Hello all. Just made the jump from my Lance camper, which I loved, to an Alliance Paradigm 310RL. It's a beautiful rig. The day after bringing it home, I was going over the electrical system. It has what they call the Super Solar Package. When on inverter power, and onboard Onan generator power, I am showing an open ground on the outlet tester, in all the outlets I tested. On our 30amp home shore power, the outlets test normal. I have read where some say this is normal, others that it is not. Any hard core RV electrical guys out there with an opinion? I have a service call into Alliance, but have not heard back from them yet. Thank you all.

The 120-AC power in the rig is a sub panel off the shore power source so according to the NEC subpanels are not re-grounded.The neutral is required to be bonded to ground between genset and the transfer switch, if equipped. if you have to plug shore power cord into a 30-amp receptacle to get power to rig, neutral needs to be bonded to neutral somewhere.

I'm skeptical about your rig. Portable gens do not have to bond neutral and ground for starters.ALL of my equipment has their ground bondeds including the frame. The transfer switch for the gen and the inverter switch the neutrals and the hots and hence the common household test shows 3 green lights and I would not want it any other way. I'd bet a donut Alliance says it's OK. And since there are absolutely no code requirements or insptections for a RV they are correct. There is a recommended paractice for RVs of course...

If you have an open ground, your GFCI outlets are not going to trip on a ground fault. They require an electrical path to the power source neutral-ground bond to trip. And if you should have a hot wire shorted to ground or RV frame it will not trip the circuit breaker. It will create a hot frame though. None of which are good conditions. .

From NFPA 70 National Electric Code. Judge for yourself. Article 551Recreational vehicles and recreational vehicle parks. Part III. Other Power Sources551.30 Generator Installations(A) Mounting. Generators shall be mounted in such a manner as to be effectively bonded to the recreational vehicle chassis. The connection of the electrical system produced by the generator shall provide an effective ground-fault return path when operational.

Thank you guys for the replies. Still haven't heard from Alliance. From what I hear here, doesn't sound that good. I appreciate it.

Open Ground | Good Sam Community

BB_TX
Nomad
Jun 20, 2023
If you have an open ground, your GFCI outlets are not going to trip on a ground fault. They require an electrical path to the power source neutral-ground bond to trip. And if you should have a hot wire shorted to ground or RV frame it will not trip the circuit breaker. It will create a hot frame though. None of which are good conditions. .
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Jun 20, 2023
I'm skeptical about your rig. Portable gens do not have to bond neutral and ground for starters.

ALL of my equipment has their ground bondeds including the frame. The transfer switch for the gen and the inverter switch the neutrals and the hots and hence the common household test shows 3 green lights and I would not want it any other way.

I'd bet a donut Alliance says it's OK. And since there are absolutely no code requirements or insptections for a RV they are correct. There is a recommended paractice for RVs of course...
enblethen
Nomad
Jun 20, 2023
The 120-AC power in the rig is a sub panel off the shore power source so according to the NEC subpanels are not re-grounded.
The neutral is required to be bonded to ground between genset and the transfer switch, if equipped. if you have to plug shore power cord into a 30-amp receptacle to get power to rig, neutral needs to be bonded to neutral somewhere.

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