Old Coleman generator

[Dsg319]

So haven’t looked at this genset in years. But remember my father using it in emergency’s for the house,

But now looking at it for the first time in years tonight it looks totally wrong and like a mess waiting to happen but could be wrong.

it’s a older Coleman power mate 5000watt.
Not sure if bonded or floating gen. Will know later. But the thing that concerns me is the 240vplug has no neutral.
And I’ve seen houses that lose a feeder neutral and it can get bad with voltages fluctuations depending on loads Per leg. My question is, is that same problem possible to happen with this gen set depending on the load balancing?

 

[hillbilly1]

My dad had an old one similar to that, neutral is floating. The instructions that came with it show making up a 15 amp 120 volt plug with the neutral and ground jumpered, plugged into one of the duplex receptacles.

 

[hillbilly1]

They had issues with the rotor loosing up and hitting. Had to replace it on my dads.

 

[hillbilly1]

I remember now why, the rear housing is plastic, and the heat from the bearing melted it causing too much play. If I remember correctly, Coleman did warranty parts only, so I had to replace everything.

 

[Dsg319]

My dad had an old one similar to that, neutral is floating. The instructions that came with it show making up a 15 amp 120 volt plug with the neutral and ground jumpered, plugged into one of the duplex receptacles.

So on the 240volt recep the egc, is it bonded anywhere?

sorry being lazy and asking questions instead of looking at the genset , maybe tomorrow I’ll get around and check it out some more.

 

[hillbilly1]

So on the 240volt recep the egc, is it bonded anywhere?

sorry being lazy and asking questions instead of looking at the genset , maybe tomorrow I’ll get around and check it out some more.

Only to the frame. If you want to use it as 120/240, you have to make the before mentioned plug, and plug it into the 120 volt receptacle. I will have to ask my dad if he still has the manual on it. He never throws anything away! LOL!

 

[Dsg319]

So I

Only to the frame. If you want to use it as 120/240, you have to make the before mentioned plug, and plug it into the 120 volt receptacle. I will have to ask my dad if he still has the manual on it. He never throws anything away! LOL!

So I ran down to my parents for a quick visit(to get cookies lol) and I checked continuity from the 240volt plug from the EGC to both actually phases and also the neutral. So I suppose somehow someway on this one neutral and EGC are bonded and when feeding the house panel it’s using the EGC to carry back unbalance current? Or else it would be like a house with a lost service neutral and voltage rise and drop?

or possibly I’m still misunderstanding it lol

 

[ptonsparky]

I’ll have to look at my brothers. Thinking he just plugs into the 240

 

[Little Bill]

I have that same generator. I don't run any 240V loads but I have used a 20A 240V cord cap and backfed my panel with it. Both buses are live and 120V loads work. I never bothered to check how the neutral gets derived/delivered. But the ground and neutral must be bonded or else I couldn't get the 120V loads to work. I fed the ungrounded conductors to a 2-pole breaker and the 3rd conductor is landed on the neutral bar. Of course, I had the main off.

 

[Dsg319]

I have that same generator. I don't run any 240V loads but I have used a 20A 240V cord cap and backfed my panel with it. Both buses are live and 120V loads work. I never bothered to check how the neutral gets derived/delivered. But the ground and neutral must be bonded or else I couldn't get the 120V loads to work. I fed the ungrounded conductors to a 2-pole breaker and the 3rd conductor is landed on the neutral bar. Of course, I had the main off.

So if I were to get an interlock kit and a inlet box, I could just bring a 3 conductor cable (2both phases and a neutral). And still yet if there was a ground fault on a device or in the house wiring it would still clear because of the EGC and neutral bond in the main panel right.