3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

jconatser wrote:

toprudder wrote:
...in my RV, the built-in genset DOES have the neutral and ground bonded. When operating from the generator, the generator IS treated as the main panel I guess.

Indeed it is, but therein lies the *potential* problem.

At a Main Panel there should ALWAYS be a ground rod driven in order to ensure that both the ground AND THE NEUTRAL WIRE THAT'S BONDED TO IT are at a good, safe ZERO Earth ground potential. So the question is: do you drive a ground rod and connect it to the generator's ground and neutral before you fire it up?

If you do, then you're fine, no problem. If you don't, however, the moment you fire your generator up, it's metal frame, along with the metal parts of your RV, are now part of the generator's ungrounded, FLOATING NEUTRAL.

I don't know about you, but I don't want my wife and grandkids (or me either, for that matter :E) walking around my RV bumping into a 120VAC FLOATING NEUTRAL.

Knowing full well that I'm not going to be diligent like I should be and ALWAYS drive a ground rod before I fire up my generator, I simply unbonded it's neutral and ground connections. Although that's not a 100% perfectly safe "fix", I have absolutely no doubt it's a whole lot safer than an ungrounded 120VAC FLOATING NEUTRAL being part of my generator and RV's frame.

I removed the bond in my RV panel after my wife got knocked on her butt from that genset I purchased. Wildfire the genset maker has not been in contact with me since genset 3 was delivered and rejected because of a bad regulator and a miswired system. I think I had about enough of the crap. I'll give them till tomorrow to contact me and FIX the problem. I think they now know they really screwed up. I did my end in good faith. If the want my defective genset that almost killed my wife, It will cost them bigtime. I will sell it back to them at "MY PRICE". However they can make a reasonable offer that I will consider.