Generator versus air conditioners

[richeyb]

I have a 2018 Montana HC 380 with a Onan 5500 generator. This past weekend camping we have poor electrical connection at the park. I attempted to use our generator to run both AC units but after a few minutes it would kick the generator circuit breaker. Just running the refrigerator and the ACs and it tripped. I felt it was within the tollerance of the 5500 generator.

Does anyone Elise have a 5500 Gen and run both ACs?

[Daryles]

Maybe turn off your converter circuit breaker?
When it decides to kick on to charge/do maintenance on your batteries, it can pull some amps.

[AZ Traveler]

Billy,

Run your water heater and reefer on gas. As Daryles said turn off your converter cb during the day and turn it on at night to recharge your battery bank.

[boisesmith]

richeyb: I also have a 5500 watt Onan and have ran both air conditioners at once, It is confusing that one of them is on the 30 amp generator circuit and the other on the 20 amp breaker. With that said, I have had breakers trip when running nothing much more than a Keurig coffee maker and refrigerator. Camping World could not duplicate that problem. Smith in Middleton

[Kyle and Lisa]

Originally Posted by richeyb

I have a 2018 Montana HC 380 with a Onan 5500 generator. This past weekend camping we have poor electrical connection at the park. I attempted to use our generator to run both AC units but after a few minutes it would kick the generator circuit breaker. Just running the refrigerator and the ACs and it tripped. I felt it was within the tollerance of the 5500 generator.

Does anyone Elise have a 5500 Gen and run both ACs?

We have the same generator and have ran both a/c's with no issues. I always unplug from shore power before running although. The only time a breaker tripped was during a hard freeze and I was running the furnace as well, my propane could not keep up with the demand for both, so I ran electric heaters.

[jetskier]

I've had the issue with the 30 and 20A breakers on the 5500 Onan tripping. Usually the 20A, but the 30 has done it a few times. Since the Onan outputs the 120V on the same phase to each of the two breakers, I replaced them with a single 40A breaker that trips at around 46A. This coincides with the output of the generator, but doesn't rely on load balancing on each leg of the trailer. I wired both input and output wires from the breakers inside the Onan to the single 40A. I bought the 50A as well, but the trip current is 67.5A. It'd be okay for the 6500.


Wiring it this way allows me to run any combination of electrical loads without worrying about load balances on those two breakers. An great example is running the 3rd AC and either the living or bedroom. Before, I couldn't run the living AC on it because it was on the same 30A breaker.


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