Mike, referencing your bonded plug comment, doesn’t a four prong 14-50 to three prong TT30 RV adapter automatically leave the chassis ground floating?
When I hooked up my TT30 connector on my inverter generator to my four prong 14-50 RV plug, through a normal 50 to 30 adapter, it appeared like that itself caused the EMS surge protector to kick off. By connecting the neutral and ground together in the 4 to 3 adapter plug I got it to work.
It is interesting to note that the NEC requires earth grounding rods be installed at sub panels in outbuildings but not for campground pedestals, trailers or generators connected to trailers. I had to install a ground rod to pass inspection with an outbuilding that I installed (I believe 2 ground rods are required in most areas). Outbuildings are in many ways similar to campground pedestals and trailers. I guess the difference is that trailers are temporary and outbuildings are permanent and sone outbuildings could be a much farther away from the main panel than a trailer but pedestals could be quite far from a main panel. That said, the outbuilding ground is not bonded to neutral in order to maintain a single point of connection to earth ground at the main panel and ensure that fault current doesn’t electrify everything connected to ground. I’ve always puzzled over this. Say someone put a screw through a wall and shorted the hot to the neutral at an outbuilding with a ground rod installed (but not bonded to neutral). Fault current would flow through the hot and neutral feed wires and trip the breaker and all would be well and fine. Let’s say the the screw happened to short the hot to ground. The fault current would flow through the ground feed wire in parallel with the path through the ground rod which would seem to be able to trip the breaker as well or better than a fault path only through the neutral conductor. Yes, there would be a small voltage on the ground plane until the breaker tripped. So if this is ok with outbuildings, why not with campground pedestals and trailers? If the other purpose of the ground rod is to give lightening a path to ground, wouldn’t it be better to have ground rods at campgrounds near the trailers rather than only at the main panel? Just curious to hear what folks think about this.
Mike, referencing your bonded plug comment, doesn’t a four prong 14-50 to three prong TT30 RV adapter automatically leave the chassis ground floating?
When I hooked up my TT30 connector on my inverter generator to my four prong 14-50 RV plug, through a normal 50 to 30 adapter, it appeared like that itself caused the EMS surge protector to kick off. By connecting the neutral and ground together in the 4 to 3 adapter plug I got it to work.
It is interesting to note that the NEC requires earth grounding rods be installed at sub panels in outbuildings but not for campground pedestals, trailers or generators connected to trailers. I had to install a ground rod to pass inspection with an outbuilding that I installed (I believe 2 ground rods are required in most areas). Outbuildings are in many ways similar to campground pedestals and trailers. I guess the difference is that trailers are temporary and outbuildings are permanent and sone outbuildings could be a much farther away from the main panel than a trailer but pedestals could be quite far from a main panel. That said, the outbuilding ground is not bonded to neutral in order to maintain a single point of connection to earth ground at the main panel and ensure that fault current doesn’t electrify everything connected to ground. I’ve always puzzled over this. Say someone put a screw through a wall and shorted the hot to the neutral at an outbuilding with a ground rod installed (but not bonded to neutral). Fault current would flow through the hot and neutral feed wires and trip the breaker and all would be well and fine. Let’s say the the screw happened to short the hot to ground. The fault current would flow through the ground feed wire in parallel with the path through the ground rod which would seem to be able to trip the breaker as well or better than a fault path only through the neutral conductor. Yes, there would be a small voltage on the ground plane until the breaker tripped. So if this is ok with outbuildings, why not with campground pedestals and trailers? If the other purpose of the ground rod is to give lightening a path to ground, wouldn’t it be better to have ground rods at campgrounds near the trailers rather than only at the main panel? Just curious to hear what folks think about this.