Second AI Power generator not working - am I doing something wrong

[davescounry]

First, my details, 2018 Trail Runner 22SLE.

A couple months ago, I went to Menards and bought an A-IPower SUA4500 generator. Rating is supposed to be 4500 starting and 3500 watts of running. It did not come with an RN plug, but rather an L14 plug. So, I bought a CamCo tt-30 to L14, and then later another pigtail adapter.

The first one I had started and ran fine, and as long as I was plugged into the standard 120 outlet (using an adapter) it seemed to be fine. However, when I used the adapter going to the L14, I wasn't getting anything. Called the company, who didn't give me much advice, so I took it back to Menards and after some fuss, they swapped it out. This was over the course of about 5 days.

So, I made the mistake of not checking out the new one immediately, and then made the mistake of going ahead and taking it out of the box, instead of just returning it for a different model. Now I am outside of Menards return window, I think that was 30 days and it has been closer to 60. At any rate, I am getting the same issue - works fine on the 120 outlets, won't work on the L14.

I just have to think that the odds of getting two bad units are low, and the odds of getting two bad adapters are low - which means I must be missing something.

An ideas of what I might be screwing up here? I mean, I would have thought I should just be able to plug in and have it work. Just seems weird that I can put a full load on the 120 outlets but am getting nothing on the L14, and even weirder that it has happened twice.

 

[Bogie]

I think the first thing I would do is grab a volt meter and start taking measurements. First, directly at the generator plug and then moving out to pigtail and the trailer to verify correct voltage on each pin. That should help give clearer picture if it's the generator or something else.

I assume the generator came with a manual with electrical diagrams. But just in case, I found one on line.

Good luck.

https://a-ipower.com/wp-content/upl...0_SUA6500E_SUA7500E_SUA8250E_SUA8250ECARB.pdf

 

[cookie]

You may have to make a neutral to ground jumper.

Peace
Dave

 

[danemayer]

You need to put a volt meter on the L14-30R receptacle to make sure it's hot. If not, there's probably a resettable circuit breaker.

If it's hot, I'd place my bet on the adapter. I believe the L14-30R is like a 14-50R in that it has 2 hot legs that have opposite phasing. The TT30 uses a single hot leg. So any adapter would have to go from 2 hot legs to 1. If opposite phase hot legs are tied together, I think the result will be 0 volts. To work, the adapter would have to pass 1 leg from the L14-30R to the TT30 and discard the other leg.

I would expect an adapter that has L14-30 on one end and TT30 on the other end to do that, but I'm guessing the adapter you have doesn't.

You might try an adapter from a different manufacturer, or perhaps buy the parts and some 10 gauge wire and assemble your own.

 

[davescounry]

All

Thanks for the help. I will tell you what I found, and then maybe another question.

First, I tested the L-14. The assumptions were correct in that the L-14 has two hot legs, each wired to 120.

On the control panel, there is a switch for 120v/240v. Near the L-14 receptacle, it is printed "AC 120v/240v ->" (so an arrow pointing to the L-14). My assumption, based on this and the description which specifically mentions being suitable for an RV, was that the L-14 would deliver power to a TT-30 when set at 120v on the switch.

When I tested, there was NO power to the L-14 when the switch was set at 120v. Only when I switched to 240V did I get 118v to each of the hot legs on the L-14.

Now for testing the TT-30. I have both a CamCo adapter and another one, I only tested the CamCo for this round. I plug in the CamCo, and sure enough no power is being read when I am in the 120v switch position. However, when I switch to the 240v position, I am getting 118 v on the CamCo. So, one could surmise that one of the male prongs on the CamCo adapter is simply null on the inside. I haven't tested the other adapter yet, but that would make sense.

So, apparently I can get 120v out of the L-14 if I use and adapter and if I am set at 240V. My question is -- do you guys think this is intentional?

If so, seems misleading to have printed that the L-14 is 120v/240v switchable when really an adapter needs to be involved. For whatever reason, I don't like this setup and don't really want to plug my RV into something that is putting out 240v unless I know for sure that is the way it is supposed to work. Quite honestly, I would take this back to Menards tomorrow, but I know they will throw a fit, and I am only half way convinced I have a case.

 

[danemayer]

The switch is probably a feature to support other wiring configurations. Sounds safe.

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