Generator help

[Eastciderida]

Planning on doing some boondocking this year with what’s going on. I have a generac 8000xt generator we use for the house when we loose power. It has eco throttle and a power bar meter to show use. I hooked it up to my 26dbh with trailer battery disconnected and all breakers off. My problem is the camper is pulling power and maxing out the power meter on the generator. Just trying to figure out if this is normal? I can power everything on the camper but why is it showing that the camper is maxing our 8000w with everything off?

[5picker]

Hi Eastciderida, I see this is your 1st post. Welcome!

Couple of things...
If you really have all the breakers off in your trailer, there should be NO LOAD on the generator when you plug in the shore cord. Are you sure you are connecting properly? Something is amiss if the generator is showing excessive load with all the breakers off in the trailer.

Are you having to use any kind of adapter?

Is your trailer a 30a service or 50a service?
30a service is 120v
50a service is 240v.

Also... that generator will likely not be approved for non-hook up campground usage. (too loud)
Unless your boondocking plans are for a remote area where there are no regulations, you'll need an inverter type generator. Open frame, contractor type generators such as the XT8000 are way too loud to meet the decibel specifications for parks and campgrounds.

[Eastciderida]

Originally Posted by 5picker

Hi Eastciderida, I see this is your 1st post. Welcome!

Couple of things...
If you really have all the breakers off in your trailer, there should be NO LOAD on the generator when you plug in the shore cord. Are you sure you are connecting properly? Something is amiss if the generator is showing excessive load with all the breakers off in the trailer.

Are you having to use any kind of adapter?

Is your trailer a 30a service or 50a service?
30a service is 120v
50a service is 240v.

Also... that generator will likely not be approved for non-hook up campground usage. (too loud)
Unless your boondocking plans are for a remote area where there are no regulations, you'll need an inverter type generator.

Trailer is 30amp I hooked it up with a 4 prong male to 30amp female adapter to the trailers 30 amp hookup with the trailers 30amp cord. Generator has a 30amp 4 prong plug on it. Also tried hooking it up with the regular grounded plug to 30amp adapter and same thing generator would kick in to high gear with everything off.

[formerFR]

it may be that your generator's 30amp outlet is a NEMA 14-30, which is 240VOLTS, not the 120volt type that you need for your Camper... you certainly don't want to turn anything ON within your RV while you are plugged into this size outlet, although I suppose you'd need an adapter to do that anyway... no, not the right type of outlet for your RV.

You can use one of the 15/20amp outlets with an adapter, or you can even find an adapter that will allow you pull from TWO of these outlets, for more amps for the RV.

[Eastciderida]

Originally Posted by formerFR

it may be that your generator's 30amp outlet is a NEMA 14-30, which is 240VOLTS, not the 120volt type that you need for your Camper... you certainly don't want to turn anything ON within your RV while you are plugged into this size outlet, although I suppose you'd need an adapter to do that anyway... no, not the right type of outlet for your RV.

You can use one of the 15/20amp outlets with an adapter, or you can even find an adapter that will allow you pull from TWO of these outlets, for more amps for the RV.

When I turned the breakers on everything was working fine. This is the info on the 30amp plug from their website. (1) 120/240V 30A L14-30R Twist Lock Outlet. I turned everything electric on and generator never bogged down from drawing to much power. Was thinking with all breakers off that the generator would not be running full steam.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

Trailer is 30amp I hooked it up with a 4 prong male to 30amp female adapter to the trailers 30 amp hookup with the trailers 30amp cord. Generator has a 30amp 4 prong plug on it. Also tried hooking it up with the regular grounded plug to 30amp adapter and same thing generator would kick in to high gear with everything off.

That 30a receptacle on the generator is 240V!
It is hard to say now what might be ruined.

You should have received with the generator a SPECIALLY MADE cord that takes the 30a 240v receptacle and allows it to be used for 120v items. This cord intentionally only uses half of the feeds available in that receptacle for two of the outlets on the supplied cord and the other feed for the remaining two outlets on the supplied cord.

By using a twistlock adapter OTHER THAN the supplied cord to your trailers shore cord, you have likely sent 240v into your trailer and fried some things. Most often the converter, the microwave and any other 120v item that might have been on when you turned on the breakers.

Here is a picture of the supplied cord that you should have used and a link to the manual explaining the 30a receptacle is 240v and to utilize that receptacle for 120v, you must us the supplied adapter.

Generac XT8000 Manual (see page 9)

[Eastciderida]

this is a link to the adapter I used https://www.amazon.com/4-Prong-Generator-Adapter-Connector-L14-30P/dp/B01N54A2H1/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=B01N54A2H1&qid=15 87915330&sr=8-1. Should I still not use it because the generators plug is 240? Still shouldn’t account for the generator running full steam with all the breakers off

[formerFR]

after reading some reviews and questions/answers about this adapter, it looks like it is designed just for your type of Generator 240v outlet to RV 120v 30amp inlet, and should be working just fine.
One of the answers says that while the generator's twist-lock end has 4 prongs, which is a sign of 240v output, the RV's end has only 3 prongs, meaning that one of the additional 'hot legs' of power from the generator is not reaching the RV, which is good.

