New Champion 2000 Generators

DW and I went out for Thursday-Saturday to try out our generator and new 6-volt batteries!! It was really neat to be out at a state park with no hookups and be able to do pretty much everything we would normally do.

I did seem that my lights did draw a lot from the batteries, but everything else did really good. I don't have LED's so that may be something to change in the future. Also I didn't have a monitor for the batteries, as I am waiting on one ordered and it hasn't arrive yet. That would have been nice to see how the batteries were doing regularly without the guesswork.

The champions worked like a "champ" :)

I am glad I purchased the 2x2000's instead of one of the heavier ones!!

I received the below reply very quickly from Champion regarding my issue, and they say it does have to do with the "floating neutral"

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Hello Jeffery,
The inverter is wired using a floating neutral. This shows up as a reverse polarity by many meters. I have included the excerpt from our FAQ’s page below.

Most Champion Power Equipment generators have a "floating neutral", meaning that the neutral circuit is not connected to the frame or to earth ground. This also means that both legs on the receptacle are hot legs, which is normal for floating neutral generators. As a result, there is no specific hot leg and neutral leg wiring arrangement for the generator winding connection to the receptacle. The floating neutral configuration is common for applications such as connection to a recreational vehicle and connection to home power where the transfer switch does not switch out the neutral to ground connection.

The floating neutral eliminates the potential of being shocked by contacting a hot leg and the generator frame at the same time, which could occur if an electrical device such as a hand held tool suffered from an internal short circuit.

Meters or other devices intended to indicate polarity may not properly indicate polarity on a floating neutral circuit. Polarity indicators generally measure the voltage across the neutral and ground connectors. In electrical systems where the neutral is bonded to ground, the voltage will be zero and correct polarity will be indicated. In systems where the neutral is not bonded to ground, voltage is also not expected across this connection. However, in a portable generator some very small current voltage readings can be recorded by sensitive volt meters. This voltage may be induced in the frame by the magnetic field of the generator. The current associated with this induced voltage and the risk of electrical shock are negligible. However, very sensitive polarity meters may interpret this voltage as an indication of reversed connections.

Thank you for purchasing a Champion Power Equipment inverter.
-JMM Champion Support Representative

bikendan wrote:

Bob Vaughn wrote:
With Honda generators being so quiet why hasn't the same muffler technology been used in other brands of generators??

It's not the muffler that makes the difference, it's the quieter motor and sound deadening insulation.

x2. It's mainly cost. Costs more to build them quieter, and it's not just a muffler. They've put a lot of effort into getting rid of the 'whoosh' and 'whirr' of the generator armature - that sound that carries for hundreds of feet.

I checked the generators with the small plug in and all the regular sockets on each generator showed "open neutral."

When I put them both together with the parallel kit and then plugged in my surgeguard it ran through its cycle and showed everything was ok. However, when I then plugged my trailer into it, it shows "reverse polarity"?

Any ideas why it would be all green until I plugged my trailer in?
Could it be reading something from the trailer? I've run three years without a problem with the trailer side.
Could it have something to do with the floating neutral?

I will check each unit separately, and then the parallel that connects the two together to see what is causing the problem. hopefully on Friday if time works out. (boy wish is was retired! :) )

SoundGuy wrote:

However, if you truly are seeing a "reverse polarity" indication I sure wouldn't be plugging anything in until you figure out where the reversal is occurring. :E

I've got one of those too, so I'll check it out. Thanks for your help!

SoundGuy wrote:
I presume you're therefore describing ground connection between the 2 gensets themselves via the parallel cable kit you're using ... right? :@

Redterpos3 wrote:
Yes, this is exactly what I'm trying to describe. Thanks for the clarification. I'm not a mechanical/engineering type so any help along these lines is appreciated!!

Thanks for your reply ... but I'm still curious though as to whether you really meant your surge protector was indicating "reverse polarity" and not an "open ground", as should be the case with any genset wired with a floating neutral, as shown in this pic.



Assuming you do have an "open ground" indication then you can safely use a bonding plug to bond the genset's neutral to it's ground, in which case you'll see this and can then safely plug in your surge protector.



However, if you truly are seeing a "reverse polarity" indication I sure wouldn't be plugging anything in until you figure out where the reversal is occurring. :E

SoundGuy wrote:
I presume you're therefore describing ground connection between the 2 gensets themselves via the parallel cable kit you're using ... right? :@

Yes, this is exactly what I'm trying to describe. Thanks for the clarification. I'm not a mechanical/engineering type so any help along these lines is appreciated!!

As to the sound I have nothing to compare it to. It makes noise, less on econ mode, but not terrible.

Redterpos3 wrote:
Yesterday was able to hook everything up and connect to my trailer. I first attempted to use my surge protector, but it showed "reversed polarity." I read in another thread this is because of the floating neutral (in inverter generators), and I need to get/make a special plug to change that situation.

Any generator wired internally with a floating neutral would cause your surge protector to see it as an open ground not "reversed polarity" and if you indeed did see reversed polarity should not have hooked up at all. :E Plugging a G-N bonding plug in which the ground and neutral are connected together into the output of a floating neutral generator will solve the open ground reading you're seeing with your surge protector but you certainly don't want to be doing this if your genset really is outputting "reversed polarity". :E Beyond plugging your trailer's main service cable into a (properly wired) generator there's no other connections, including ground wires, that need to be made ... it's a floating system in itself, with no connection at all between earth ground and trailer / generator ground. I presume you're therefore describing ground connection between the 2 gensets themselves via the parallel cable kit you're using ... right? :@