Need generator advice

[acatlover13]

We have a car hauler with a 50 amp male plug, and a Powerhouse 6500 Generator with a 30 amp 120V receptacle, and a 30 amp 120/240V receptacle. My question is:

What type of adapter do we need, and which of these receptacles should we be using??

[wa8yxm]

SWD wrote:
You'll need a four pronged adapter for your gen which will give you a 50amp female at the other. Got it?

THIS IS THE ONE.. SWD got it right.. (Congrats SWD)

Most Generator stores and many RV places should have this adapter.

The one shown is most likely a Camco.

[Lynnmor]

acatlover13 wrote:
We just used the trailer/generator again this weekend and it worked pretty good for a day and a half. Then it started acting like it was struggling/starving for fuel. It didn't matter if we were using the 110 side or the 240 side. It struggled even when it had no load at all. We've done every scheduled maintenance we were supposed to. Changed the oil at 5 hours, then again at 50 hours. We checked and cleaned the air filter at 60 hours. We cleaned the spark arrester at 102 hours. We ran it on ethanol free fuel for the first 20 or so hours, but then we couldn't find it so used regular pump gas (we used the under 10% ethanol regular - per the owners manual). We even changed the fuse and the spark plug. We are now at a loss. It is obviously a generator problem.

I don't know if you are operating it in cold temperatures or not. I've had throttle plates frost up, from all that water that is in fuel now, and the cure was to enclose the intake area to capture some engine heat. Due to evaporative cooling, that frost can form even when air temps are slightly above the freezing point.

[acatlover13]

We just used the trailer/generator again this weekend and it worked pretty good for a day and a half. Then it started acting like it was struggling/starving for fuel. It didn't matter if we were using the 110 side or the 240 side. It struggled even when it had no load at all. We've done every scheduled maintenance we were supposed to. Changed the oil at 5 hours, then again at 50 hours. We checked and cleaned the air filter at 60 hours. We cleaned the spark arrester at 102 hours. We ran it on ethanol free fuel for the first 20 or so hours, but then we couldn't find it so used regular pump gas (we used the under 10% ethanol regular - per the owners manual). We even changed the fuse and the spark plug. We are now at a loss. It is obviously a generator problem.

[whiteeye42]

use only hte 30 amp/120 volt plug because if by some chance the switch gets flip on the 120/240 volt plug you well fry the trailer wiring

[time2roll]

Any luck?

[time2roll]

Keep in mind the 6500 is rated 6000w and is going to be just 3000w rating for each side. This is enough to run the air conditioner but not much else on that side. If it is pared with the water heater or the converter(with low batteries) it may overload.

If the other heavy load items are on the other side(other main) it will do much better.

This is not the same as 50 amp service at 12,000w and 6,000w per side. Basically it is only half the power compared to plugged into 50a.

[time2roll]

I suspect the electric water heater or converter is paired on the same side as your air conditioner. Yes turn stuff on one breaker at a time and discover what causes the overload. For more help post the breaker map or a pic.

Example:

Main 1,
Air
Water heater
GFI

Main 2,
Microwave
Converter
Convenience outlets

Just list what the labels are next to each branch/main.

[acatlover13]

OK...we'll try turning everything off. When we do that, should we just turn things on slowly? In other words, should we start with the main and A/C, then add the lights, then the water pump, etc.??

We need all of these things to run, all at once, and should have plenty of generator to do it...but something is just not going right for us. When we had it hooked up the other way, we had it all working--at the same time--and were only pulling about 3500 watts, so the load on the genset was only about 1/2.

Also...we noticed that our "economy" feature didn't seem to work when it is switched to 220--the generator sounds like it's running at full load, even when nothing is running. This of course makes it burn more fuel, and I would think just overall be working harder than it needs to.

I'm not trying to find someone to tell me that the way we were doing it before was right if it's not, but we are just really, really confused and want to do what is best both for our power needs and the generator lifespan.

[time2roll]

Try turning off ALL breakers in the RV except the main and air conditioner on the one side.
I agree with using the 4 prong connector switched to 240v.

[acatlover13]

Yes! It worked great for about 2 1/2 days...then started shutting off periodically. The A/C is a 15000 BTU. The only other things on the trailer are
4 overhead florescent lights, about 5 110 receptacles, two porch lights, a 5 gallon water heater (that we only turn on when necessary) and a water pump. The 30-Amp side ran everything and barely put a strain on the generator

The three prong 30-amp adaptor worked perfect, so we thought that all was good. But then the generator started acting up....it would run for a while and then the generator would still be running, but it would not output any power. we thought it might be a circuit board or something, so we took it in for warranty work. The generator tech said that there was nothing wrong with the gen, and that we had the wrong adaptor. So charged us $100 for his labor to look at it, and $60 for the new adaptor. We came home and hooked up the trailer with the new adaptor, and the A/C wouldn't even come on, or it would come on for about 2 minutes, then the generator would shut down.

[SWD]

The 3 pronged outlet will/should give you 30amps.....enough to power your AC if its a 13.5K unit. The four pronged outlet gives you 50amps but split between two legs/sides. 25amps may not be enough to run your AC. I have a 3000watt gen and can run our 13.5k ac no prob. Its certainly a generator issue.

[SWD]

It worked better on the 30amp side? How many BTUs is the AC?

[acatlover13]

OK...getting there. Figured out how to resize my photos. Still stumped on the generator thing though.....

[SWD]

Oh...and before I forget...you need to resize your pics to 600x400 or thereabouts...for forum use.