3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

Jesse's Dad wrote:
This may have already been covered, but I've only read about 45 pages of this post. I hope it is not redundant.
I bought one of the Pep Boys $319.00 Power Pro 3500 gensets. The first thing I noticed was the 3 pronged 20 amp and twist lock 30 amp plugs were powered by their own identical, but seperate winding in the generator, and they are out of phase 180 degrees, so you can't combine them externally. So I did some tests, I loaded each outlet, one at a time with 3500 watts of resistive load (space heaters) and measured the output voltage. (I know the 20amp socket isn't made for this, but it is only a test). On each socket, at 3500 watts the voltage dropped to 95 VAC, not good. At 3000 watts, voltage dropped to 101 VAC, kind of weak. So I opened it up and found the the wiring used from the generator head to the AC distribution panel is 14 gauge (weak), so I rewired the two windings in parallel and used 12 gauge wires. Now with the generator loaded with 3500 watts I have 111 VAC, and at 3000 watts I have 114 VAC, much better. Of course after this modification I don't have 240 VAC available out of the genset anymore, but I won't need it.

Don't you dare ask me to tell you which page, but of the 20-odd pages I did manage to read here and there, yes, this was previously noted. BUT...it's good that you have confirmed what was previously written!