Used generator first time

[DannyA]

Hooked up my Champion 3100 watt to the 5th wheel for the first time today. Worked great, tried air and even in economy mode ran the air just fine. With generator 20 feet away only a faint sound of it inside camper and with air on no noise from it at all. The only question is it showed reverse polarity on my surge guard, is this normal? Think I will like it very much if this polarity thing is not a problem.

[DannyA]

Haven't run it enough yet to let you know about fuel consumption. Doesn't seen to use much so far though, hope that is true.

[pnichols]

About what is the fuel consumption of your Champion 3100 when running the air conditioner?

My rough guesstimate is that our Onan drinks around 0.4 gallons per hour when it's running our A/C.

Even though the Onan is a fixed RPM generator (i.e. not an inverter generator), it's rate of fuel consumption does vary by load even though it's spin-rate stays at 3600.

[Sandia_Man]

Yeah, our Champion 3100 runs our AC unit without a hint of duress, even on eco-mode and at high elevations. Noticed that the Champion did indicate the same issue on my 120VAC monitor, I just silenced the alarm on the monitor and have already put over a 100 hours on the genny since I purchased it last April. Have an Onan onboard that has never set-off the AC voltage monitor with this issue, after a decade of ultra-dependable service, it was major overkill for most of our power needs.

Saw a deal on the Champion 3100 with remote start that I just couldn't pass on, just like the Onan, a quick press of the remote and away she goes. The Champion puts out a solid 122 volts whether powering our AC or hardly anything at all. The Onan would drop a few volts if under heavy demand, not enough to matter, just something I noted over the 1K plus hours of use. Currently looking for our next rig which will not have an onboard genny, I feel confident the Champion 3100 will serve us well for many years to come.

[pnichols]

bikendan wrote:
Don't understand why someone uses a surge protector with a 3000w or less generator.Am I missing something?

2oldman wrote:
Perhaps it's hard-wired in. Or it's one of those belt- and -suspenders things, like holding the gas nozzle instead of trusting it to shut itself off.

Hmmmmm ... off topic, but ... if I don't hold the gas nozzle when refueling our MH, pumps wind up shutting off around 5 gallons short of full. I guess I'd better get some suspenders.

[DrewE]

naturist wrote:
My two generators, a 5500 watt Generac open frame and an 1800 watt ETQ inverter generator both have ground lugs and both say to ground them for safety sake. I seldom do this, and my take on it is hardly anyone else ever does it. But I'll bet that doing so would also solve the issue.

The Generac is for home use, and I drove an extra 8 foot ground rod into the ground next to where that generator would sit when using it to power the house in the event of an outage. But I note that one can as easily get a good ground the old fashioned way: with a battery clamp on a water faucet that has metal pipes.

Grounding it actually won't do anything for the surge guard, as the ground and neutral still would not be bonded. The surge guard has no way of knowing if the ground wire is actually at earth potential as it has nothing to reference its voltage to in an absolute sense. All it can do is look at the voltages between the earth, neutral, and hot wires, and see if they make sense. If the ground is not within a couple of volts of the neutral, it surmises it's either an open ground or (if it is within a couple volts of the hot wire) that the polarity is reversed.

Putting in a bonding plug will make the surge guard think everything is A-OK, whether the ground lug is earthed or not, since it will keep the ground wire voltage from floating arbitrarily.

[naturist]

My two generators, a 5500 watt Generac open frame and an 1800 watt ETQ inverter generator both have ground lugs and both say to ground them for safety sake. I seldom do this, and my take on it is hardly anyone else ever does it. But I'll bet that doing so would also solve the issue.

The Generac is for home use, and I drove an extra 8 foot ground rod into the ground next to where that generator would sit when using it to power the house in the event of an outage. But I note that one can as easily get a good ground the old fashioned way: with a battery clamp on a water faucet that has metal pipes.

[wa8yxm]

Generally small generators the "Safety Ground" is N/C (Not connected) this will cause 3-light testers and surge guards to show a ground fault or reverse polarity or both.. IT is not, however indicateive of an issue

The reason the Safety ground is NOT connected is.. No reason for it if the A/C System has no ground (Mains are grounded) .. Many bond the neutral to ground at the generator.. Multiple ways to do that. I won't make suggestions however.

[DannyA]

bikendan wrote:
Don't understand why someone uses a surge protector with a 3000w or less generator.

Am I missing something?

My answer is simple, it was on the end of the cord so I plugged it in.
If reverse polarity in this situation is ok I have no problem.

[2oldman]

bikendan wrote:
Don't understand why someone uses a surge protector with a 3000w or less generator.Am I missing something?

Perhaps it's hard-wired in. Or it's one of those belt- and -suspenders things, like holding the gas nozzle instead of trusting it to shut itself off.

[bikendan]

Don't understand why someone uses a surge protector with a 3000w or less generator.

Am I missing something?

[RoyB]

enblethen wrote:
The genset does not have a connection between the neutral and ground. This is common. You need to make a dummy plug that ties the neutral and ground together. This will lie to the Surge Guard.

I had to do this with my 2KW Generator using an ADAPTER with the SHORE POWER CORD plugged into the 120VAC connector on the generator... My problem was one of my GFCI receptacle was tripping on me...


Google Images


Google Image

Don't know if this will solve your problem or not but this does tie the GROUND and NEUTRAL connections together coming from the generator...

Roy Ken

[enblethen]

The genset does not have a connection between the neutral and ground. This is common. You need to make a dummy plug that ties the neutral and ground together. This will lie to the Surge Guard.

[2oldman]

normal, although you don't need a SG with a generator.