Finally joined the MEP-803A club...

That should do it.

Sealed up the top seams with silicone today. Noticed some drips inside from the last rain. Gonna get a fitted cover for the top half just to keep everything dry.

Painted the electric box OD and found an aspirin bottle that fits the wire sock to keep the critters out.

Are your ground clamps as installed temporary? I'm thinking vibration may cause the clamp to slip off the lug in the unit. Someone walking by could kick the exposed ground rod clamp off the rod. I would get a permanent bolt on clamp for the rod and use the machine's lug to clamp the ground cable on top of the existing output connector's ground cable.

Good call - It's just temporary for now.

robson1015 said:

Good call - It's just temporary for now.

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Couldn't you use your house system's ground?

That Lexal is some tenacious stuff!

NATCAD said:

Couldn't you use your house system's ground?

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Once I hook up to the house I will disconnect the ground rod and remove the ground bar connecting ground and neutral. The ground rod is there for when I run the generator unhooked from the house. I use the temporary ground rod when I run the load bank which I am currently working on.

Jferg65 said:

That Lexal is some tenacious stuff!

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I've never used it before but it looks like it is gonna work well. Glad to see a fellow buckeye on here....

robson1015 said:

I've never used it before but it looks like it is gonna work well. Glad to see a fellow buckeye on here....

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It is good stuff. Ive gone through over a dozen tubes of that stuff sealing up around the house. Expensive but worth the money.

I have disconnected the ground to neutral bond in my generators so they can be used for house back up with a 4 wire connection. I dropped a ground rod at the generator and always have that connected. I bonded the ground and neutral in my electric stove 'load bank'.

My thinking is when load testing with the stove I am grounded at the generator and my ground and neutral bond is at the stove. When providing power to the house I will be connected to 2 ground rods - house and generator - but the ground/neutral bond is in the house breaker box.

This way I don't have to remember to change generator bonding connections between house back up and load testing and my generator is always grounded.

It's my understanding that there should only be one path to ground, house ground when connected to the house; and ground rod when not connected to the house. Not supposed to have two grounding points when running the house.

There is definately a lot of debate on proper grounding and neutral bonding. I have read mixed reports on grounding: some feel that the extra ground rod at the generator is OK. All agree that the neutral to ground bond must be a single connection in the 4 conductor circuit.

Howdy,

In the field = ground rod = bonding strap in place.

Connected to house which has proper ground system = 4 wire connection = bonding strap disconnected

I have often heard the term 'ground loop' which occurs with more than one ground on a system. I'm not exactly sure what a ground loop is or does, but one ground point should be sufficient. Thanx for simplifying it Daybreak.

Daybreak summed it up perfectly. There is a lengthy thread on the subject. I will try to locate and link it from here. It is a good read.

https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?40290-MEP-003A-hook-up-question

The topic starts a page or two in.

There really needs to be a sticky made for the subject of grounding I would take the time to do it if somebody would promise they would make it a sticky. I want to puke everytime this subject it's brought up. Daybreak is 100% correct. Somebody's going to end up dying!

I know I've written up the grounding thing several times. Totally agree it needs to be a sticky.

Be sure to include a link to YouTube Mike holt. Golden video to show those the gravity of the situation.

I appreciate everyone's input. It's what makes this community so great.
Bls