Possible electrical issue - your thought?

A couple of things may have happened. Your generator will run the microwave, but not much more. If your batteries were getting low, you battery charger may have kicked on before you fired up the microwave. The battery charger takes a lot of juice. Secondly, do you have a combo water heater. If you do, was it on electric?

I've been threatening to get myself a Kill-a-Watt to see just how much my 55A Iota loads my Honda 2000 after a few days of dry camping. I put the factory WFCO on its own breaker and the IOTA on a switched AC outlet so I can turn them both off if DW wants to run the microwave or coffee maker.

FYI - if your Honda overloads and you turn it off to reset it, if you turn the switch back to "on" after the overload light is off and before the engine quits turning you won't have to restart it.

Fishinghat wrote:
You used so much amperage out of your batteries on the first day that your generator was working hard to recharge. Then you put an additional load on the generator when you used the microwave.

You sir,, have been reading my posts it seems. That is my diagnosis as well.

IF you have a magnetek 6300 this does not apply but if you have a decent 3-stage converter,, You bet'cha as one failed politician might say.

Last Campground I was at I had 30-30 electric service (two 30 amp breakers) one fed the rear A/C and the Progressive Dynamics 9180 with wizard both of which, on my rig can be operated "Independent" of the house 120 volt system.

Well if I'm doing heavy cooking with both A/C running I can easily pull close to 20 amps in the kitchen.. So Id shut off power to the inverter and cook off batteries.. IF I did that long enough the 9180 went into BOOST mode and started sucking enough power that with the 13.5 draw up on the roof.. click went the breaker.

When we lived at home I had a 20 amp feed to the RV. Never could get wife to understand you do not turn on A/C or Water heater for at least 2 hours (or Microwave) after plugging in. Let the batteries eat first.

So, what is the current state of affairs?

newman fulltimer wrote:
did you flip the breaker all the way over and back

Yes, thank you.

On my Honda 2000 you need to shut off and restart to reset the overload breaker. I am assuming the OP did this before troubleshooting inside.

You used so much amperage out of your batteries on the first day that your generator was working hard to recharge. Then you put an additional load on the generator when you used the microwave.

My guess is you overloaded the generator and/or the inverter/converter. So, looking for a tripped CB is the most logical step. As Newman fulltime suggested, the CBs have to be turned all the way off before being turned back on.

Next time, give your system a break. Use the microwave and electric griddle only when the generator is running. Run the generator enough to charge up the batteries to 80% or better, and don't do both at the same time.

Does your generator have a breaker on it?

did you flip the breaker all the way over and back