Will Any Generator Do?

[allen8106]

I have a Generac Wheelhouse 5500 generator I bought back in 2005 because of an ice storm that knocked power out to my mothers house. She used it for a week until the electric company restored power. I want to do some boon dock camping and wondered if the experts here could tell me if this generator will run my 2010 Jayco 5ver satisfactorily. Now I know the first thing someone might say whoa that's going to be too noisy. Now I understand this this is a beast and is down right noisy. That aside what I am really interested in knowing is will this generator function properly with my 5ver? I assume, and I could be wrong, that this generator is a good as any other for running my 5ver, other than the noise of course.

[Coach-man]

Swamp Man wrote:

2112 wrote:

carpetguy2 wrote:
Portable

Start HERE
Be careful. Pay attention to how the 50A side is wired. If unsure seek an electrician and explain to him exactly what you need and it is for a 50A RV. Even then, assure it is wired right before you connect it. This has been done wrong too many times and will damage your RV electrical items such as microwave.

On Edit: I think THIS is what you are looking for.

Four prong plug. Two hot, one neutral, and a ground. Did you forget to ground the generator?

Yes and ground the RV as well!

[Swamp_Man]

2112 wrote:

carpetguy2 wrote:
Portable

Start HERE
Be careful. Pay attention to how the 50A side is wired. If unsure seek an electrician and explain to him exactly what you need and it is for a 50A RV. Even then, assure it is wired right before you connect it. This has been done wrong too many times and will damage your RV electrical items such as microwave.

On Edit: I think THIS is what you are looking for.

Four prong plug. Two hot, one neutral, and a ground. Did you forget to ground the generator?

[allen8106]

carpetguy2 wrote:
I have a generac 6500.I used for storm outages.
What pig tail do you use for rv.
Where can I get one ?

I don't have a pigtail yet. I was going to fabricate one or see if one is already available on the market.

[Me_Again]

With all the opinions to screw people that do not like generator noise, maybe it should be Around the Camp Fire! Chris

[2oldman]

2112 wrote:
Kinda feel like we hijacked the OPs thread. Sorry

It should be hijacked into Tech issues.

[2112]

HERE is an interesting one. Look what the Honda EU2000i does under an inductive load. The inverter choke saturated.

Kinda feel like we hijacked the OPs thread. Sorry

[2112]

smkettner wrote:
OK and it still does not have the issues like a MSW inverter.

Totally agree

Is 5500 watts driven by a single cylinder?

Even a two cylinder engine will have distortion because they do not fire 360 out of phase of each other.

Anyone have a scope image of a standard generator comparing to utility power?

I had some from years past but am unable to find them. That camera and computer are long gone and I do not believe I saved them elsewhere.

In the Y/T mode you will see the signal jitter when trying to lock on trigger. It will never be a steady signal.

Y/X mode should draw a circle. It will draw an oval, egg shape signal. The point of the oval is the bottom of the combustion stroke. Change the load and the image will change.

Don't use the generator to power your scope. You loose isolation. I had a blown probe tip and channel as a reminder.

[time2roll]

OK and it still does not have the issues like a MSW inverter.
Is 5500 watts driven by a single cylinder?

Anyone have a scope image of a standard generator comparing to utility power?

[2112]

smkettner wrote:
Generators produce a natural sine wave but at this power level the wave can easily be distorted. Fortunately most items are not very sensitive.

FWIW:
No internal combustion engine driven rotary generator can produce a pure sine wave. The 180 degree combustion stroke will push it above 3600 (or 1800) RPM and then the remainder 540 degrees will coast below RPM. This causes a non pure sine wave. The 60Hz and 120VAC is an average of the complete cycle.

The heavier the load the faster it will slow down and then the faster it has to speed back up during the combustion stroke, causing more distortion as you mentioned above.

If it is brush commutated, which most are, there is crossover noise as well. A permanent magnet type head will not produce crossover.

Regardless, as you said, most items are not very sensitive to this and could care less. They just want average power to operate and most any generator can provide this.

[time2roll]

allen8106 wrote:
It has a 120/240 volt 4 wire receptacle. 120 volts to each outside prong and 240 across the two outside prongs according to the manual. the RV is 50 amp.

You just need a standard generator adaptor to connect your cord.

http://tweetys.com/4-prong-rv-generator-adapter.aspx

Half the wattage will be on each side. I assume it is 5000 watts with 5500 surge rating. Usable will be 2500 watts and 2750 surge watts each side. This will probably run an air conditioner but you may need some power management to run other items depending on how the electric panel is balanced. For example if the air and microwave are on the same side it could overload.

Generators produce a natural sine wave but at this power level the wave can easily be distorted. Fortunately most items are not very sensitive.

[2112]

Verify your generac 8500 has a L14-30 connector on it. If it does you should find 2 each 30A breakers close to it. If you do then you only have 30A per leg. You won't have the whole 50A per leg available to you but no big deal. You might trip one of those breakers if you try to run too much at once. You can run both ACs because they are on opposite legs.

Power management maybe in order.

[2112]

carpetguy2 wrote:
Portable

Start HERE
Be careful. Pay attention to how the 50A side is wired. If unsure seek an electrician and explain to him exactly what you need and it is for a 50A RV. Even then, assure it is wired right before you connect it. This has been done wrong too many times and will damage your RV electrical items such as microwave.

On Edit: I think THIS is what you are looking for.

[carpetguy2]

Portable

[2112]

carpetguy2 wrote:
I have a generac 8500.I used for storm outages.
What pig tail do you use for rv.
Where can I get one ?

Is it a portable or stationary unit? The connections may vary