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Old 05-13-2015, 09:02 PM   #1
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Generator grounding

What does everybody do with their portable generators to ground them? A wire with a metal pole in the ground? You don't worry about it? Or is it more complicated? I don't want to over think this, but at same time don't wanna mess anything up.
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Old 05-13-2015, 09:33 PM   #2
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What does everybody do with their portable generators to ground them? A wire with a metal pole in the ground? You don't worry about it? Or is it more complicated? I don't want to over think this, but at same time don't wanna mess anything up.
Just use it..... do you have a hard wired surge protector?
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Old 05-13-2015, 09:40 PM   #3
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Don't need one as long as wiring is intact/done properly and GFCI is in use for external cords etc.
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Old 05-13-2015, 10:02 PM   #4
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I was told ,according to previous forum posts, external grounding is not nessary
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Old 05-13-2015, 10:08 PM   #5
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I was told ,according to previous forum posts, external grounding is not nessary
It isn't....... but if you have a hardwired progessive surge protector and it's located in a hard to reach location, has a by-pass switch/button, there is a simple grounding plug one needs to make the gen. power up the rv.
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Old 05-13-2015, 10:09 PM   #6
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Generator grounding

I have a portable surge protector and it gave me a grounding error so then I came on here to ask some questions.
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Old 05-13-2015, 10:15 PM   #7
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I have a portable surge protector and it gave me a grounding error so then I came on here to ask some questions.
It's been a while since I made the plug, but go to the search button area and type in portable gen grounding....or go into the mods area and scroll thru there. What type of gen?
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Old 05-14-2015, 04:23 AM   #8
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It's been a while since I made the plug, but go to the search button area and type in portable gen grounding....or go into the mods area and scroll thru there. What type of gen?
Do one of those plug and you will be fine.

Generator Ground-Neutral Bonding | No~Shock~Zone
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Old 05-14-2015, 07:08 AM   #9
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There is a ground point on your gen that you should connect a ground wire too and then to a grounded structure/ ground rod (water pipe, metal pole...). If not then your GFCI will not work as there is no reference for the protection,
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Old 05-14-2015, 07:23 AM   #10
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There is a ground point on your gen that you should connect a ground wire too and then to a grounded structure/ ground rod (water pipe, metal pole...). If not then your GFCI will not work as there is no reference for the protection,
See Fonzie's above link.
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Old 05-14-2015, 07:47 AM   #11
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Old 05-16-2015, 08:00 AM   #12
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I have a portable surge protector and it gave me a grounding error so then I came on here to ask some questions.
I may chime in here. I literally just installed a progressive EMS in my TT. I have a Honda gen and wanted to know how to best configure for occasional use. I had a discussion with their tech and here is what he suggested: Get a simple 15 amp plug from Lowes, a Depot, Wmart, etc. Take a short piece of 12 or 14 gauge wire and jumper it from the ground to Neutral terminal. Close it up and plug it in to an open receptacle on your generator. Then plug your RV into the generator and you have closed the ground loop. Will not harm generator or electronics in RV. You could also take some wire and run it from your trailer frame to the ground terminal on your RV. Only make sure you have a clean and solid connection. He advised against flipping the switch on the EMS unit to bypass the shut down feature for open ground. This way I get full protection through my EMS system by providing a closed ground.

By code, RV's are required to not bond the neutral and ground together because you would normally get ground through the electrical pedestal at a campground or at home. When plugged to a generator however, you would not have this ground so when you bond the neutral and ground (just as a transfer switch does), you thus now close this loop. Of course, you could also mess with pounding a rod into the ground or bonding your frame to the generator, but I understand you will need less than 100 ohms resistance to be effective for this.

Word of caution: make sure your generator has an unbonded ground to neutral by putting a meter across the neutral and ground while not running. If you do not have a connection between these two make the mentioned plug. If your particular generator is already bonded don't worry bout the plug, it will not do anything for you.

I installed my EMS system yesterday and made the bonding plug for my generator (10 minutes), hooked it all up and it works fabulous. I don't have to worry about bypassing while on generator or remembering to flip my switch back. I have full protection all the time. Here is a very helpful link with detailed info......Generator Ground-Neutral Bonding | No~Shock~Zone
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Old 05-16-2015, 08:07 AM   #13
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Btw, here is a link specifying which generators have floating vs bonded neutrals/grounds
http://www.generlink.com/CompatibleGenerator.pdf
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