A/C stops & starts while on generator

al1florida · Post by **al1florida** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 6:38 pm

I was overnighting in hot weather w/o elect, so I ran the generator and a/c. Nothing else was using elect in the coach. The fridge was turned off.

As is normal, I can hear the a/c compressor running and when the coach cools down enough the compress turns off and the fan continues to run. As the coach warns up the compressor turns on and and you can hear the generator do a sound change as it quickly reacts to the sudden heavy load of the a/c compressor.

About every second to fourth time the compressor started it would run or try to run for about 1/2 second and then both the fan and compressor would turn off.

About 20-40 seconds later the compressor and fan would start and run normally until 10-20 minutes later when it would happen again.

I think either the compressor is pulling to much current or the generator is unable to handle the sudden heavy load.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Could it be normal that the 3600 watt (I think that is the rating) generator can't handle the sudden 2400 watt load?

The a/c has worked fine on shore power.

I had a little less than 1/2 tank of gas so I don't think I was too low on gas.

The rig is a, new to me, 2005 26RSB, the generator has about 90 hours on it. It is a gas, not propane generator.

This continued all night. Needless to say it disrupted my sleep.

Thanks for any help or insight anyone can provide.

dsfriday · Post by **dsfriday** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:51 pm

Problem could be in your Parallax transfer switch. Refer to pervious post under Generac generator problem. I bought an early 2008 BFT with the mechanical Parallax transfer switch, experiencing same problem, installed their new electronic switch, problem solved.

al1florida · Post by **al1florida** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:06 am

DSFriday,

Thanks for the reply. That topic fits my problem exactly. I should have searched this forum before posting.

Here is a link to the topic thread if anyone want to read more.
http://tinyurl.com/3edqef4

A summary of the problem with the transfer switch:

It seems the older Parallex transfer switch can sense a too low voltage coming from the source, the generator, and it drops the transfer relay thus dropping all power to the coach. After about 30 seconds the transfer switch closes again, restoring power to the coach. The newer transfer switches don't have this problem.

The a/c compressor turning on puts such a heavy load on the generator, that the voltage drops very low for a short period of time.