RV Doctor – Connecting Fuel Line Directly to Generator?

Dear RV Doc, Is it possible to connect a fuel line from the gas tank directly to the generator that I have added to my 23-foot Honey motorhome? Can we do it ourselves? I’ve been looking for any technical help for so long. Hopefully, you are the right one. - Marciano Miego, (Savannah, GA) Read more  Read More →

Bonding and Grounding Portable Generators

A few weeks ago I started a series of articles on bonding and grounding of portable generators when used with RVs.  Those articles stirred up quite a bit of conversation which is a good thing.  We still have a couple of subjects to cover in this discussion so let’s get started with checking your generator to determine if it is already bonded.  Remember, when we talk about bonding in the context of this subject, we are talking about connecting the neutral of the generator to the ground of the generator.  Also remember that this specific bonding is to be done in only one place according to national electrical code. 30 amp RV receptacle   In order to determine if your generator is already bonded you will need a multimeter which is capable of checking ohms or continuity.  Keep in mind that continuity is a specific check of resistance, except the resistance for “continuity” is zero or very low.  Next you will have to identify the neutral and the ground contacts on the generator output.  Most likely we are talking about a generator that has either 120vac, 20 amp output or 120vac, 30 amp output connectors.  The typical 30 amp receptacle has three connections as shown in the photograph of a TT-30R.  Looking at this receptacle, the ground connection is at the top and looks like it is round.  The two slanted slots at the bottom are the hot and the neutral connections, with the neutral being the slot on the right and the hot being the slot on the left.  In order to determine... Read more

VIDEO: Boondocking & Green RVing w/ the PowerSource 1800

Gear to Get with Brian Brawdy One of the necessities of Green RVing, boondocking & dry camping is the ability to generate power. By tapping into the free and ubiquitous energies of the sun, I’m able to go off road, off the grid while staying out longer. In this video, I look at the cutting edge technology of the PowerSource 1800. A uniquely designed solar powered generator. For more information on Brian Brawdy or Greening your RV, please visit BrianBrawdy.com  Read More →

Generator bonding and grounding

In previous posts we have discussed what is meant by “bonding” in an electrical distribution system.  This is an important concept.  If it seems like I am dwelling on this, I want to make sure we are clear on what bonding means. The ground wire system and the neutral wire system are two separate wire systems.  By code, they are to be connected together at ONE point and only one point.  If there is more than one bonding point in the wiring system, you can create ground faults, circulating currents and possibly prevent a breaker from tripping if there is a short circuit.  If there is no bond, it is also possible that a breaker will not trip. The breaker panel in your RV is classified as a sub-panel.  As such there is NO bond in the panel and the neutral/ground wiring systems in your RV are NOT connected to each other anywhere in the RV.  This is because when you plug in your shore power cord, you become part of the campground electrical system which IS bonded, again, at ONE point in the entire campground, generally at the campground main breaker panel. If you have a generator that is permanently installed in your RV, such as is typical in Class A motorhomes, the generator has a bond between the neutral and the ground, such that when the transfer switch switches, the isolated neutral and ground systems get connected together. If, however, you use a portable generator, sitting on the ground or in the  back of your pickup truck, a problem occurs.  Typically portable... Read more

Portable Generator Grounding

If you read my last post, we began a discussion about grounding and bonding of portable generators.  To begin, we talked about a standard residential electrical service and specifically discussed the ground wire system, the neutral wire system, and the single bonding point between the two systems.  Lastly and most importantly, we also described what we referred to as a sub-panel and how important this is to us as RVers. So, here we go with the next point: the breaker panel in your RV is a SUB-PANEL.  When you pull into the campground and plug in your shore power, you are becoming a sub-panel to the main panel which is permanently installed at the campground.  Therefore, the neutral wiring system and the ground wiring system in your motorhome are not bonded together.  All the ground wires terminate in a ground bar within the breaker panel, and all the neutral wires terminate at a seperate bar within the breaker panel.  The neutral and ground systems are kept isolated from each other.  The bonding or connecting together of the two wiring systems is taken care of in the campground wiring system not in the RV. Keeping in mind that the above discussion dealt only with the power supplied by the shore power cord, the next step is to look at what happens if your RV has an on board generator set, particularly with an automatic transfer switch.  With an on-board generator we are faced with a problem because the breaker panel in the RV has an isolated neutral bar and ground bar,... Read more

