Open Neutral and Fridge says A

The ground prong hole in a "neutral floating" generator is connected to the generator's metal frame (or chassis), which should connect it to all exposed metal parts. This will result in the frame of the RV being connected to the frame of the generator. I assume the purpose is so you can't get shocked if touching the rv frame and generator frame at the same time.

Oh no somebody mentioned "bonded" Long thread to follow! :)

So what does the ground prong hole do in those Honda receptacles in a "two-wire" system?

I did not have the trailer shore power into the Honda during the time the receptacle was showing Open Neutral so I can't say how that would have gone.

The receptacle was working despite whatever "open" it had when it was part of "whole house" with the shore cord into the inverter (inverter not chassis grounded to frame) (converter off, fridge on gas) but when I first hooked up to shore power at home it all worked briefly including the fridge then I saw the A on the fridge and started looking for the problem, back to OP---

OK the house is bonded, trailer not, and I get two lights in the trailer usually same as in the house.

Switching the power off and on using the main 30a breaker in the trailer got it all going again for a minute then it faded back to Open Neutral. It was only when I pulled out the receptacle and "worked" its wires it suddenly began to show two lights again on shore power so I know I fixed it somehow.

I think there was a poor contact in the receptacle that was created when it got "hit" that could not hold power past the turn on but when I worked it, the wire must have gone back in place on its contact in the receptacle more firmly. Just guessing though.

It remains true that the charger plugged into that receptacle's other half was running ok with the tester showing Open Ground in the other half of the same receptacle. I did not try anything else in that half of the receptacle the tester was in. The fridge (several receptacles away in the string it appears) showed A though.

If I had not turned the fridge to 120v and seen that A, I would not have known anything was wrong.

"Neutral floating" in the context of the generator means the N is NOT bonded to G. Shore power, on the other hand, N is always bonded to G at the main distribution panel. The pedestal in a camp ground is not a main distribution panel.

Do you believe everything you read?

Here's a good explanation:
Defining a neutral conductor

What do not fit the definitions are installations with one hot conductor and a return conductor, such as may be found in a 120-volt single phase, two-wire system. Sections 250.20(B)(1) and 250.26(1) still require the grounding-electrode connection, and 200.6 still requires the conductor to be white or gray “neutral” conductor. However, it is not a neutral conductor, even though many people still refer to it as a neutral. This is a grounded conductor, but be careful. It is just as lethal, if not more so than our “neutral” conductor.

The author is describing a bonded 2-wire system. He's defining the wire that most people call "neutral" as the "grounded conductor". This gets really messy because your gen is not bonded. It's no longer the "grounded conductor". The "white wire" is probably the best name for it. And again, for a 2-wire gen, either output can be the white or black wire.

Sal

BFL13 wrote:

Salvo, mine says "neutral floating" on the 120v

One person says "The Honda gen does not have a "floating" neutral.",
and another says "mine says "neutral floating" on the 120v",

and you're both correct! The neutral can't be floating because there is no neutral on a 2-wire AC circuit, but the Honda and other generators do say it's floating. I've just about given up fighting this battle. Trying to tell almost anybody that their 30 amp RV doesn't have a neutral is like trying to swim up a waterfall. When I feel the need to be technically accurate (or if I'm cranky) I sometimes use "white wire" and "black wire", but most of the time I just give in. If only the generator manufacturers would say "Floating Output".

Salvo wrote:
Unless the appliance is defective, you can not run things with an open neutral.

The Honda gen does not have a "floating" neutral. The gen has no neutral or a hot. It just has two outputs. Depending how you wire the gen to the ac receptacle, in other words, which wire goes to the short receptacle slot and which wire goes to the long receptacle slot will define "hot" and "neutral".

BFL13 wrote:

Can't you still run things from the 120 across hot and ground? If you need the neutral, how can things run off the floating neutral Honda? (but that is not the same light as the Open Neutral on the tester)

Salvo, mine says "neutral floating" on the 120v



Anyway, in my rush to fix whatever it was that happened, I didn't take good notes to now let electricians here figure it out properly.

I got it working for now. If it happens again I will try to take better note of the various symptoms.

Unless the appliance is defective, you can not run things with an open neutral.

The Honda gen does not have a "floating" neutral. The gen has no neutral or a hot. It just has two outputs. Depending how you wire the gen to the ac receptacle, in other words, which wire goes to the short receptacle slot and which wire goes to the long receptacle slot will define "hot" and "neutral".

Edit, didn't understand what was meant by floating. The gen outputs are floating with respect to ground or chassis. That's a don't care scenario. AC requires just 2 wires to function, not three wires. It doesn't matter if neutral is bonded or not. If an appliance is operating with an open neutral then it is defective.

BFL13 wrote:

Can't you still run things from the 120 across hot and ground? If you need the neutral, how can things run off the floating neutral Honda? (but that is not the same light as the Open Neutral on the tester)

NO, it would be a fault condition to have H and G run an appliance (or anything else), very bad....:)

Yes, all the receptacles including the fridge are on the one circuit. I don't know which of my actions working on the receptacle fixed it (I didn't have it right apart, just bent the wires back and forth by where they go in/out, so it could come back again suppose.)

The receptacle is duplex and the three-light in the top showed Open Neutral while the extension cord plugged into the bottom was running the charger, so I suppose the open was in the top part and not the bottom part if you need the neutral.

Can't you still run things from the 120 across hot and ground? If you need the neutral, how can things run off the floating neutral Honda? (but that is not the same light as the Open Neutral on the tester)

When that receptacle showed Open Neutral so did others I checked which goes with the Google article I read that said finding the open can be difficult as it could be anywhere. It did say something about damage so that made me remember the slide-out incident several weeks ago. (all receptacles etc worked ok off the inverter as whole house, but the inverter is floating neutral anyway I believe.)

Sounds like the damaged wire/receptacle was in the branch circuit with the frig. Your main service cable, and therefore the rest of the system, was unaffected.