A good reason to keep your Generator.

[Matt Colie]

We have had a great deal of rain recently.
That was over, but we then had high winds.
Then the power went out. This should not be an issue as I have installed a hydraulic bilge/sump pump in case we loose power to the AC pump.
I went down to check things out. For some reason (still unknown) the hydraulic was not holding the level down. It take some amount of time to get
the house generator on line as it is stored dry. (No Fuel and not where it can run.) The coach, on the other hand, has lots of fuel, is in the barn
and ready to go. So, I picked up a long extension cord pulled her out and around by the side of the house. Started the Generator (APU), plugged the
extension cord in an outlet in the reefer bay and walked the other end down to the bilge pump. Then I watched as the level went down as it should.

Now I had plenty of time to get the regular house generator on line and did. That is set up to supply most of the house.

We live in what many people would think of as the country, I don't because I can see the neighbor's houses. It is not urban. We are on a 5 acre lot
and we keep the coach at home, but even if we did not, in the event of a serious problem, your coach can be a big help.

Matt
--
Matt & Mary Colie - Members GMCMI, GMCGL, GMCES
'73 Glacier 23 - Still Loving OE Rear Drum Brake with Applied Control Arms
Now with both true Keyless and remote entry
SE Michigan - Twixt A2 and Detroit

 

[johnny]

My coach is on a pad by the rear of the house. With a 50 amp 'Fool Killer' I can trip the main breaker and power the entire house with the 23'
Chinese genset, including the 220 volt stuff. A Fool Killer is a cord with two male plugs. It is >NOT< covered by anyone's code, and has the
potential to both kill you and burn your house down. Be real sure you know what you're doing, and if there's any question, just run a long
extenuation from the GMC to the icebox and wait for the power to come back.
We don't lose power often here, but a week without isn't uncommon. Since they just commissioned a new substation up the road from my place, I
anticipate the end of the not uncommon outages.

--johnny

--
'76 23' transmode Norris upfit, 76 26' Eleganza(?) with beaucoup mods and add - ons.
Braselton, Ga.
"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends" --Robert Earl Keen

 

[Totality]

I believe you can also kill the lineman fixing your powerline. make sure you flip off the main power switch for your house as well

Pete

> My coach is on a pad by the rear of the house. With a 50 amp 'Fool Killer' I can trip the main breaker and power the entire house with the 23'
> Chinese genset, including the 220 volt stuff. A Fool Killer is a cord with two male plugs. It is >NOT< covered by anyone's code, and has
> the potential to both kill you and burn your house down. Be real sure you know what you're doing, and if there's any question, just run a long
> extenuation from the GMC to the icebox and wait for the power to come back.
> We don't lose power often here, but a week without isn't uncommon. Since they just commissioned a new substation up the road from my place, I
> anticipate the end of the not uncommon outages.
>
> --johnny

--
Cary, NC

No Coach yet but trending towards mid kitchen Rolaled, 77 or 78, 403, hopefully with good original Imron paint.

 

[chris]

4KVA Honda in the RV, 5.5KVA contractor Genset in the back yard, and a 900W Horror Fright unit AND a Honda EU2000i belonging to my rocket club in the
garage. Yeah. I'm set for power outages...

--
-Chr$: Perpetual SmartAss
Scottsdale, AZ
77 Ex-Kingsley 455 SOLD!
2010 Nomad 24 Ft TT 390W PV W/MPPT, EV4010 and custom cargo door.

Photosite: Chrisc GMC:"It has Begun" TT: "The Other Woman"

 

[john r. lebetski]

I was working on the broken gate last fall. It's about 400' from power at the house. So loaded the additional tools (beyond what I carry) and my
Sawzall and drove the coach to the job site. Now I had power, beverages, warmth and even a portapotty and radio.
--
John Lebetski
Woodstock, IL
77 Eleganza II
Source America First

 

[j artz]

Back in the 70s my father had a SOB coach with a good generator. He wired a 50a circuit in the house that powered the furnace and the refrigerator,
along with a single outside outlet. Whenever the power went out, it was just a case of flipping the breakers off to disconnect from the grid, and
plugging in a cord from the coach to that outside outlet. Kept the heat going and the food cold.
--
John in Omaha, Nebraska
74 26' Sequoia

 

[thomas phipps]

