MrWizard wrote:
...
if you don't break the ground, you actually have a continuation of the shore neutral into the RV on the ground wire, while powering the RV from the inverter
i would not risk an inverter/shore short, or an imbalance on the shore loads causing a hot neutral
Transfer switches .. swtich ALL (3) wires on 30amp, all (4) on 50amp
Yes, the transfer switch I'm using only switches the hot and neutral leads. And the ground leads from the shore and the inverter are connected in the box. The inverter's ground is floating and not connected to neutral at the inverter.
But this transfer switch is wired differently in that it only activates when shore power is available, not the opposite which is more normal. I can see your point when using the inverter as a backup. Then you would still be plugged into the shore power with its bonded ground and neutral when it fails.
And in my case, the inverter is never used when the trailer is plugged into shore. And if the shore power is on, the transfer switch disconnects the inverter's hot and neutral leads from the trailer, supplying only shore power.
I suppose there is a potentially dangerous scenario where I accidentally leave the shore power cable plugged in (so grd and neutral are bonded), but not turned on at the pedestal so the inverter would still be connected to the trailer, and then use the inverter. But that seems rather unlikely.
