3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

mokanmikey wrote:
A question on the Champion, I am getting ready to do the rewire as outlined by camperdave on page 184 and would like one thing explained in easy layman terms.

What am I gaining by doing this? Everything seems to run fine now with the trailer plugged into the generator using a standard adapter into the 20amp receptacle.

You are quite correct, with the mod I am limited to 20amps, just like it is from the factory. HOWEVER, while the generator is shipped with a 20amp breaker on one single winding, I do not believe that the generator will last very long if consistently run near 20amps. These windings are not designed for that much load, and to be honest I don't know why Champion would breaker them so high. Now I'm not an electrical engineer, but it just makes common sense to me that the windings will run cooler and last longer if I am pulling 20 amps off of BOTH windings together instead of just one.

I'm not pushing or endorsing the method I used, as mentioned someone earlier did it differently (with much more involved wiring changes) in a manner which offers full 30amps (although it utilizes parallel breakers which I'm not familiar with, so I don't really know how well that works. May be fine, I've just never seen it done that way). I did it the way I did because 20 amps is sufficient for me, I wanted to lower the strain on the generator, and it is an easy 5 minute job with no downside to me. If I find I need more than the 20 amps, I'll figure out something else (but I run everything off a 20amp circuit at home with no problem).

So, the simple answer is that in my opinion you are extending the life of your generator by rewiring it to offer 20 amps off of both windings instead of just one.