Champion 3400 Inverter - Grounding Needed?

[ThreeDogs]

Quick question for everyone. Do I need to ground the genny when running? It is not quite clear to me if I have to. Thanks!

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by ThreeDogs

Quick question for everyone. Do I need to ground the genny when running? It is not quite clear to me if I have to. Thanks!

If you have a EMS in line then yes, you have to have a bonded ground, otherwise your EMS will show an opened ground, easy enough to do with a grounding plug. Just get a plug end and jumper the ground to the neutral screw and plug it in the 110. There is a good y-tube on how to do it. I had to due it to my predator invertor generator. Now the EMS shows good. If you don't have a EMS it shouldn't need it. I think that answers your question.

[ThreeDogs]

EMS?

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by ThreeDogs

EMS?

That's an acronym for Electrical Management System like these:

Progressive Industries, Inc. | Rv Surge Protection

Inverter type generators and some contractor grade types have what is called a floating neutral. The neutral and the ground are not bonded together like they are at a typical house panel. If you have an EMS, one of the things it is looking for, is the ground and neutral to be bonded together...but they aren't in many RV'er preferred generators....so the EMS will not allow power to the RV.

Mike Sokol (who is a valued member of our forums) explains this in much detail at his site here, as well as how to make a simple ground-neutral bonding plug, to get by the EMS.

Generator Ground-Neutral Bonding | No~Shock~Zone

Here is also one of Mike's great videos on this subject. Even though you may not have an EMS currently, it's good info to know in case you do get one later as Glenn was suggesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-bTLdMjuqU

[ThreeDogs]

Thanks. Got it now.

[tgold]

Always a good idea to bond back to the frame.

[Skyliner]

Originally Posted by ThreeDogs

Quick question for everyone. Do I need to ground the genny when running? It is not quite clear to me if I have to. Thanks!

Its always a good idea to hammer a grounding rod into the ground and attach it via wire to the threaded ground terminal on the generator.

However, 99.999999% of people, including myself, don't do this. I make it a point not to touch my generator while it is running incase of an issue that can cause it to shock me.

[tuckerdog1]

A lot of new RV owners since this was posted. Could save some headaches for those that are unaware. So bringing it back up.

Tuckerdog1

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by tuckerdog1

A lot of new RV owners since this was posted. Could save some headaches for those that are unaware. So bringing it back up.

Tuckerdog1

bring what back up? The grounding plug to use with a EMS system or what? Don’t understand what you are suggesting.

[eye95]

Originally Posted by tuckerdog1

A lot of new RV owners since this was posted. Could save some headaches for those that are unaware. So bringing it back up.

Tuckerdog1

I recently started using a generator with an EMS. I was bothered by the open ground notification. After some research, I was satisfied that I needed a bonding plug and bought one from Amazon.

Had I seen this thread sooner, it would have saved me about an hour of research.

Thank you for you desire to help others.

Here is a question, though: If I run a pair of generators in parallel, I assume I need to attach a single bonding plug to only one of the generators?

OK, another question: If I use a generator to run a single home appliance during a power failure, I should use a grounding plug in that generator?

[tuckerdog1]

Originally Posted by Witch Doctor

bring what back up? The grounding plug to use with a EMS system or what? Don’t understand what you are suggesting.

Exactly what Eye95 replied. This is something I was completely unaware of. Had I hooked up my generator & my EMS was giving an error code, I'd be perplexed. Seemed like good info to pass along.

Tuckerdog1

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by eye95

I recently started using a generator with an EMS. I was bothered by the open ground notification. After some research, I was satisfied that I needed a bonding plug and bought one from Amazon.

Had I seen this thread sooner, it would have saved me about an hour of research.

Thank you for you desire to help others.

Here is a question, though: If I run a pair of generators in parallel, I assume I need to attach a single bonding plug to only one of the generators?

OK, another question: If I use a generator to run a single home appliance during a power failure, I should use a grounding plug in that generator?

only need it for the EMS system and I use to use 1 plug in each when hooked together, you can also wire one up yourself just buy a plug at ACE. There is a ytube on it that shows you how to make one, also you could do a search on the forum, it was about 5 years ago when there where big discussions on it.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by Witch Doctor

only need it for the EMS system and I use to use 1 plug in each when hooked together, you can also wire one up yourself just buy a plug at ACE. There is a ytube on it that shows you how to make one, also you could do a search on the forum, it was about 5 years ago when there where big discussions on it.

The link provided above in post #4 to Mike Sokols "No Shock Zone" shows how to make the ground/neutral bonding plug.

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by Skyliner

Its always a good idea to hammer a grounding rod into the ground and attach it via wire to the threaded ground terminal on the generator.

However, 99.999999% of people, including myself, don't do this. I make it a point not to touch my generator while it is running incase of an issue that can cause it to shock me.

Who's going to drive a 10' or longer copper plated 1/2" or 3/4" rod in the ground everywhere they camp? The reason for the rod needing to be at least 10' long is the amount of moisture in the soil needed for good conduction.