Calss C motorhome - On board ONAN generator

Yes you can. One of two things will happen:

1. If your Atlantis has an Automatic Transfer Switch, after several seconds, the ATS will switch your electrical load From Pedestal TO Generator.

2. Nothing. If there's no ATS, there's a receptacle LIKE a campground pedestal has, on you RV, probably in the shore tie cable storage area. By starting the generator, you create your own "pedestal" that you plug yourself (the shore tie cable) into. THEN the generator takes on your electrical load.

What J-D said.

Me? I'd not make it a regular practice .... Just in case Murphy or the Wee People & Gremlins are about and bored.

My view is wired so there is a genny powered receptical that you plug the shore power cord into. The setup prevents having a problem with a transfer switch. It's either shore or generator....although the genny can run independently.

You absolutely can. The transfer switch, if you have one, will not let the two power sources simultaneously be connected to the RV (or to each other) via some sort of physical interlocking mechanism. Usually, it's wired such that the generator has priority over the shore power connection if both are powered.

It is not a good practice to have the transfer switch operate under load, nor is it really nice for the generator to suddenly be subjected to a heavy load when it has just barely started up. AC powered appliances should be turned off when starting the generator for these reasons.

Hi,

Switching under load may, over time, burn the contacts in the transfer switch.

It may not be "best practice" to run the generator while plugged into shore power.

I'm probably overly paranoid but, I always unplug from shore power before starting my generator.

Just in case.

While we are camping seasonally, 4 - 5 months in the summer, we still exercise the generator. We leave the camper plugged into shore power while doing so. That is the point of the Automatic Transfer Switch.

-Michael

Two ways gen powers an RV

Either it is hard wired to a 'transfer switch' along with shore power cord.
OR
You have to plug shore power cord into an outlet that is from generator output

Look for the plug in like this

Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean that you should.

Why would you want to ??

The most common arrangement for a C is like the last picture......and the power cord feeding the RV can get it's power from only ONE place at a time.
So if you leave that cord plugged into the shore power and run the gen, it will have no load at all.....and will be accomplishing nothing, except exercising it maybe.

Sam Spade wrote:
...The most common arrangement for a C is like the last picture......and the power cord feeding the RV...

surprising... we have a relatively inexpensive rig and it has the Automatic Transfer Switch

to the OP ..... why?

Our first Class C, an older Holiday Rambler, had the "outlet" arrangement, no Transfer Switch. Actually, it had "generator prep" but no generator when we bought it. I added a used ONAN BFA "RV 4.0 GenSet" and when I went to wire it, I found out that was how it worked.

Interestingly, it had an extra outlet in the kitchen, marked "Generator" and it would power up without plugging the shore tie into that outlet as pictured above. I guess the idea was you could stop and run the microwave, make a pot of coffee, etc. without plugging in outside.

We traveled plugged in, then switched at the campsite, plugged to travel home.

The scenario for Transfer Switch is Sudden Storm, Power Goes Out. Just crank the genny and stay dry. That happened exactly once, before we had an ATS.

I've found that the ATS transfer From Shore TO Generator is seamless. Going the other way is NOT. So, even though we have an ATS, I take the 120VAC load OFF before switching over.

Our Jayco (signature) is very Entry Level, but it has an ATS.