cancel
Showing results forย 
Search instead forย 
Did you mean:ย 

earth grounding a generator

sneakygroundbuz
Explorer
Explorer
i bought a pair of yamaha ef2000is generators for our travel trailer.

reading through the owners manual it says that the generators should be earth grounded,but doesnt explain how to go about "earth grounding" them.

they do have a terminal on the side panel for it,but i dont know what to do to get the earth ground that they reccomend.

i have never owned a generator before,so any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance for your input
8 REPLIES 8

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
Sheesh. For temporary service give me an 18" grounding rod and I will blow a 200 amp service right off the temporary service drop. All it takes is WATER and keeping the earth around the rod the least bit moist.

Requirements are a lot stricter (as they should be) be permanent structure service.

I had 9" of soil to work with at the hotel, below which is solid basalt. Drill and dynamite time for the septic. A scraped off the soil and bolted a pad with welded rod to the basalt. It was located in a garden beneath the coconut palms. A direct short fried an 8 gauge wire and a 1 gauge blew each of the 2-breakers. An RV does not need a 100-amp rated earthing circuit.

Kpackpackkelley
Explorer II
Explorer II
The earth ground would be for static electricity , itโ€™s no fun pouring fuel in a gen with static built up on it. The conditions for it are a real dry cold weather.

time2roll
Nomad
Nomad
Generator grounding is for a permanent install. No requirement for portable.

SoundGuy
Explorer
Explorer
sneakygroundbuzzard wrote:
we have a 2017 heritage glen 282rk,any one know if i will need that neutral ground plug that old biscuit posted a pic of for this unit when running the gen set in parallel?


Not sure why Old-Biscuit brought up a G-N bonding plug as it has nothing to do with powering your trailer with a genset or even two paralleled gensets. It only becomes a problem for those protecting their rig with an EMS which will interpret the floating neutral output of an inverter genset as an open ground and refuse to pass power to the trailer. Using a bonding plug on the genset output solves this, however without an EMS in the circuit your trailer will power just fine from your Yamaha gensets which do have a floating neutral output. As for earth grounding your genset(s) when powering your RV, not necessary.
2012 Silverado 1500 Crew Cab
2014 Coachmen Freedom Express 192RBS
2003 Fleetwood Yuma * 2008 K-Z Spree 240BH-LX
2007 TrailCruiser C21RBH * 2000 Fleetwood Santa Fe
1998 Jayco 10UD * 1969 Coleman CT380

sneakygroundbuz
Explorer
Explorer
well thanks for the quick replys

no i dont want to have to pound a pole in the ground when i go camping
most of the places we will go will have shore power to plug into,but there are a few that we are planning on go to that dont have shore power,which is why we bought the gen set.

we have a 2017 heritage glen 282rk,any one know if i will need that neutral ground plug that old biscuit posted a pic of for this unit when running the gen set in parallel?

once again i appreciate your input(you folks sure know your stuff when it comes to rv's,glad i found and joined this site ๐Ÿ™‚ )

MrWizard
Moderator
Moderator
'earth ground' as stated means attaching to a driven ground rod, or buried metal water pipe (NOT NEEDED in for RV use)

the bonding plug above, is needed for some 'voltage protection' circuit devices that some RVs have, they will show an open ground and refuse to allow power to the RV, unless the bonding plug is used on the portable generator
I can explain it to you.
But I Can Not understand it for you !

....

Connected using T-Mobile Home internet and Visible Phone service
1997 F53 Bounder 36s

vermilye
Explorer
Explorer
There is no need to earth ground a small 120V generator, but if you want to do it "officially" plan on driving a pair of well separated 8' 5/8" ground rods, something you probably don't want to do at every campground...

Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Explorer III
Just need to 'make' a 'Neutral/Ground Plug' ----


Is it time for your medication or mine?


2007 DODGE 3500 QC SRW 5.9L CTD In-Bed 'quiet gen'
2007 HitchHiker II 32.5 UKTG 2000W Xantex Inverter
US NAVY------USS Decatur DDG31