In essence, while the generator produces two different 'hot legs' of 30amp power output, which is 240v, the RV is only accessing one of those for it's 30amps of 120v power, just like at a campground.

You should be just fine. Thanks for clearing up 'what' adapter you are using, as most of us don't use an external 240v generator, and these situations don't occur very often.

good to know...

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

this is a link to the adapter I used https://www.amazon.com/4-Prong-Gener...7915330&sr=8-1. Should I still not use it because the generators plug is 240? Still shouldn’t account for the generator running full steam with all the breakers off

I agree that adapter 'should' work.... but... without doing a pin readout on the R/V female side with a multimeter, no one can say with certainty.

Does the generator behave correctly with the adapter plugged in but not the trailer?

[Eastciderida]

Originally Posted by 5picker

I agree that adapter 'should' work.... but... without doing a pin readout on the R/V female side with a multimeter, no one can say with certainty.

Does the generator behave correctly with the adapter plugged in but not the trailer?

Generator runs fine when I have the adapter and 30amp cord plugged in once it’s attached to the trailer it runs as if there’s a load on it and power output shows in the red. I do know the radio and smokes go on once power is supplied even with all the breakers off. Reason why I added a battery switch so they didn’t keep draining the battery. Next time I’m around my dealer I’m going to have some questions to ask them

[Eastciderida]

Figured it out. So with everything on in the camper I was pulling around 20% of the generators capability. I was reading the power bar wrong each light that lights up is total usage and not what’s left. Thanks for all the help

[GoneSouth10]

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

Figured it out. So with everything on in the camper I was pulling around 20% of the generators capability. I was reading the power bar wrong each light that lights up is total usage and not what’s left. Thanks for all the help

Ahhh, so the ol' "OE" light was flashing, eh?

[Eastciderida]

Originally Posted by GoneSouth10

Ahhh, so the ol' "OE" light was flashing, eh?

Goes to show how often I have used it in the last two years. Only 13hrs on it and used twice to power the house nice to have when powers out at the house with kids first time boondocking so if we end up doing it more I’ll probably invest in a quieter generator

[dalford]

Still too LOUD unless you are going way out in the sticks...

[Eastciderida]

We will be out in the woods and only running it as needed no way do I want to be listening to this thing all day. Buying an inverter to run the tv and DVD player off my boats deep cycle for night time movies while the kids sleep. Propane for the fridge overnight

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

Planning on doing some boondocking this year with what’s going on. I have a generac 8000xt generator we use for the house when we loose power. It has eco throttle and a power bar meter to show use. I hooked it up to my 26dbh with trailer battery disconnected and all breakers off. My problem is the camper is pulling power and maxing out the power meter on the generator. Just trying to figure out if this is normal? I can power everything on the camper but why is it showing that the camper is maxing our 8000w with everything off?

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

Trailer is 30amp I hooked it up with a 4 prong male to 30amp female adapter to the trailers 30 amp hookup with the trailers 30amp cord. Generator has a 30amp 4 prong plug on it. Also tried hooking it up with the regular grounded plug to 30amp adapter and same thing generator would kick in to high gear with everything off.

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

When I turned the breakers on everything was working fine. This is the info on the 30amp plug from their website. (1) 120/240V 30A L14-30R Twist Lock Outlet. I turned everything electric on and generator never bogged down from drawing to much power. Was thinking with all breakers off that the generator would not be running full steam.

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

this is a link to the adapter I used https://www.amazon.com/4-Prong-Gener...7915330&sr=8-1. Should I still not use it because the generators plug is 240? Still shouldn’t account for the generator running full steam with all the breakers off

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

Generator runs fine when I have the adapter and 30amp cord plugged in once it’s attached to the trailer it runs as if there’s a load on it and power output shows in the red. I do know the radio and smokes go on once power is supplied even with all the breakers off. Reason why I added a battery switch so they didn’t keep draining the battery. Next time I’m around my dealer I’m going to have some questions to ask them

Originally Posted by Eastciderida

Figured it out. So with everything on in the camper I was pulling around 20% of the generators capability. I was reading the power bar wrong each light that lights up is total usage and not what’s left. Thanks for all the help

Hopefully you did figure it out with the exception of... you've left us with some very confusing comments. (see my highlighting)

Several times you stated WITH EVERYTHING OFF the generator ran like it was under load and bogged down. I understand the issue with reading the meter incorrectly but what caused/is causing the generator to bog down/run full steam with EVERYTHING OFF!

[MtBiker]

I would bet the gen was going into eco mode and not bogging down.