Community Forums

cubman · 05-31-2009, 10:31 AM

When we bought this motor home used it came with no real operations manual and I have slowly begun to figure out some things, however the
Onan Gas Generator operation has me a bit confused. I also have a Minnie Winnie that has a 30 amp plug built in to use the Generator power.
The Southwind however has none to plug in the 30 Amp cable. I noticed
two Circuit Breaker Switches at the Generator. One 30A one 20 Amp when shore power is unplugged and the Generator is started do these switch over the power that the Generator puts out? Since I am not sure I have been reluctant to try this. Anyone with a similar setup that can
help me with the right information. Thank you Pete and Elaine

StevePav · 05-31-2009, 10:57 AM

I have a 1990 Southwind with an Onan Emerald III genset, 6.5 Kw. I have an owner's manual in .pdf format for Onan BGE (Emerald) and NGE (Emerald III) style gensets. If you'll contact me with an email address I'll send you a copy.

If yours is like mine, there is no plug in, mine is hardwired to my system as near as I can tell, I have found no plug anywhere on the coach (which doesn't mean there's not one, only that I haven't found it).
When I start up my genset, even if I'm on shore power, there is a switch that senses the genset output and transfers that while shutting off the input from the shore power.

I also have two switches on the side of the small box on the right hand side of my genset, the same box that houses the starting button. If I shut those switches off, no power is sent from the genset to the coach. When I turn the switches on, the genset powers my coach.

I hope this helps.

Steve

Gary RVRoamer · 06-03-2009, 09:47 AM

Most likely your Southwind has an "automatic transfer switch", which changes from shore power to generator whenever you power up the genset.

The two breakers on the genset are just that - circuit breakers for overload protection. They should be left on at all times.

If your coach has two a/c units, the rear one will be powered off the genset when it is running, allowing you to run both a/c's at the same time using the generator. That's what the 20A breaker is for. The 30A breaker powers everything else in the coach, just like your shore power cord.

Jimco · 06-16-2009, 07:41 PM

The others are correct. There is no plug that needs to be transferred between shore power and the genset. The transfer switch does everything automatically (assuming it's working correctly) and the two breakers are just as Gary says - 30 amp for one A/C and the balance of the coach and the 20 amp for the second A/C only. You should have a selector switch in an upper cabinet that will swap which A/C is on which circuit, in case you had a large load on the general coach circuit, this lets you choose the A/C to run on the 20 amp circuit.

Since only the generator will run both A/C's simultaneously. I put a second 20 amp shore power cord and transfer switch in my past 89 Southwind so I could run both airs when plugged in at the river. At that time all of these types of coaches were wired like that. Nobody at the river could figure out how I could hang meat in my coach without the generator at 115 dgrees outside.

Jimco · 06-16-2009, 07:45 PM

Oh yeah......the generator will always have priority when on, even if you're plugged in to shore power. Again, this is all automatic.

paul turner · 08-22-2010, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevePav

I have a 1990 Southwind with an Onan Emerald III genset, 6.5 Kw. I have an owner's manual in .pdf format for Onan BGE (Emerald) and NGE (Emerald III) style gensets. If you'll contact me with an email address I'll send you a copy.

If yours is like mine, there is no plug in, mine is hardwired to my system as near as I can tell, I have found no plug anywhere on the coach (which doesn't mean there's not one, only that I haven't found it).
When I start up my genset, even if I'm on shore power, there is a switch that senses the genset output and transfers that while shutting off the input from the shore power.

I also have two switches on the side of the small box on the right hand side of my genset, the same box that houses the starting button. If I shut those switches off, no power is sent from the genset to the coach. When I turn the switches on, the genset powers my coach.

I hope this helps.

Steve

Steve Pav I also have the same Onan Gen as you do. I would love to get a copy of the PDF file. Please send it to my email address. peturner@earthlink.net. Thanks Paul

TitanicPilot · 08-23-2010, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimco

....
Since only the generator will run both A/C's simultaneously. I put a second 20 amp shore power cord and transfer switch in my past 89 Southwind so I could run both airs when plugged in at the river. At that time all of these types of coaches were wired like that. Nobody at the river could figure out how I could hang meat in my coach without the generator at 115 dgrees outside.

Jimco,
Do you have any drawings or pictures or schematics of the added cord and circuitry? Where did you purchase the transfer switch?

Thanks