wildmanbaker
Kennewick, Washington
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Most MHs, that have a transfer switch, have Generator priority, and will seamlessly transfer power with no flicker of power, when the generator is ready to load. When you shut down the generator, it will transfer back to shore power. If MHs were not equipped with a transfer switch, or manually changing the plug from shore power to generator, the generator would not last long, as you would be trying to Parallel the 60 cycle generator with with shore power. This would be shear luck to do without a sync meter, to prevent paralleling out of phase.
Wildman 
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rvrepairnut
bc
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chastho wrote:The ATS can fail and let 240 volts into the MH. Mine did and it was expensive, inverter, micro, and the TVs. I have never started the genset when plugged into shore power since.
how does it let 240V into the motorhome? You have two 50amp inlet lines to the main breaker box in the coach.How does the power double coming out of there can anyone please explain
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mscamping
any place, USA
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I also make it a practice to drop all the load I can, there will be some small stuff on(1 to 4 amps), so the ATS doesn't have to drop and pick-up heavy load, it saves ware and tear on the ATS contacts.. Mike M..
2003 Holiday Rambler Neptune 36 PBD - ISB 300 Cummins- Allison MH2000 5 speed
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Mike & Sharon
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racer99
channahon
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Chuck I used to start my gen while shore power was plugged in to exercise it and eventually burned the points so I was advised to run the gen with shore power disconnected-I screwed my ATS up by doing that so I do one or the other but never at the same time-I also wait when I shut down my shore power for the voltage to drop to zero before I fire up the Gen--Hope this helps--Rich
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charles
Ohio
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Thanks for all of the replies. I think I'll just disconnect the shore power from now on to play it safe as I'm really bad at trying to repair any electrical problem, such as my steps that I'm still working on. Also, I put two electric heaters on while the gen. was running and I could hear the difference.
Thanks again,
Nick
2011 Winnebago Vista 35F
2011 Winnebago Vista 35F
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RUNDLC
Elk Grove, California
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I started my genny yesterday to try and get my heater to fire up, once the genny was on the heater came on right away after about five minutes I shut down the genny and the shore power kicked in and the heater kept running!! Great but I think the heater should come on without the genny especially since I am connected to a 30 amp service.
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wolfe10
Texas
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RUNDLC wrote:I started my genny yesterday to try and get my heater to fire up, once the genny was on the heater came on right away after about five minutes I shut down the genny and the shore power kicked in and the heater kept running!! Great but I think the heater should come on without the genny especially since I am connected to a 30 amp service.
Yes, sounds like your ATS is hanging up if it 120 VAC appliances would not work on shore power until after the generator was run and turned off. Said another way, the appliances should run anytime the generator is off (if generator is set as preferred source in the ATS)-- should work 100% of the time when plugging in/generator off.
Brett Wolfe
1993 Foretravel 36' U-240
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Snowman9000
IL
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The way I understand it is that you if the transfer switch does not function right, you can get two sources of 120v out of phase with each other. And you can not only screw up your own rig but also others in the CG.
2004 Chevy D/A 2WD Crew Cab. Reese 15K slider hitch.
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chastho
arkansas
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Joined: 07/27/2005
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rvrepairnut wrote:chastho wrote:The ATS can fail and let 240 volts into the MH. Mine did and it was expensive, inverter, micro, and the TVs. I have never started the genset when plugged into shore power since.
how does it let 240V into the motorhome? You have two 50amp inlet lines to the main breaker box in the coach.How does the power double coming out of there can anyone please explain If you look inside the ATS you will see the small wires that energises the solenoids to switch power sources. On mine the shore power and genset wires got to gether because the connectors were not insulated, that caused 120 volts from each source going into the MH. When the inverter got hit with the 240 volts it burnt the boards and shut off all power but not before everything plugged into 120 was burned up. When it lost all power I checked the power to the inverter to see if was was getting power, it was, 240 volts.
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wildmanbaker
Kennewick, Washington
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chastho, I don't understand... You may need to state your problem another way. I'm confused, as you lost all power, but still had 240 to the inverter? If the ATS linked both shore and gen, to get 240 volts, the gen would have to be 180 degrees out of phase with shore, to get 240 volts. If this happens large amounts of damage is done to the generator, as the push from shore power would overwhelm the generator. Electrical damage to the generator and/or engine, would occur. I could be wrong here, as it has been about 12 years since I have played with large standby generators and shore power.
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