Pro Power Onboard - B side never takes power

[Daveyboi69]

I have the 7.2 kW pro power onboard. When I plug into the 240V 4 prong outlet in the bed to power my generator panel on the house it only draws from the A side not the A+B. When the load get to 3600 watts it shuts itself off and does not share the load between A + B. The B side never takes any load and it never comes close to 7.2 kW. Any thoughts?

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[Crilly]

Voltage?

 

[Tony Burgh]

Did you measure voltage of A to B, A to neutral and B to neutral in the panel and from the truck, each separately?

 

[Maquis]

The inverter in the truck cannot “share the load between A & B.” The output is 120V A-N, 120V B-N, 240V A-B.
You need to check how the 120V loads in your panel are distributed between A vs B.

 

[cvalue13]

Following this thread, as I’m planning on having installed a generator plug off my house panel and hoping that in a pinch the F150L could lend a little juice to the house

 

[Daveyboi69]

The 240V outlet on the truck provides 7.2 kw from A and B combined, 3600w each. It shares the load between the two (A + B) when providing power to the generator panel. As in the pic. Mine for some reason only provides power from A to a max of 3600w and doesn't share the load with B to give 7200w total. I may be wrong but I don't think this has anything to do with the generator panel wiring in the house.

 

[Whammy Bar]

The 240V outlet on the truck provides 7.2 kw from A and B combined, 3600w each. It shares the load between the two (A + B) when providing power to the generator panel. As in the pic. Mine for some reason only provides power from A to a max of 3600w and doesn't share the load with B to give 7200w total. I may be wrong but I don't think this has anything to do with the generator panel wiring in the house.

Can you post a picture of your generator panel, preferably with the cover on and off.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

The 240V outlet on the truck provides 7.2 kw from A and B combined, 3600w each. It shares the load between the two (A + B) when providing power to the generator panel. As in the pic. Mine for some reason only provides power from A to a max of 3600w and doesn't share the load with B to give 7200w total. I may be wrong but I don't think this has anything to do with the generator panel wiring in the house.

Im not an electrician so take this with a grain of salt…

My understanding is that it is “shared” by providing two inputs. Each input is 120V and in the US uses a split phase system. Each phase is opposite to each other and can not be directly combined/shared and still operate at 120V. Combining them is what causes it to be 240V.

So based on that, it depends on the wiring of your panel. If you are running say a dryer or any other 240V appliance, you should see a “shared” load across A and B as it needs to pull from both to get the 240V

if you’re running 120V stuff, it could theoretically all be on one leg as it only needs one. The panel should be balanced, but there’s still a chance. The kitchen is a great example. 1200W microwave plugged in on A. The blender plugged into an outlet on a different breaker on B, but it isn’t on. Fridge on A. Dishwasher on B, but it isn’t on. In that case you’ll only see loads on A. There’s no “sharing” in that situation.

That’s my understanding, and I think that’s why people are asking to see your panel and wiring.

 

[hturnerfamily]

try a test: turn on a stove, oven, dryer, or air conditioner that is 240v.
BOTH sides of power should then be involved.
If not, then your power panel, or the cord between your panel and your truck, may not be wired correctly.

 

[cvalue13]

try a test: turn on a stove, oven, dryer, or air conditioner that is 240v.
BOTH sides of power should then be involved.

but didn’t he say…

When the load get to 3600 watts it shuts itself off and does not share the load between A + B.

 

[Daveyboi69]

So this is for my house and yes disconnected from the main grid when hooked up. The Pro Power will power many of the outlets and lights in the house but only up to 3.6 kw on A, B never "connects". B will work at the same time as A is powering the house if I plug something directly into the 120V outlet on the truck. Thanks for all this, pics to follow.

 

[hturnerfamily]

right, and if all those lights and outlets come from the 'A' side of your panel, then you'll only be getting LIGHTNING output from the 'A' side of the truck.... turn on something that is 240v to try both.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

right, and if all those lights and outlets come from the 'A' side of your panel, then you'll only be getting LIGHTNING output from the 'A' side of the truck.... turn on something that is 240v to try both.

I see your occupation is insurance. So instead of flipping on a dryer, can I just lick each prong and see if I get a tingle from both A and B?

So this is for my house and yes disconnected from the main grid when hooked up. The Pro Power will power many of the outlets and lights in the house but only up to 3.6 kw on A, B never "connects". B will work at the same time as A is powering the house if I plug something directly into the 120V outlet on the truck. Thanks for all this, pics to follow.

So the good news is that if you've plugged in directly to a bed outlet and B is working, your onboard inverter is functional.

So we can narrow it down to some potential causes:
1) The 240V outlet is not fully functional and only providing power on one of the prongs.
2) The plug & cable utilized is not operating appropriately and only transferring power from A
3) The input on the generator panel is not fully functional and is not receiving power from A and B.
4) The generator panel wiring to the main panel is faulty resulting in power not being transferred from the input plug/generator panel to the home panel
5) The loads are not utilizing power from both A and B

I'm going to make some assumptions.

1) If A is working as expected and can be sustained, I'm going to assume your G and N are all wired correctly.

2) If your generator panel has been in place previously and works with a gas powered generator then I'm going to assume the input plug works, the panel is functional, the wiring to the main panel is operational. If you're using the same power transfer cable, that falls into this assumption too.

That only leaves possibility 1 & 5.

If this was me, I would have gone through the following steps mostly because I like to do things the hard way...

1) Turn on everything I had on before and on grid power, put a clamp meter around each hot leg of the main panel and see if there's current on L1 and L2. If no, I probably don't have loads on B. If yes...

2) Switch on F-150L power and check to see if L1 and L2 on the generator panel has power. If yes, the problem is likely between my generator panel and main panel. If no...

3) Unplug the cable from the generator panel and utilize the probes to test each leg of the plug to see if it has power. If yes the problem is likely with the input plug to my generator panel. If no...

4) Unplug the power transfer cable from the truck and utilize the probes to test each leg of the outlet to see if it has power. If yes, the problem is likely the power transfer cable. If no, the problem is likely my outlet in the truck bed.

And since I'm not an electrician, I'd be extra careful to double check before I do anything so I don't need to call @hturnerfamily and go "um..so I need to file a claim".

So the shortcut for that is to simply leave everything in place and turn on a 240V appliance and see if the truck registers A & B. If so, you've effectively eliminated all those steps...

 

[FlasherZ]

One way to test this is to use something portable that draws a lot of current - e.g., a hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner or a shop-vac. In most panels (except some very old ones), the "A" side and "B" side alternate. So if breaker #5 is "dining room receptacles), and breaker #7 (directly below it) is "living room receptacles", then plug your device into the dining room, observe the truck, then plug your device into the living room, and observe the truck.

If the load works on both the dining room and living room receptacles, AND a 240V device works, then the truck is supplying power on both legs, no matter what shows.

If the device works on both receptacles but 240V loads don't work (e.g., electric oven elements), then you have both hot legs wired only to one side of the truck in the plug.

If the device only works on one of the receptacles but not in the other, it's not wired correctly.

(A side note: some campgrounds are wired this way, because many 50A RV's only need 120V. So they bring only 120V to the pedestal and wire it to both sides of the receptacle. You get 120V between A-N and B-N, and A-B is 0V because they're both the same wire. Caused charging problems in early EV days.)

 

[hturnerfamily]

... can I just lick each prong and see if I get a tingle from both A and B?

yes, yes you can : ) Please do.

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