpful when power is marginal.

 

To expand on this just a bit please: The unit has a relay in it.  That relay, which interrupts the power to the trailer if there is a fault, is about the only thing that can go wrong with the device that could keep power from making it to the rig in the “by pass” mode.

 

Under a worst case condition, should the device be seriously damaged due to a lighting strike or some such event (I’m being simple here) and the relay be totally ruined, then yes, you would have to remove the EMS to get power to the trailer from the shore power cord.  However and here is the point – IF the EMS were totally destroyed “giving itself up to protect the rig” as such, think what would have happened to the rig had the EMS not be in place.

 

IF you have a generator, then it is suggested that the EMS be wired into the line coming from the shore power cord that feeds the generator / shore power change over switch.  That way IF a catastrophic failure were to occur in the EMS due to a lighting strike, etc. you would still have a generator and the EMS would have protected the generator / shore power change over switch as well as the rig.

 

This was more of an answer than requested, but many read these threads and I believe all this, which has been stated before in many threads, bears repeating.  It's important.

 

Bill



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