totalsc

Thanks guys for your replies. What I was saying is not that the truck doesn’t have it’s own ground. I was just trying to figure out how that was tripping a ground fault only when connected to my cabin. The truck is on 4 rubber tires and has no earth ground reference. Neither does the wiring in the cabin which has no grounds inside or a ground rod (I know, not ideal). What was causing the problem is the bonding of the 4th terminal (ground) from the truck to the neutral of the Cabin (and of the trucks outlet) I isolated the ground from the neutral at the cabin side and I have what I wanted now. Again, not ideal, but also not any worse that running the cabin off a generator.

NEbound

Your cabin is now more "grounded" than before. Ground is just the theoretical zero-voltage state. Your truck has that, without the need for dropping reference to the earth.

What you can/should do is put a disconnect on your bond in the cabin panel, and separate your neutrals from grounds on your lugs. Make it a quick swap from gene to truck.

Your truck now acts as your main breaker.

James Dean

Glad you got it. The truck is doing what's its designed to do. The NEC code wants every stand alone job site generator to be neutral bonded. As others have said here a neutral bond in two places can be a problem.

GoldyGopher

Just to add a little clarity to this part.....
There will be no "push" to get any trailer park outlets updated to be compliant to the new code requirements. If it currently exists, it is grandfathered, as is all wiring. Each individual outlet will be updated when it breaks or stops working (unless, of course, the park operator decides to upgrade all at once, but they are not forced to). If a Sparky has to fix/replace, it will need to be brought up to code then, but not before.

BLoflin

This point of confusion continues to come up (Bonded Neutral and GFI tripping) and I'm trying a thinking of a way to explain it, clearer.

What a GFI does is sense if there is a difference between the current sourced on the Hot versus what is coming back on the Neutral. If there is even a few milliamps difference that means that current is going somewhere else (which may be your body!) and it shuts the circuit down.

Now the ProPower is bonded neutral (to GND) in the truck (not all generators are). Your mains panel on your home/cabin will also have the Neutral bonded with GND. NEITHER of these (necessarily) have to do with EARTH GND. Your home/cabin SHOULD have an EARTH GND, but that is NOT the issue that trips the ProPower GFI.

I'm going to draw this like it's DC (i.e current moving in one direction) just for ease in visualizing, that's not how AC works, but bear with me.

ProPower Home
Hot ------------------->>A>>-------------- Hot
l---Neutral --------------<<B<<<------------- Neutral
l---GND ----------------------------------------- GND

This is trying to show Truck bonded Neutral. The Current on Hot = Current on Neutral (i.e. A=B) and everything good. If A /= B then GFI trips (because some current is flowing elsewhere).

If you now ALSO bond on the Home side Neutral and GND, then purely because some minor differences in resistance in the plugs, connections, wire runs between the Neutral path and the GND path, some current will flow on the GND back from the home. That is A /= B, EVEN though ALL the current is being returned (between the two pathsof Neutral to Neutral and GND to GND).

Like this:

ProPower Home
Hot ------------------->>A>>-------------- Hot
l---Neutral --------------<<B<<<------------- Neutral--|
l---GND ----------------<<C<<<------------------- GND-----|

Return current B + C = A (that is no shorts in appliances, etc.), HOWEVER GFI in truck senses A /=B and trips.

Hope this might help...?

velocibro

Hey smart people - I stumbled across this thread as I'm trying to troubleshoot why my 2kw pro power on my 2.7L ecoboost supercab won't charge my Ecoflow River Pro portable battery. Every time I plug it in I get the ground fault indicator (GFI?). This only happens with the portable battery, other appliances work just fine with the pro power (toaster @1500w, blender @600w, tea kettle @800w, fridge @80w - I'm using the truck for off-grid camping, hence the kitchen, and need to charge a portable battery from the truck.)

If I understand what all you fancy electricians with your electrical talk are saying, there's probably an issue with the portable battery having a built-in ground fault detection in the same way the F150 does. When you put these two things together in a loop, it trips the F150's GFI, possibly the battery's too (assuming it has one - though it does not throw any error codes). From what I've read about many inverters, this kind of ground fault detection is standard stuff - the truck is working as it's intended too, and the battery likely is too. These things just don't play nice together.

But I am determined to get them to tolerate one another. So my question is - given my current battery, is there a way to intermediate between the truck outlet and the battery input so that I don't trigger the ground fault and can charge?

If I can get this working it will be a game-changer for my off-grid camping. I'll be able to charge a 750wh battery in about an hour, versus 8 hours on a good day with my 2 100w solar panels. I could charge it while I'm driving between camp sites or to town for groceries and laundry. You get the picture. If solving this means building some kind of DIY battery/electrical setup, so be it, I can start another thread somewhere for advice on that or pay someone who doesn't have the electrical knowledge of a 5 year old.

Thanks gang

FWIW I've done some maths on the power efficiency of the truck and it looks like I get between 0.0011-0.0014 gallons / wh.