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Old 02-27-2017, 11:24 PM   #1
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Onboard generator not charging batteries

Need some help diagnosing an electrical issue on my rig.

The generator in my unit is a 5.5 Onan. When it is running, the batteries in my coach are not being charged. They eventually run down to the point that the generator finally shuts off. If I hook up to shore power (or an outboard generator) everything works fine.
I also noticed that the GFI in my bathroom trips when my generator is running, and will not reset. It resets fine when hooked to shore power.

What the heck is going on?

I suspect the switch that senses when I'm connected to shore vs. onboard generator, but I don't know that that explains the GFI issue.

Thanks for any help!
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Old 02-28-2017, 10:37 AM   #2
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here are some thoughts. we also have an onan 5500 generator and it works fine. are you getting any 110 volt power when on the onan? if so, the generator power is getting through the transfer switch. there are two circuit breakers on the onan. have you checked them and are they on? you assuming say all is well when on shore power. so I am that all the 110 circuit breakers on the trailer distribution panel are ok as are the 12 fuses. are you sure the battery disconnect allows the 12 volt output from the converter to charge the batteries. assuming all of the above is ok then i'm thinking there may be a problem in the wiring from the generator to the transfer switch. there are two hot leads from the generator to the transfer switch. one of those may not be working and if that lead was the one that powered the converter then the batteries would not get charged. do you have a multimeter that you can use to measure input voltage to the transfer switch? if so, measure the voltage from the generator on both leads and also measure it on both transfer switch output leads. if power on both input leads that pretty much says the generator is working. if by chance only power on one transfer switch output lead then it is the transfer switch. as far as the gfci tripping when on generator I don't have a good explanation as it only sees 110 power from one hot lead. it might be that if one of the generator hot leads is not getting to the distribution panel it may be causing an imbalance which the cgfi is responding to, but this is just a guess as I do not know for sure.
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Old 02-28-2017, 10:53 AM   #3
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Many thanks for the tips chickdoe. Gives some items for me to research.
I neglected to mention that one of events that seemed to correspond to these electrical problems is that fact that the battery disconnect switch no longer works. The house batteries are always "on" and connected, so I have to stay on shore power when not in use so that the batteries don't run down. Not sure how that might affect anything, but thought it worth mentioning.
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Old 02-28-2017, 11:11 AM   #4
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it should have no effect on your issue of batteries not charging from generator. the transfer switch passes either shore power or battery power into the trailer. once power leaves the transfer switch, from either input source, there is no difference is how it is used or routed within the trailer.
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Old 03-06-2017, 10:07 AM   #5
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I checked and one of the two breakers on the generator itself had tripped.

I'm guessing that is why the batteries weren't charging when the genset was running.

Today I'm going to manually trip that breaker and see if that also causes the GFI in the bathroom to trip and not reset. I'm guessing it is the cause of that, and it may answer my next question, which is "How can I tell when that breaker outside on the genset trips - there doesn't seem to be any way that I can know if the batteries are being charged?"
If my suspicions are true, then I might be able to peek at that GFI now and then to see if all is well.

The ultimate question is what is causing that breaker on the genset to trip periodically?

Thanks again for the pointers Chickdoe.
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Old 03-06-2017, 10:32 AM   #6
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I also have an 5500 generator with two circuit breakers on it. one is a 20 amp breaker, the other is a 30 amp breaker. I also had one of them trip once but don't remember which it was or why. it took me while to deduce what was going on. i'm assuming you have a 50 amp trailer. if so there are actually two sections to you circuit breaker panel. one section will have circuits that are powered from the 20 amp generator output, the other section will have circuits powered by the 30 amp generator output. so if a breaker is tripped on the generator it will cut off power to all the circuits in the section of the distribution panel that it feeds. find out which section the converter is wired to and you can check to see if it is getting power by testing any other circuit in that section of the distribution panel. this could be a light or fan that you simply turn on. this will at least tell you if the converter is getting power to charge the battery. or there are battery moniters that you can install so they tell you how the batteries are being charged but I do not have any experience with them.
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