Generator use

holstein13 wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
Holstein13, just curious, will your generator go through it's scheduled exercise if you are driving down the road?

I haven't thought about that and haven't noticed it yet. In fact, I don't believe I've driven my MH on Monday at noon, yet. I'll try to remember to pay attention if I ever drive it at that time, but I see no reason why it wouldn't go on.

The only issue that I see with this 'automatic' set up is that it's not good to start a genny while under load (all airs on, hot water, etc.). I would imagine that the auto exercise would temporarily shut down the load so that the transfer switch can switch with ease.

MM.

Hard on transfer switch shut everything down and unplug then start gen and put a load on it

Mr.Mark wrote:
Holstein13, just curious, will your generator go through it's scheduled exercise if you are driving down the road?

I haven't thought about that and haven't noticed it yet. In fact, I don't believe I've driven my MH on Monday at noon, yet. I'll try to remember to pay attention if I ever drive it at that time, but I see no reason why it wouldn't go on.

I always unplug before running the Gen. Why take the chance of burning something up.. :h

Like someone else mentioned, its sooo easy to flip the shore power breaker to off. And yes to the person who asked if you can exercise the gen set while going down the road. Just turn your roof airs on while doing so to put a load on the gen set. If its cold outside, use the heat strip setting or reverse cycle heat setting if you have them. Hot water heater set to electric works too but be sure there is water in it (not winterized).

Tom/Barb wrote:
We have up graded to a Progressive surge guard, (EMS) added a 50 amp plug in box to support the kids trailer when we are remote. plus a 2000W Magnum inverter. (as wired) when we start the generator, it will idle until it is warmed up, then except power load, when it does, the automatic transfer switch will switch the load from the external power cord, to the gen/set. no flicker at all. the EMS Progressive reader window will then show a 0 load on all three phases of the 50 amp power chord. Plugging the external chord after the delay for testing the EMS will show the E-0 code saying there is no problem, then shutting down the gen/set the automatic transfer switch will transfer the load to the external chord then the EMS will show amperage for all three legs.

Things to watch,, when the load shown on the EMS is more than the gen/set's capacity you must reduce the load prior to starting the gen/set and removing the shore power chord. simply because the gen/set has priority at the transfer switch and will sense an overload and shut down.

I think op's setup is just a little different

We have up graded to a Progressive surge guard, (EMS) added a 50 amp plug in box to support the kids trailer when we are remote. plus a 2000W Magnum inverter. (as wired) when we start the generator, it will idle until it is warmed up, then except power load, when it does, the automatic transfer switch will switch the load from the external power cord, to the gen/set. no flicker at all. the EMS Progressive reader window will then show a 0 load on all three phases of the 50 amp power chord. Plugging the external chord after the delay for testing the EMS will show the E-0 code saying there is no problem, then shutting down the gen/set the automatic transfer switch will transfer the load to the external chord then the EMS will show amperage for all three legs.

Things to watch,, when the load shown on the EMS is more than the gen/set's capacity you must reduce the load prior to starting the gen/set and removing the shore power chord. simply because the gen/set has priority at the transfer switch and will sense an overload and shut down.

Holstein13, just curious, will your generator go through it's scheduled exercise if you are driving down the road?

I'm not sure if ours will do that or not. I know it's sophisticated but I'm not! LOL!

I'm good about exercising our genny. We'll leave the coast tomorrow heading back to the desert and I will run the genny and maybe three air units to put it under load. The desert will be in the mid 80's so the airs will get a workout.

Safe travels,
MM.

I hate to say this depends, but it really does. If you have an older system and it's not very sophisticated, then, by all means, turn off all your loads, unplug your coach, start the generator, start your loads and try to get up to 50% load going, then run the generator for at least one full hour once a month. It's better to run it longer less often than shorter times more often.

Having said that, I don't do any of that at all. I've programmed my generator to come on 30 minutes every Monday at noon. My ATS and power management system do all the safety precautions for me and power down everything immediately when the generator is first turned on. My EMS turns on the loads gradually after the generator has gotten up to operating specs.

Net, net, don't look for advice from this forum on this particular issue. It really depends on your setup.

I simply flip the shore power CB.