Wayne Dohnal
Banks, OR.
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Quote: it IS a requrement that the generator neutral and ground wire be BONDED together.
This is true but the detail that is often missed is that a 120 volt generator does not have a neutral. It may or may not have a grounded conductor. NEC allows it either way.
2009 Fleetwood Icon 24A
LinkPro battery monitor
EU2000i generator
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Deus Ex Machina
Central New Jersey
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NEC code...
Permanent generator = grounded
Portable generator = not required
Instruction manual saying you portable generator must be grounded = CYA stuff that the lawyers made them put in, not at all valid. 
Most RV generator "acceptable" for the use (as in NOT 240v contractor models) are only 120v. Which mean the maximum shock due to a ground fault should me no more than 60v if the unit is UNGROUNDED. Hardly lethal.
A GROUNDED unit actually has the potential for a 120v shock with a ground fault! 
Think I'll leave mine ungrounded. Better a tingle, than a mind blowing ZAP!
Paul
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sbishop
Eagle Rock, CA
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I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned before but ground rod or not, no portable generator should be connected to a home electrical system without a transfer switch to isolate the flow of electricity and to prevent it from going back up the service to the transmission wires.
David Bishop
1990 Bounder 27D
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hwybnb
Southern California
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The neutral and ground pins on my Honda EU2000i are NOT bonded.
Portable generators are covered in NEC Section 250.34 Portable and Vehicle-Mounted Generators. This section allows the generator to serve as the grounding electrode when:
(1) The generator supplies only equipment mounted on the generator and or cord and plug-connected equipment through receptacles mounted on the generator, and
(2) The noncurrent-carrying metal parts of equipment (such as the fuel tank, the internal combustion engine, and the generator’s housing) are bonded to the generator frame, and the equipment grounding conductor terminals (of the power receptacles that are a part of the generator) are bonded to the generator frame.
Note that these requirements say nothing about bonding neutral to ground.
* This post was
edited 11/05/09 11:07pm by hwybnb *
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smkettner
Southern California
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NO! 
2001 F150 SuperCrew
2006 Keystone Springdale 249FWBHLS
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Dr Quick
M'boro, Tn
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The purpose of a ground rod on a house or similar building, I believe is because the earth is used as part of the electrical circuit to your house. The is why the neutral wire,(white) is called a ground.
Since your generator is not connected to the public electrical grid the ground rod is not necessary.
I once had a bad ground on my house, and when I went to work on an underground fuel oil line, I noticed a spark jumping between the two fittings when I disconnected them. House was trying to seek it's own ground. I corrected that problem very quickly with a new ground rod.
Dr quick
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hwybnb
Southern California
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Dr Quick wrote:The is why the neutral wire,(white) is called a ground. The white wire is not called Ground. It is called Neutral. The green wire is Ground.
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larry cad
Whatever.....
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hwybnb wrote:Dr Quick wrote:The is why the neutral wire,(white) is called a ground. The white wire is not called Ground. It is called Neutral. The green wire is Ground.
Thank you hwybnb. When I see stuff like that I just cringe. The green or bare wire is the GROUNDING CONDUCTOR and the white wire is the GROUNDED CONDUCTOR. Neutral is not ground, it is GROUNDED by attachement to the grounding condctor at the bonding point!
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history.........
Ayn Rand
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purplekeenah
greensburg, pa
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Thanks for all your replies!
2003 Condor 1340 P32 Chassis
Workhorse 8.1
2006 Chevy HHR
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Salvo
California
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I don't understand. Both ground and generator chassis are floating in an un-bonded generator. There is no electrical (hot) return path on ground. So why connect receptacle ground to generator chassis?
Sal
hwybnb wrote:
(2) The noncurrent-carrying metal parts of equipment (such as the fuel tank, the internal combustion engine, and the generator’s housing) are bonded to the generator frame, and the equipment grounding conductor terminals (of the power receptacles that are a part of the generator) are bonded to the generator frame.
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