Grounding your generator

portable generator I was attending the Gypsy Journal rally at Celina Ohio last week and while attending one of the seminars, the subject of grounding and/or bonding of portable generators came up, associated with a lot of confusion and mis-information on the subject.  Let me say up front that I am not an expert on the subject, but before writing this post, I did bone up on the appropriate sections of the National Electrical Code and in that exercise, I learned a little about the subject. As always when I discuss a subject, I like to have a vocabulary in common with others.  On this subject, there are two words we have to agree on, and understand, they are “bonding” and “grounding”.  These two words are frequently used together and sometimes even used interchangeably.  That is not correct as the two words have two distinct meanings and I believe this leads to a lot of confusion on this issue. First let’s use a common residential dwelling to begin our discussion.  In a newly constructed home, electric code requires the incoming power to be grounded by means of at least one and many times, two ground rods driven into the earth.  The ground wire from your breaker panel is connected to this/these ground rod(s) and then continues to run throughout the house with all the ground wires tied together. In addition to the ground wire system in the house, there is another wiring system known as “neutral”.  The neutral wire is generally white... Read more

Your RV Oven – What’s it used for?

Kay Peterson, co-founder of the Escapees RV Club, used to say in her “Living in a Sardine Can” talk that her RV oven was strictly for storage. She wasn’t even sure how it worked. They ate out a lot. In our case, our oven stores extra pans and it gets used frequently. We much prefer to eat our own cooking. I am lucky – George loves to cook and cooks almost all our dinners plus bakes gluten-free English muffins weekly. Frankly, his cooking tastes better than 99 percent of the meals we do eat out. Using your own facilities – stove and oven – has other benefits: control over the quantity of food you are served and eat limit portion size for weight control keep food expenditures down. Some newer RVs don’t even have a regular oven. That should tell you about how much they are used! Instead, they have a combination convection/microwave oven. Some RVers love them, others have never figured out how to cook using their convection oven. How about you? Does your RV have an oven? What’s it used for? If you have a convection oven, are you able to bake with it or would you prefer the old fashioned kind? Let’s hear from you!  And, if you’d like to participate in a poll on what your oven is used for, click here. We’ll share the results in a future blog. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak  Read More →

Keep your Generator Going & Going & Going

Preventive Maintenance (PM) is maintenance the owner can perform on your RV before a problem exists. These checks are designed to prevent or identify potential problems that could lead to mechanical breakdown, malfunction or failure of a component or system on your RV. Preventive Maintenance consists of cleaning, inspecting, lubricating, adjusting and servicing your RV. Read more  Read More →

RV Doctor – Is It Safe To Run the Furnance Off the Generator While Traveling?

Dear RV Doc, I have heard of running the roof air conditioner off the generator while traveling. Is it safe to run the furnace off the generator while traveling? We travel to Florida every March and sometimes the first morning is quite cold, even after preheating the coach for several hours before leaving. The dash heater could not keep up with the heat loss while traveling. Riding in an over-sized icebox isn’t much fun. - Bill Lemke, (South Wales, NY) Read more  Read More →

That’s a switch!!!

I would like to spend a bit of time discussing switches, particularly as they are used in motorhomes, and more specifically the notorious transfer switch. There are several different kinds of transfer switches but I would like to focus on what is normally called an automatic transfer switch. The word transfer refers to the action of the switch when it takes incoming power, either from a shore cable, or from a generator set, and directs that power into the RV, to the breaker panel. Read more  Read More →

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