generator popping gfi outlets

[Fred_n_Jo]

We've had our camper for a little over a year and in that time only used the generator a couple of times to run the microwave when camped without electric hookup. Those times I didn't notice any problems with any other circuits.

Yesterday we were in a primitive campsite and needed to recharge our e-books and a laptop so I crank up the factory built-in Onan 2.5 that came with our unit probably for an hour or so to do the recharge. Both GFI outlets popped. One is in the kitchen with nothing plugged in and the other is in the basement storage area with the converter plugged in. With this one popped there is no way to charge the house batteries with the generator.

This is our first experience using a generator so haven't a clue whether this is normal or not. Also found out that the Onan 2.5 drinks lots of LP.

[Fred_n_Jo]

New GFCI outlets fixed the problem, hopefully. Installed the new ones today and ran the generator for about 15 minutes with the converter plugged into one of the circuits and my electric heater plugged into the other, both stayed set.

I say hopefully, but will get more experience on our next trip where a couple of campgrounds are primitive sites and will require the gen for at least the microwave.

Thanks to yblaw for the first hand experience and others for your help.

[mellow]

Might as well get the Leviton's with the lights built in if you are buying new. Can never have enough soft accent light.

[Bedlam]

yblaw wrote:
Mine were tripping only when I ran the generator. I doubt if there is a problem with the generator wiring because replacing the gfi outlets fixed the problem. Haven't had one pop since, either on shore or generator power......

I think I would have been chasing a lot of wiring before coming to that resolution. I actually had a park pedastool popping my GFI on my toy hauler even though my tester showed good wiring. I moved to another spot and never found out why. Manufacturing defects are sometimes hard to troubleshoot - Especially if your spares came from the same batch. Thanks for the history.

[Fred_n_Jo]

I'm going to Lowe's tomorrow and will report back after the install.

[yblaw]

Mine were tripping only when I ran the generator. I doubt if there is a problem with the generator wiring because replacing the gfi outlets fixed the problem. Haven't had one pop since, either on shore or generator power......

[Bedlam]

Were your GFI's popping on shore power too? This is why I question replacing them when only one power source is causing it. I understand bad batches of overly sensitive circuits, but it seems like there may be an underlying problem in the generator wiring.

[yblaw]

Bedlam wrote:
I question replacing the outlets since they work fine on shore power and only pop under generator power.

I know that Bedlam is very knowledgeable about these things, and normally I would defer to his expertise; however, because I didn't have a clue why my gfi outlets were tripping when I used the generator, I thought it would be prudent to get it from the horse's mouth--the guys who build 'em. As soon as I told Randall at Host what the issue was, he replied: "I'm glad you called; we had a run of defective gfi outlets; I'll send you three new ones today; that should fix the problem." They arrived two days later, and yes, folks, that was indeed the problem. Haven't had any issues with them since.

[wnjj]

Bedlam wrote:
I question replacing the outlets since they work fine on shore power and only pop under generator power.

They are eletronic devices that sense small current differences. It’s very plausible that a bad batch could false trip if the power source has a bit more ripple or other noise on it.

[Fred_n_Jo]

They do work on shore power but it is a fairly inexpensive something to try and apparently made the difference for another 2017 Host owner.

[Bedlam]

I question replacing the outlets since they work fine on shore power and only pop under generator power.

[MikeJinCO]

Thanks also, replacing is much easier than the searching and worrying about it.

[Fred_n_Jo]

yblaw wrote:
We had the same problem with our 2017 Host Mammoth. I called Randall at Host and found out that they had a bad batch of gfi outlets in several 2017 models (ours was built December, 2016). He sent me three replacements (different mfr); fixed the problem....

Thanks, My Rainier is a 2017 model, I will replace the outlets.

[wnjj]

yblaw wrote:
We had the same problem with our 2017 Host Mammoth. I called Randall at Host and found out that they had a bad batch of gfi outlets in several 2017 models (ours was built December, 2016). He sent me three replacements (different mfr); fixed the problem....

This looks like the most likely issue with the OP’s camper. Good post.

[yblaw]

We had the same problem with our 2017 Host Mammoth. I called Randall at Host and found out that they had a bad batch of gfi outlets in several 2017 models (ours was built December, 2016). He sent me three replacements (different mfr); fixed the problem....