Need help using ProPower to power house asap

[JeffBea]

I was going to hooking up a Interlock switch, did some testing at my electrical panel this weekend. I ran 6 gauge wire to the panel from my trucks 220 outlet to a 40 amp breaker, I know its only 30 amps feed but the 40 has bigger lugs. Something's defiantly finicky about the ground fault protection on this truck. First I separated all the grounds off the neutral bus bars, still no go. Then I pulled the neutral out of the main panel feed (the one circled in red) and still getting a ground fault.
I had all the breakers off except for my feed. Everything was good until I tried flipping one of my other breakers on then an Immediate ground fault at the truck. I tried it a few times with different breakers and tried disconnection the ground from my truck feed.

I don't see how a Transfer Switch Box would help any. Is there something else those transfer switch boxes have in them to make them work with our trucks?

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[J509]

Has anyone hired an electrician to install an interlock kit and a outlet on the outside wall to connect the pro power to the panel box? If so what was the cost? I got an estimate last week and it will cost $1100. Does this seem reasonable? Is there something that I should mention to the electrician about the truck? I read something about it having a neutral setup.

 

[jafo]

Has anyone hired an electrician to install an interlock kit and a outlet on the outside wall to connect the pro power to the panel box? If so what was the cost? I got an estimate last week and it will cost $1100. Does this seem reasonable? Is there something that I should mention to the electrician about the truck? I read something about it having a neutral setup.

For $2500 I had a Generac subpanel and moved circuits to this panel. This included moving the circuits, installing the manual transfer switch and generator inlet box

https://www.grainger.com/product/GENTRAN-Manual-Transfer-Swtch-3GY43

This worked with my Generac generator. I don't yet know if it will work with the Pro Power

 

[Macatac]

Has anyone hired an electrician to install an interlock kit and a outlet on the outside wall to connect the pro power to the panel box? If so what was the cost? I got an estimate last week and it will cost $1100. Does this seem reasonable? Is there something that I should mention to the electrician about the truck? I read something about it having a neutral setup.

Let him know that the truck is effectively a bonded neutral GFCI protected 30 amp generator and that the bonding wire may not be accessable to remove. As far as your estimated price, maybe $300 for material and a billable rate of $100 an hour for a full day to include permit and inspection? Seems fair-ish.

 

[J509]

Let him know that the truck is effectively a bonded neutral GFCI protected 30 amp generator and that the bonding wire may not be accessable to remove. As far as your estimated price, maybe $300 for material and a billable rate of $100 an hour for a full day to include permit and inspection? Seems fair-ish.

Let him know that the truck is effectively a bonded neutral GFCI protected 30 amp generator and that the bonding wire may not be accessable to remove. As far as your estimated price, maybe $300 for material and a billable rate of $100 an hour for a full day to include permit and



inspection? Seems fair-ish.

Let him know that the truck is effectively a bonded neutral GFCI protected 30 amp generator and that the bonding wire may not be accessable to remove. As far as your estimated price, maybe $300 for material and a billable rate of $100 an hour for a full day to include permit and inspection? Seems fair-ish.

Ok, thanks for the reply

 

[Frankaraho]

I did not use the ground wire on my power cable from the truck. But just to be clear it only worked for me because I was tying into a SUB panel that did NOT have a bonded neutral. if I had tried to connect to my main panel in my house it would NOT have worked without a gfcI transfer switch like I linked above.

thanks for your help - I created a small male to male extension cord so I didn’t have to modify the RV extension cord I bought. I removed the ground wire connection in the male to male extension. Thanks !!

 

[Hamboni]

Hey guys, Just registered after finding this thread

Is the general consensus that even with the ground disconnected in the cord, you'll have an issue since the neutral is bonded in the main panel?

I just got a generator interlock installed with a 30a inlet hoping to use the truck! Will be a shame if I can't

 

[Hamboni]

I did not use the ground wire on my power cable from the truck. But just to be clear it only worked for me because I was tying into a SUB panel that did NOT have a bonded neutral. if I had tried to connect to my main panel in my house it would NOT have worked without a gfcI transfer switch like I linked above.

I'm no electrician, but surely they are still bonded in the main panel?

Unless you disconnected it entirely, the neutral is always connected even when the main breaker is off, and the ground is always connected too

I'm hoping that just ditching the ground should get it to work, even with a bonded neutral in the panel

 

[BLoflin]

To do it properly and be in code compliance you need to install one of the Switched Neutral transfer switches (like the Reliance X series).

The ProPower is bonded Neutral to Gnd and can not be unbonded. It is also GFCI protected. Some stand alone gas powered generators can be switched either bonded or not bonded. But NOT the ProPower.

You must have an interlock switch that disconnects the main neutral from GND in your Main Breaker box (which should be the only place in your home N and G are bonded, should NOT also be bonded in a sub-panel).

Any work around/hacks that cut off ground pins, etc, are putting you and your home wiring at risk. In general, there is not a risk if EVERYTHING in your house (all wiring, all outlets, all plugged in devices) was and will always be perfect and NEVER experience a fail scenario (i.e. wire in the back of an outlet breaks or pulls away from the termination, or a frayed cord, or a short in an old and well used device. Or finding (as I just did in a house we flipped) that they had completely f'd up wiring a 3 way fan & light set of switches and were driving hot over a GND wire!!

So in the real world you need to do it it to code. For an emergency situation the best you should do is use extension cords to the few necessary devices and not go thru your breaker panels, until you can get the proper interlock installed.

 

[Hamboni]

In that case, could you simply remove the bonding screw in the panel in the event you need to run from the PB?

I've consulted an electrician too, so we will see what they say, they are pretty sharp

 

[Hamboni]

I posted this in the other thread, but I will post here too



I've tried to reach out to them, I think I found the right dealership. Hopefully they can give some clues

 

[jeshoffstall]

I will not work with the Generlink, since the truck has a GFCI 240v outlet.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Your issue was the Bonded Neutral in both the house and generator. The generator sees the house bonded neutral and interprets that as a ground and shuts down the generator. When you didn't hookup the truck ground to house you kept the truck from sensing the house bonded neutral, thus all worked. However, the truck was not grounded and potentially unsafe if a fault occurred. I've approached Ford on how to alter the generator into a floating neutral... they avoid the question by telling me how to alter the house... I've gone around on this, they hide their head. But the fix is really (electrically) simple, open the neutral-ground connection so that the house bonding is the only one... all would then be well.

 

[Gros Ventre]

To expand a bit... A switched neutral panel fixes things by opening the neutral-ground bond in the house and effectively moving that bond to the one in the truck. It may be that Ford has so buried the neutral-ground bond in the truck wiring as to make it very difficult to open up. I'd just like them to admit that. Once I get a wiring diagram I'll know more about where they've put that bond. In the meantime you need an interlock between the truck input breaker and the mainline input breaker. Bottom line: I didn't pay $750 for a 7.2kW generator only to find that I have to spend a minimum of $750 more to get it to work on my house. My house meets the NEC. The beauty of this generator is that its a true 7.2kW generator. In other words at any US altitude it still puts out 7.2kW. Unlike other generators where the engine is matched in size to the generator but then at altitude, I'm at 7,000 feet, so a normal generator is derated by 30%. Not this generator since the engine is far larger than the electric part. That's the beauty... at least until that pesky neutral-ground bonding rares its head...

 

[UGADawg96]

This mega thread would be a good reference for the OP and any other new comers

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/installed-transfer-switch-in-house.1267/

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