Generator Question

[AbdRahim]

I exercised my generator yesterday (Oman 5500). This is a 50A generator. There are two 30A breakers on the generator. The manual says to exercise it at half load, which I interpret to mean 25A. I had a lot of stuff on, watching the Xantrex 2000 panel. All was ok to 23A. Then a 30A breaker on the generator tripped.

Should I not be able to use the entire 50A or just under?

The electric system on the Bay Star confuse me. When I tried to map the two lines, I found that the same appliance or outlet is not always on the same line.

Why was everything on one line on the generator?

 

[Neal]

I don't know how the load is distributed on yours but it should match what's coming in from the pedestal. I suggest resetting it and give it another try. I typically exercise mine at the max load I can throw at it such as air conditioners, etc.

 

[Russsilber90]

On our 4kw gen I run it once a month for 1 hour with AC on. Could run almost all appliances, must shut of TV if running microwave and Keurig at same time.

 

[Old-RV'er]

First read manual on genset. Mine says at least half load for two hours month. To me, charger, two ac/heat pumps (seasonal). Yesterday, took MH for 20 miles road trip, to keep fluids moving, ran genset at same time. Both Heat pumps on, so could get batteries up for cold wave we are having.

The electrical system in all RV is split, half on one half of the breaker panel, half on the other half of the breaker panel. Total incoming amps is really 100, as 50 on one leg, 50 on the other. If plugged into 50A outlet, then the load is usually one, AC/HP on forward half, one on rear half. Oasis is also split one half of its electric load on front, other one on back. Dryer is on back in mine, I have never when plugged into 50a outlet maxed out either side. The coach (mine) has an electrical dumping system, if one is getting close to max; it sheds things to keep it under the max per side.

On genset, mine has one 30A breaker, but it's an 8KW unit. Again, I have only tripped breaker once, and not sure what did that. But I have powered every single thing in ours running off genset, and again, never maxed it out. Ok, did not run coffee pot. On 30A shore power, really have to watch load, so don't cause inverter to kick into mix.

One thing I did do was to make sure all power incoming was off, and Genset could not autostart. Pulled panel off breaker panel and checked tightness of all the wires into breakers, some were not as tight as others, that little job fixed the rear HP from tripping offline, as must have had corrosion or lose connection on its breaker. Since no issues. I also checked wire tightness into all the 12V DC fuse panels. Electrical issues are the bane of all RVs, and licensed electricians are not employed in the wiring of RV's. In Fact, the NEMA code for RV's is weird, and the quality of the receptables is horrible, so those are suspect lots of times when something is not working. As rule we only have 2 or 3 things plugged in at any one time.