I'm anal, and a worry wort !

[lizzyhermit]

After some nice citizen (or not) of the state of AZ borrowed my generator without my consent, and ruined a perfectly good chain (or maybe it wasn't), I've had to get a new one and wire the power lead to accept the TT power cord.



and now the anal/worry part:



How do I test the polarity BEFORE I plug in the TT ? I sure would hate to made a bad situation worse. The gen provides a 30a/120v plug as well as several 15a/120v.

 

[Joe G.]

You can get a little tester at a hardware store. It has three little lights on it to indicate polarity and ground conditions. It's a couple of inches long.

 

[lizzyhermit]

You can get a little tester at a hardware store. It has three little lights on it to indicate polarity and ground conditions. It's a couple of inches long.

thanks Joe, is it for a 30 amp plug or will I need a pigtail ?

 

[klenger]

You will need a 30 amp to 15 amp "dogbone" adapter and the circuit tester. Both are very useful after you are done with the test and worth having.



http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm?skunum=24496



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[lizzyhermit]

thanks Ken. I have an adapter but will add the dogbone to my stash of goodies and will check up here on the north side of the valley for the tester.

 

[JPope]

I have a Coleman Powermate generator that I use for a lot of things except camping (too noisy, and runs at constant speed) and found that a polarity tester does not show an open ground, due to the design of the generator.

I called Coleman, and they explained why, but the explanation was over my head :{ , so maybe you guys know why, and can explain to me?



Through an unfortunate accident involving high voltage (34,000 v. ) I tend to be very anal about checking these things, so was curious?



You can get the tester Klenger shows for about $3. 50 and one with GFI for about $7, so very worthwhile, and so simple even I can operate :-laf .

 

[Joe G.]

Jim,



The tester looks for the proper voltage between the hot lead and the ground lead. It can't tell if that connection is a true ground or not.

 

[CLAYTON]

After some nice citizen (or not) of the state of AZ borrowed my generator without my consent, and ruined a perfectly good chain (or maybe it wasn't),

In stead of using a chain I use two of these...



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I hook one to my generator and the 2nd from the lock that's hooked to the generator to the trailer. You can't just cut through these with some bolt cutters. I'm sure they could figure out a way to get them off but at least it makes it more difficult. Sorry to be off subject a little

 

[Todd T]

I'm anal, and a worry wort ! Glad to meet you there Anal! I'm Todd and pretty easy going



sorry couldnt resist.



to help answer your question here. what i did was tone out the cable starting from the PDC in the camper, through the shore power connector and then to the plug in on the cable.



how i did this was, i identified the ground in the trailer inside the PDC. using an ohm meter and two jumpers long enough to reach from inside the trailer to the plug on the outside of the trailer i attached it to the ground at the PDC and then each lug unitl i found which lug was the ground at outside plug and marked it accordingly. Next the Neutral and then the Hot. Now you know which lug on the trailer shore power plug goes into each lug on the trailer umbilical cord.



Now "tone" the umbilical cord out the same way to the far end of it. From here you now know which wire is which at both ends of the umbilical cord and where each hits the gen set lugs. You've now traced the Ground, Nuetral and Hot wires from their respective terminations in the PDC through each plug in along the way (shore power plug and receptical) and out to the farthest end, the wall plug of the umblical cord. If you're using a dog bone adapter and havig to hard wire a plug on it to meet the gen set receptical type do the same for it. The gen set should be labeled with hot, ground and neutral or its manual should show a diagram for it's plug. this will insure you have proper polarity all the way from the gen set to the PDC terminations.



Something else I do on a side bar note, is when i get where i'm going i drop my chains to the ground and attach frame mounted ground wire I keep rolled up and stowed underneath to a 3 1/2' ground rod i hammer into the ground and water in, just to be safe. I know it should be a six foot rod but its better than nothing.

 

[testraub]

Looking at receptacle rounded is ground left slot Neutral right slot Hot The neutral one is also just a little longer for those wonderful polarity plugs.

 

[lizzyhermit]

thanks for the idea Clayton. The generator went missing from my home not out in the boonies but your suggestion would still seem to be along the right lines.



and now for the announcement:



all the anal worrying was for naught. I bought the adapter and the tester and voila, NO LIGHTS WHAT SO EVER !



now stop laughing !! the tester can not be read from the bottom side and as my generator was on the ground the tester was upside down and I figured I really screwed up the cord as I had NOTHING.



So, after digging out the gen. manual and checking the wiring diagram I thought I'd try one more test before I tore the cord apart. GUESS WHAT ?



The tester was right side up, the correct lights were indicated and I celebrated with a couple of cold ones. thanks for the help and I hope I've provided a good giggle for y'all :-laf