During Hurricane Katrina, with total commercial loss of power over this entire area, I wandered out to the coach, fired up Mr. On an. Ran power cords
to house frig, and neighbor's frig. Stayed high and dry in GMC with a/c, marginal TV, potty, frig and stove. GMC is a great lifeboat. Also operated
Ham Radio providing emergency communications support to area Emergency Operations Agency.
Now have 6kw Honda in coach, and 3.5kw in garage. 14 years without a hurricane has to come to a close.
Tom, MS II
--
1975 GMC Avion
KA4CSG

 

[johnny]

Thesmith note, "Trip the main breaker". If I were to hook up a pigtail, I'd need several hundred feet of large gauge wire and a three way 'air gap'
switch accessible to the power company. I'll just turn off the breaker.

--johnny
--
'76 23' transmode Norris upfit, 76 26' Eleganza(?) with beaucoup mods and add - ons.
Braselton, Ga.
"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends" --Robert Earl Keen

 

[Ken B]

Do not believe that living close to the substation will make much difference. I can see the substation down the street out my front window and we
still have power failures. Sometimes it is the primary feed to the station that fails. We have dual route feeds to the station but the change over
is a manual operation.

Any short on the 12,000 volt circuit out of the station to your house will trip the breakers for everyone. My 12K circuit runs down the street for
several miles.

The only time I ever really needed my generator for an extended outage, it was not available. I had loaned it to a friend to run a welder at a hangar
that he was building. We were snowed in for several days and I could not get to the airport to get it back. I did one time on a short (several hour)
outage, fire it up to run my outside lights just to make my neighbor angry.

Most of out outages are short (several hours). We did have one time that the power company lost almost 2 miles towers on one of the main feeds from
the power station. That took them most of the day to reroute the system. It is interesting that the back up changeover is a manual operation
requiring someone on site at the various stations to implement the changes.

I always ask during extended outages

"What would Daniel Boone have done?"

Then I follow his example if necessary.

Please throw another log on the fire honey.
--
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana

 

[johnny]

I've a list of JEMCO recloser timings around here someplace. I always give them the longest one (30minutes, I think) before I drop off - grid and
make my own. They usually pick up on the first or second (.5 sec, 5 sec) because the drop is usually a tree limb. If it doesn't fall off the line in
thirty minutes, they go looking.

--johnny

--
'76 23' transmode Norris upfit, 76 26' Eleganza(?) with beaucoup mods and add - ons.
Braselton, Ga.
"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends" --Robert Earl Keen

 

[Ken B]

Our sub gives three retries (on the secondary side) in under 30 seconds. After that it requires is a trip to the sub-station to investigate the
problem and to reset the breaker(s) manually. They can tell if it is primary or secondary remotely. That information is transmitted remotely by UHF
radio back to the power company. Usually the investigation procedure is a service truck driving down the street with a spot light looking for the
tree branch, down line, or broken pole.
--
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana

 

[kstockwell]

I'm hoping to be able to do just this. At some point I'll get a transfer switch so I too can power the house with the coach if there's a power
outage

kelly
78 Kingsley
Putney VT
--
1978 Kingsley
Putney VT

 

[john r. lebetski]

Won't work on the 240V stuff. Though the NEMA 14-50 is 120/240V, the generator only puts out a single 120V signal. When you plug in at a 50A camp
post there is 120/240 and that enters the GMC but the GMC only references hot to neutral not hot to hot. The 14-50 receptical box in the GMC
compartment is wired not "true" to code by paralleling the gen feed to line 1 and line 2. That way all circuits get power. You could use 6/3 instead
of 6/4 and save a bit of cable mass to get power to the house. And only wire the 14-50P to use L1, N and G. Your house tranfer switch could apply L1
to L2 on the Gen side of the xfter switch at the house, therefore the 240V items would see L1 and L1 or no net voltage. Would work on all 120V
circuits but probably not code.
--
John Lebetski
Woodstock, IL
77 Eleganza II
Source America First

 

[mark sawyer]

> I believe you can also kill the lineman fixing your powerline. make sure you flip off the main power switch for your house as well
>
> Pete

Linemen know better than to trust homeowners to heed your good advice... They'll ground the line as an extra safety precaution against someone (or
something) inadvertently charging the line they're working on...

