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Old 06-03-2020, 08:13 PM   #21
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Model: Palazzo 36.2
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THOR #12796
In a ideal world where everything works as designed, you would be protected from arcing and parallel operation. Remember you are dealing with an RV. Relays stick, contacts can weld. The safest transfer is a "cold" old one. Turn off the Air conditioners so they go thru pump down and shut off as they are supposed to. Allow the generator to cool down on minimum load for a couple minutes and shut it off. While you are waiting, plug in shore power with the breaker off. When the Generator is off, turn on the shore power breaker assuming you have no indications of a fault.
The above directions are a PIA but minimize risk of damage in event of a problem. I don't normally leave my Generator auto start enabled I only use it if cooling is essential and I am not going to be in my RV. It is set to start the generator on House battery voltage, not loss of power otherwise.

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Old 06-03-2020, 08:23 PM   #22
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I would cut off any load before plugging or unplugging or going from shore power to generator.
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Old 06-03-2020, 08:28 PM   #23
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THOR #7174
I got a pretty expensive on board surge protector so I would never have to worry about issues like this. I still always power down, turn off gen, power up, then turn stuff back on. It's just always safer.
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Old 06-03-2020, 09:49 PM   #24
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Question auto gen start AGS

Quote:
Originally Posted by David P View Post
Planning to run generator this summer while on the road for house air. Should we turn the air off first then shut the generator off before plugging into shore power?
my AGS will shut off but will not restart. How do I get it to restart so I can go to sleep with the air-conditioning on.and it will restart automatically.
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Old 06-03-2020, 11:18 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by gte534j View Post
My PD5100 Automatic Transfer Switch owner's manual states:
Description of Operation
 When the shore power is applied the relay is at rest and power is transferred to the panel.
 When Generator power is applied there is a 20-45 second delay and then the relay activates transferring Generator power
to the panel.
 If shore power returns while the Gen power is present nothing will happen. When the Gen power is removed the relay will
drop out and allow the shore side to supply power.
 Generator overrides shore power.
What does it say if you have AGS, that is configured to shut generator down/off when Shoreower is present?

There is 12vDC SP Sensor that tells the AGS that 110vAC is available if wired properly. This is why you will havre posters saying different things because it is coach specific
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Old 06-04-2020, 01:09 AM   #26
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The reason a transfer switch in mandatory when a coach or trailer has an on-board generator is to prevent back feeding current into the pedestal and not to handle switching loads. Most automatic transfer switches are not made to handle the arcing that occurs when a heavy inductive load (motor) is switched. There are RV ATSs that are rated for heavy load switching but there are expensive an not found on the entry level coaches i.e. The PD53-100 features heavy duty contactors to prevent contact damage during high current transfer operations.
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Old 06-04-2020, 11:06 AM   #27
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Don't trust your Generator Transfer Relay (GTR) to actually do it's job, turn off the AC, Cool the Generator, shut it off, then plug in. The attached pictures are from our 2018 Thor Quantum RW28, we bought in new in June of 2018. I found this during a routine check in our motorhome. As was said in a earlier post, in an ideal world everything works as it supposed to, but in a real world, thing don't. BTW, according to the instruction manual which came with the new GTR, Generator power always takes precedence over shore power. Just a thought.
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Old 06-04-2020, 02:15 PM   #28
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I was told by the Cummins dealer to turn everything off and let the generator run a couple minutes before shutting it down. He said it needs to cool down a little.
I have had my generator repaired 4 times and even with the warranty it ain't cheap.
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Old 06-05-2020, 07:57 AM   #29
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Originally Posted by Vernongrandolph View Post
I was told by the Cummins dealer to turn everything off and let the generator run a couple minutes before shutting it down. He said it needs to cool down a little.
I have had my generator repaired 4 times and even with the warranty it ain't cheap.
Repair 4 times for what?

Are you saying a Cummins dealer is saying or suggesting your generator was damaged due to shutting it down without turning off the Generator?

Cummins design very expensive controllers to do just that. Sure it does not hurt anything is you do shut things down before manually turning off generator but do you have to is / was the question.

Now point has been made about the ATS contacts. So I did check my manual for my ATS. It does say for Turn OFF heavy loads like ACs and heaters BEFORE turning ON the generator. After generator is running and on shore power turn on the loads.

Note #1 - I have Power Management System that helps Cummins manage this automatically. I know because I sometimes get restless waiting on the ACs to turn on when I have started the generator

Note - 2 - This is opposite sequence of what OP was worried about because it it is transferring from Shore to Generator. I think OP is worried about going from Generator to Shore. For the latter it is established that if both are connected the Generator continues the power until you unplug and if you have Cummins AGS it will safely turn off generator whenever shore power is detected if wired and configured properly.

My takeaway, yes you can manually take the extra steps to turn things on and off, but only situation I would go so far as to say you should is when going Shore to Generator; and it is only to protect the ATS contacts from chattering. But again my EC-30 AGS can do this does this automatically if in Auto mode. Otherwise in manual mode, I would shut ACs down, then go unplug, gp back in and start generators and then the ACs.
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Old 06-05-2020, 01:45 PM   #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbl5142 View Post
Don't trust your Generator Transfer Relay (GTR) to actually do it's job, turn off the AC, Cool the Generator, shut it off, then plug in. The attached pictures are from our 2018 Thor Quantum RW28, we bought in new in June of 2018. I found this during a routine check in our motorhome. As was said in a earlier post, in an ideal world everything works as it supposed to, but in a real world, thing don't. BTW, according to the instruction manual which came with the new GTR, Generator power always takes precedence over shore power. Just a thought.
1 - Why are you confusing the issue with calling the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) a GTR? That's not common RV nomenclature.

2 - Your ATS failure is a common Thor issue caused by poor wiring practices, not by improper paralleling two AC sources, which is impossible with any ATS as they are break-before-make contactors.
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