Tripped Circuit And Cooked Batteries

by MJ
(Elko, Nevada)

Question: We changed the oil in the generator (keeping it in good shape). Not realizing that we were still plugged into 110 from the house, we started the generator. It tripped the circuit in the house and not for a while did we notice that in the motorhome the batteries to the coach were boiling (or cooking). We smelled them and disconnected them before they got too hot. With the batteries disconnected we have used all the appliances in the motorhome and everything seems to be working fine. What damage did we possibly do to any converter or anything else?

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Robbie: It is safe (or it should be) to start a generator while plugged into shore power (your house). All RVs either require you plug your shore power cord into an outlet (when you store the cord) to run on the generator or an automatic transfer switch is installed to switch automatically from generator to shore power. At no time should shore power and generator power be allowed to come together and damage anything.

Regardless of what you have you should have never blown a circuit when you started the generator. I suggest you have the RV looked at by a qualified tech to see what has been mis-wired and don't use both shore and Gen at the same time until its fixed.

Good Luck,Robbie
Warford's RV Service