--
Mark S. '73 Painted Desert,
Manny 1 Ton Front End,
Howell Injection,
Leigh Harrison 4bag and Rear Brakes,
Fort Worth, TX

 

[Jim Hupy]

When you only get one chance to do something like adjusting the carb needle
on a running model airplane engine turning 15,000 rpm 1/2 " from your
knuckles, you develop a strategy based on " what if, and safety first".
Having someone energize the wire you are working on fits that category.
Jim Hupy

> > I believe you can also kill the lineman fixing your powerline. make sure
> you flip off the main power switch for your house as well
> >
> > Pete
>
>
> Linemen know better than to trust homeowners to heed your good advice...
> They'll ground the line as an extra safety precaution against someone (or
> something) inadvertently charging the line they're working on...
>
> --
> Mark S. '73 Painted Desert,
> Manny 1 Ton Front End,
> Howell Injection,
> Leigh Harrison 4bag and Rear Brakes,
> Fort Worth, TX
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>

 

[johnny]

The 240 stuff won't work on the original Onan. If like me (And p'raps ken, I dunno) you've upgraded to the chinese set, you have 240
available.
For the proximity to the substation, JEMCO and most utilities sit at the recloser while a lineman observes the line to the first disconnect. He opens
it and the guy at the sub closes the circuit, then leapfrogs to the second switch, observing the while. This is repeated till they find the limb or a
section takes down the circuit at which point they inspect every drop till they find the culprit. I'm first switch from the new sub, I was ~~ 17
miles from the old one. Fixer quicker now.

--johnny

--
'76 23' transmode Norris upfit, 76 26' Eleganza(?) with beaucoup mods and add - ons.
Braselton, Ga.
"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends" --Robert Earl Keen

 

[kstockwell]

Thanks for the info, so no water from the generator (240 well pump), but I can have heat...

cheers
kelly
1978 kingsley
putney vt

--
1978 Kingsley
Putney VT

 

[Ken H.]

Johnny,

Yes, my TroyBilt generator was wired for 120/240 vac, with no documentation
of the circuits. I checked the wiring and paralleled the coils to provide
straight 120 vac for the GMC. Certainly, I could have left it as-was and
had 240 vac available in the coach, but saw no reason to do so.

As shown here, the windings were nicely balanced:
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/t...bilt-generator-installation-in-23-27-gmc.html

Ken H.

On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 11:55 AM, Johnny Bridges via Gmclist <

> The 240 stuff won't work on the original Onan. If like me (And p'raps
> ken, I dunno) you've upgraded to the chinese set, you have 240
> available.
>

 

[Jim Hupy]

I installed a manual transfer switch in my house. The brand is Genentech.
It requires the homeowner to manually throw a switch that takes a circuit
breaker offline before actuation of the genenrator. It has 6 breakers, two
of which are locked together for 240 volts. I use that one for the water
pump. I have one for the furnace, one for the kitchen range control
circuit, one for the freezer, and one for the refrigerator. Some limited
lighting is also powered by the kitchen circuit. Not perfect, but it gets
us by during outages with cold water, cooking on the gas stove, and
protection of perishable foods. It also protects electrical linemen from
back feeds from our generator. I use a Coleman 6.5 KV manual start gasoline
powered 120/240 volt. Not the biggest, but adequate for our needs. Holds 6
gallons of gasoline, and will run about 10 hours on that, depending upon
load. If it were not for the well pump requiring 240 volts, the Onan in the
coach would suffice.
Jim Hupy
Salem, Or
78 GMC ROYALE 403

> Thanks for the info, so no water from the generator (240 well pump), but I
> can have heat...
>
> cheers
> kelly
> 1978 kingsley
> putney vt
>
> --
> 1978 Kingsley
> Putney VT
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>

 

[johnny]

Kelly, if you're going to the trouble and expense o
f a transfer switch (Called doing it correctly) realize that the chinese generator I have in the 23' coach was 600 bux, before coupon -
discount - whatever from Harbor Freight, and it does 240 volts.
Since I was updating the power setup anyway, I installed a 120 - 240 panel. A/C on one side, water heater on the other, plugs split side to side.
12v supply on one. It can be fed with a parallel 50 amp service or a 240 volt 50 amp service.
When we had a well, I had a Yamaha generator solely because it would pull the 240 volt well pump. When the toilet doesn't flush, Paula fades for the
motel.

--johnny
--
'76 23' transmode Norris upfit, 76 26' Eleganza(?) with beaucoup mods and add - ons.
Braselton, Ga.
"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends" --Robert Earl Keen