This past weekend I took my dad's 5th wheel to a buddy's farm to hang out for a couple of days. Both of our generators were at our farm a couple hours in the other direction. So, i ran down to the local big box hardware store and bought a brand new troybilt 6250wt.
I noticed while at the store that the only 220v female outlet on the genny was the 4-prong lock variety. The shore power cord that my dad owns has the 4-prong male variety, but NOT the lock type, its just 3 slim rectangle prongs, with a half-round ground prong at the top.
Connected to the shore power cord, my dad had the adapter that converts the 4-prong cord down to a 3-prong. I believe its quite normal to use these adapters at your house once you get your campers home. Still 220 though, i think, right?
Well, i said all that to say this: I called my electrician and asked how I might go about adapting the now 3 pronged cord to the 4-pronged outlet on the generator. He says, "just tie the neutral and ground coming out of the generator 4 prong lock outlet together and tie those both to the ground on the shore power cord. The other 2 leads from gennerator are just hot (x & y i think) so they go to the other 2 leads on the shore power cord.
So,i made an adapter with a 4-prong lock type male plug, and a 3-prong female outlet that the shore power cord would plug into with its adapter already on it. Diagram would read---generator-->four prong lock plug-->3 prong outlet (female)-->3 prong adapter on end of shore power cord (male)-->4 prong regular shore power cord.
Well, i did what he said. I made the neutral and ground leads coming from generator both tie into the ground to the camper shore power. Then I tied the remaining 2 leads to their counterparts on the shore power cord.
Cranked that bad boy up, walked into the camper and the 42" LED TV had smoke coming from underneath it! :S So, i ran back outside, and shut the genny down.
Walked around cussing and thinking about it for a few minutes and decided to try something different because it was 100 degrees and the wife and kid were HOT!
Went to my makeshift adapter and just dropped the neutral from the generator completely. Cranked her back up and ran inside, no smoke. BUT, by this point i was in deep. The microwave wouldn't work, neither would the living room tv, but my buddy was in the master bedroom and kicked on the extra AC unit, and it blew just fine. I got panicky again and just shut it down again. Left it.
When I finally got it home, i plugged it back in (correctly). Everything works fine except the living room tv, the microwave, and the kuerig coffee maker on the counter. I tested the outlet behind the tv with my phone charger and it charged my phone normally.
I'm gong back tomorrow with my multi-meter this time, and would like any suggestions on things to check. I'm not new to the camping scene, but I'm also not experienced with 220v AC either.
Help, please? or just opinions on what happened would be fine!
Awesome forum you guys got here!
