Generator Fuse Tripping

[solanderi]

On my 1985 45C I have a Phasor 9.5kw Generator that occasionally trips its main fuse. I have tried to understand exactly what is running at the time, but that exercise hasn't yielded any fruitful leads. For example I always have the fridge, 2 AC's, battery charger various lights and the Generator will run everything for long periods of time, like 8 or 10 hours. Then, out of the blue....click, heat and darkness ensue. All I do is flip the tripped fuse switch and everything will work for another 12 hours. Funny, weird, not ha ha.

Any ideas ? Thank you,

Greg

 

[Tim Powell]

I had a little bit of that problem (ran me crazy). I also have a 45 c. I had to cut off items which drew current one at a time and finally it was the the braker itself. I took me almost a year to figure it out.
Some questions //does it happend only under generator power.If so in my openion that by itself eliminates equipment .(ac lightes and etc) Is it the braker on the generator?
Or is it the one in the panel //mine was the one in the panel easy to replace. Just some thoughts Tim

 

[Tim Powell]

I had a little bit of that problem (ran me crazy). I also have a 45 c. I had to cut off items which drew current one at a time and finally it was the the braker itself. I took me almost a year to figure it out.
Some questions //does it happend only under generator power. If so in my openion that by itself eliminates equipment .(ac lightes and etc) Is it the braker on the generator?
Or is it the one in the panel //mine was the one in the panel easy to replace. Just some thoughts Tim

 

[solanderi]

Hi Tim
The tripped fuse is on the main shore power / generator panel and only happens when the generator is on, so that gives me hope. Is that a technically straight forward thing to replace or do I need an electrician ? Thank you,

Greg

 

[Tim Powell]

Hi Tim
The tripped fuse is on the main shore power / generator panel and only happens when the generator is on, so that gives me hope. Is that a technically straight forward thing to replace or do I need an electrician ? Thank you,

Greg

Greg
I am at home not on the boat so i can not tell you what amps and sutch but simply take the panel off and look it will tell you the amps on the braker. jusy pull it out and push the new one in.I do not belive you will need a electrician .The brakers are behind the red slides. On my boat it is the one on the outside port side you need to replace. HAY CUT THE JUCE OFF FIRST OR REMOVE THE POWER CORT JUST IN CASE THERE IS A GOOD BIT OF SHOOKIM IN THAT BOX Tim

 

[Tim Powell]

Hi Tim
The tripped fuse is on the main shore power / generator panel and only happens when the generator is on, so that gives me hope. Is that a technically straight forward thing to replace or do I need an electrician ? Thank you,

Greg

you can do it your self I am not sure but i belive they are squar d . YOU CAN MAtch them up at any electrical supply house good luck Tim

 

[solanderi]

Not a specific MARINE fuse ? I would ve guessed that some specialty company or someone needs to make 500% profit on a "special fuse". Usually I dont get lucky enough to have a Home Depot fix. Thank you Tim,

Greg

 

[REBrueckner]

Sounds like a circuit breaker, not a fuse, right?

You can vigorously flip the braker on and off ten times or so and that MAY cause it to seat properly....at least for a while.....or more likely, it's just old and needs to be replaced...as has been discussed in these forums many times, older breakers tend to switch off even when there is NOT excessive current...maybe some spring mechanism, for example, gets tired.....

 

[solanderi]

Thank you for the correction. It is a circuit breaker that is tripping not a fuse. I am going to go with the recommendations and try to replace this tired circuit breaker.

On a similar topic, what about the regular AC and DC panels. Are those breakers fairly easy to replace ? Also, as was mentioned before, I dont need any kind of specialized, marine circuit breakers, right ? I like to do these jobs just once, if possible.

Thank you,

Greg

 

[Karl]

I wish to add some insight from my experience with the same problem. I am a former Hatteras owner and now have a 43' Californian CPMY. I recently had a new 9 KW Kohler gen installed with great expectations, when it started to labor at times and kick the circuit breaker off. Two things I discovered which may, or may not, relate to your problem.

First, I discovered that after a day of using my inverter, when I would anchor at night and start my generator, the inverter charger would go into high amps to charge the inverter batteries. This was consuming a lot of amperage and along with my three A/C's, created a hugh need for amperage.

Second, when (on occassion and in coincidence) two of the three A/C's compressors kicked in at the same time, there was another temporary hugh draw of amperage. I came to the conclusion that between the inverter charger and my A/C's, when initially starting my gen at night, I would be better to use only two A/C's until the inverter was in float mode, which solved my problem.

However, since then, I've decided to read my inverter and A/C manuals and discovered that my Xantrex Freedom 25 inverter has a power sharing capability that allows me to set a maximum amperage (50 amps in my case) at which, when the inverter detects there is an excessive draw reaching the number, it will lower it's draw to preclude tripping the gen breaker.

Secondly, two of my A/C's are made by Pomponette and they have a feature that allows me to set the number of seconds of minimum delay from turn on, or thermostat call, until the compressor is energized. This permits me to stagger the delay of turn on for multiple A/C compressors to keep the A/C's from drawing excessive amps if two or three call for the compressors to be energized at the same time.

In realty, this may not solve your problem, but I thought I would add another dimension to solving this kind of problem. Honestly, I just discovered the inverter power sharing and my A/C compressor delay features this week, so they are still to be tested, but I thought I would pass it on to you while still fresh in my mind. Karl