Connected to shore power during generator usage

Sorry if this has been talked about before. If you are hooked to shore power and the power goes out, is it alright to remain hooked up while you run the generator or is it dangerous to the as line crew who is fixing it? In other words, does the trailer protect the line crew from the trailer back feeding into the shore power from the generator. I would think so but want to be sure. Our power has gone out twice here in Florida and I didn't want to endanger the crews.

One purpose of the transfer switch that Heartland installs is to prevent feeding the generator power back through the shore power cord.

rocrider50 said:

Sorry if this has been talked about before. If you are hooked to shore power and the power goes out, is it alright to remain hooked up while you run the generator or is it dangerous to the as line crew who is fixing it? In other words, does the trailer protect the line crew from the trailer back feeding into the shore power from the generator. I would think so but want to be sure. Our power has gone out twice here in Florida and I didn't want to endanger the crews.

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Should be no problem at all. The transfer switch will use one or the other. The Gen has priority on the Transfer switch, so if you were to start the Gen while still on shore power the Transfer switch will kick over to Gen power and shut off the shore power feed. So If Power outage comes back on, It will not switch back until you shut off the Gen.

Hope this helps

Jerrod

Thanks for the thread, was a concern I had as well. We have been stationary for a couple months and have not ran the generator. I wanted to run it for 15 minutes or so just to keep fresh gas in the lines and ready for use. Was wondering if I could just run it or if I needed to unplug from shore power first.....I think I can just run it.

2Paws, you are correct to run your Genny every month or so and, when doing so, you want to place some load on the Genny to “exercise” it. However, IMHO, if you have the option, I would recommend unhooking from shore power before you apply generator power to the coach. At the very least, turn off generator circuit breakers until genny is up and running steady. When we had our Road Warrior, I went to exercise our generator but did not follow my own advise and some how caused the 200 amp circuit breaker feeding our site and 3 others to kick out, destroying the transfer switch at the same time. May have been a problem with the ATS or wiring, but I never started the generator again without following the steps mentioned above and never had a repeat of the problem.

2PawsRiver said:

Thanks for the thread, was a concern I had as well. We have been stationary for a couple months and have not ran the generator. I wanted to run it for 15 minutes or so just to keep fresh gas in the lines and ready for use. Was wondering if I could just run it or if I needed to unplug from shore power first.....I think I can just run it.

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If you start the on-board generator while connected to shore power, the transfer switch allows the generator to run for about 20 seconds before switching from shore power to generator power. The delay allows the generator time to stabilize the output at 120V. When you shut down the generator, the transfer switch will immediately switch the contactors back to shore power.

Some of us think it's a good practice to shut off the 50 amp breakers in the circuit breaker panel before switching between shore power and generator, or for that matter when connecting or disconnecting shore power. The reasoning is that if you have active 120V AC loads when the transfer switch contactors operate, there may be a little arcing across the contacts, over time leading to pitting and a degradation of the electrical contact. This is more of an issue in the summer when the air conditioners may be running. You don't have to do this, but it may protect the transfer switch.

My rule of thumb for exercising the genny is at first of each month and for 1 hour under 2 air conditioner load. I have a monthly reminder in my phone for a memory jog. Our 20 gallon genny tank always has a bottle of Seafoam mixed i with the gas.

And to add if you are new to this. You should actually try it to make sure the generator is indeed wired correctly to be priority.

My rule of thumb for exercising the genny is at first of each month and for 1 hour under 2 air conditioner load. I have a monthly reminder in my phone for a memory jog. Our 20 gallon genny tank always has a bottle of Seafoam mixed i with the gas.

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Good advice but I don't think that was the question.