Two 2300 watt generators in parallel - not powering coach!??

[54Fun]

Yep I see that. So basically this kit is bottlenecking at 3200 running watts? I also got this one in from Amazon that I haven't tried yet. But looking at it, it literally looks identical to the Predator/HF one...almost like they came out of the same factory, just rebranded, and $40 more. In the manual on this one, it says once you hook everything up, you'll have 3000 watts of output...so nothing good there either.

I'll call Ryobi. I can't see how their kit would solve this problem. I may end up having to return these 2, and maybe get a single larger unit. Which I really didn't want to do...

[twinboat]

You say the combined setup died out with one AC running

Even at 3200 watts you should be able to run one AC.

It seems that the HF parallel kit isn't working at all.

[keymastr]

My AC has the hard start capacitor and will run on one of those generators. Maybe that would be a better solution.

[Mudfrog]

Sorry, can't help with the problem but i do have a question. Bet i'm missing something here but here goes. I don't understand why i would want to buy 2 smaller gensets instead of one larger one that could do the job by itself? Just seems the larger would make things simpler and more reliable.

What's the benefit of going with two paralleled together?

[54Fun]

Originally Posted by Mudfrog

Sorry, can't help with the problem but i do have a question. Bet i'm missing something here but here goes. I don't understand why i would want to buy 2 smaller gensets instead of one larger one that could do the job by itself? Just seems the larger would make things simpler and more reliable.

What's the benefit of going with two paralleled together?

I also went into this originally thinking a single larger one. But here are the pro's to 2 smaller ones:

1. Lighter to lift into the truck bed, and will still fit under my tonneau cover
2. portable - ease of moving around
3. Cheaper & more powerful - 2 of these together giving 3600 running watts/4600 starting - to get a single generator that size is quite a bit more money (depending on brand...Honda, forget it) than 2 smaller ones
4. Redundancy - living in Florida, if one fails during an outage, I have a second one to failover to and runs essentials

Of course there are cons to most of my points above as well (except the cheaper part) - smaller and more portable makes them less secure - so I have to be more aware of locking them down

[Mudfrog]

Originally Posted by 54Fun

I also went into this originally thinking a single larger one. But here are the pro's to 2 smaller ones:

1. Lighter to lift into the truck bed, and will still fit under my tonneau cover
2. portable - ease of moving around
3. Cheaper & more powerful - 2 of these together giving 3600 running watts/4600 starting - to get a single generator that size is quite a bit more money (depending on brand...Honda, forget it) than 2 smaller ones
4. Redundancy - living in Florida, if one fails during an outage, I have a second one to failover to and runs essentials

Of course there are cons to most of my points above as well (except the cheaper part) - smaller and more portable makes them less secure - so I have to be more aware of locking them down

Yes, figured the smaller would be lighter, but that their combined weight would be more than the one larger unit. Also thought about the redundancy factor. But i am surprised that two of the smaller are cheaper than one of the larger. And boy, are you right about the Hondas,,, definitely good but they are expensive.

Hope you get everything straightened out!

[4x4van]

This thread has a forum member that purchased a Ryobi, and had problems with it even running a small load; see post #8: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f52/red-b...on-353791.html

Maybe it's a generator issue rather than a parallel kit issue.

[54Fun]

Originally Posted by 4x4van

This thread has a forum member that purchased a Ryobi, and had problems with it even running a small load; see post #8: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f52/red-b...on-353791.html

Maybe it's a generator issue rather than a parallel kit issue.

Could be. Called Ryobi, and of course they are not going to tell me that. They don't believe the issue is the parallel kit either - even though it is a 3rd party. They were focusing on the load. Told them that everything was off, outside of fridge, converter, a couple of LED lights, then when the AC came on, that pulled everything down. They want me to gather up the wattage on all of the load items (easier said than done). I just can't understand how 3600 wouldn't do it. Going to experiment more this weekend. Sounds like I should hook up my surge protector in line so I don't mess up anything in the camper...

[BFlinn181]

Originally Posted by 54Fun

Could be. Called Ryobi, and of course they are not going to tell me that. They don't believe the issue is the parallel kit either - even though it is a 3rd party. They were focusing on the load. Told them that everything was off, outside of fridge, converter, a couple of LED lights, then when the AC came on, that pulled everything down. They want me to gather up the wattage on all of the load items (easier said than done). I just can't understand how 3600 wouldn't do it. Going to experiment more this weekend. Sounds like I should hook up my surge protector in line so I don't mess up anything in the camper...

Please explain, "when the AC came on, that pulled everything down" Did the generator RPMs reduce like it was overloaded? Did circuit breakers trip?

[LETMGROW]

Originally Posted by twinboat

You say the combined setup died out with one AC running

Even at 3200 watts you should be able to run one AC.

It seems that the HF parallel kit isn't working at all.

You could check this by hooking the two generators together with the parallel cables. Start one gen. and plug into the other gen. If you have power the cables are working. Shut the gen. you just tested off and start the other gen. Plug into the non running gen. and see if you have power. The jumper leads should feed either way.
I always check to be sure I have the parallel cable with my Honda's connected so the left outlet plug is plugged into the left outlet in both generators. I have both the gen. outlets and the cables marked to be sure they are correct. I have to believe the generators are polarity sensitive.
Lynn

[54Fun]

Originally Posted by BFlinn181

Please explain, "when the AC came on, that pulled everything down" Did the generator RPMs reduce like it was overloaded? Did circuit breakers trip?

Well, at first they revved up very high (like being overworked), the AC was on, and blowing cold for a minute or two, then both generators finally overloaded and the RPMs reduced, and then AC turned off. I turned them off. Re-tried it again. Same result. This was with the camper in storage. I'm going to bring it home this weekend, and try to isolate...try both AC units individually (one if 15K, other is 13.5K - no, I never at any point had them both turned on). Any wisdom is appreciated!

[54Fun]

Originally Posted by LETMGROW

You could check this by hooking the two generators together with the parallel cables. Start one gen. and plug into the other gen. If you have power the cables are working. Shut the gen. you just tested off and start the other gen. Plug into the non running gen. and see if you have power. The jumper leads should feed either way.
I always check to be sure I have the parallel cable with my Honda's connected so the left outlet plug is plugged into the left outlet in both generators. I have both the gen. outlets and the cables marked to be sure they are correct. I have to believe the generators are polarity sensitive.
Lynn

Lynn - when you say "if you have power, the cables are working"...power where? Directly on the gen outlets, or on the parallel kit? I thought the gen outlets were not to be used when connected to the parallel kit...is that not true?

As far as polarity...my Ryobi's have no indication of polarity...both ports are black. I guess I could try reversing the orientation from what you see in the pics. Attaching pics

[BFlinn181]

When you connect the 30>50A dogleg, what outlet do you plug it into, the one on the left of the HF box or the right?

[54Fun]

Originally Posted by BFlinn181

When you connect the 30>50A dogleg, what outlet do you plug it into, the one on the left of the HF box or the right?

The one on the left which is just the standard 30amp RV outlet. The one on the right is the twist lock style outlet