Ship/shore manual switch

Danny · May 21, 2018, 09:42:33 AM

I got a NewMar ship/shore/genset switch. Trying to figure how to wire it up. I have 4 wires each coming from Generator, shore connection, and panel. To wire the switch up as 220, it seems like I would have to wire the two 110 hot wires from each source to the switch. However, the diagram has the hot to one and the neutral to the others. How can this get 220 Volts? Can anybody give me simple directions on how to connect it? I may be missing the obvious... Thanks as always....

richard5933 · May 21, 2018, 10:22:29 AM

We had a similar switch on our 4106. Ours was set up to switch the two hot connections and the neutral. The ground was not switched - the ground lug from the shore power and the ground lug from the generator were always connected to the ground bar in the breaker panel.

If your set up is done correctly, you are feeding two 120v hot leads (L1 &L2) and one neutral lead into the switch from each source, and the output is two 120v hot leads and one neutral to the breaker panel.

Most set ups are done with each 120v lead powering one side of the breaker panel. If you have anything on the bus which runs on actual 240v, then you'll insert a double breaker into the panel. It will tap into both sides of the panel pulling 120v from each for a total of 240v. Most of what I've seen uses single 120v breakers though and not double 240v breakers.

I am not an electrician - please double check any of this before putting to use. It's what we did and it worked for us.

Not sure what you mean by 'wire the switch up as 220'

Are you sure that the switch is capable of transferring three conductors (L1, L2 & neutral)?

bobofthenorth · May 21, 2018, 10:57:42 AM

Deleted because I misread the original post.

Danny · May 21, 2018, 11:19:45 AM

The switch has two options to hook up the power from each source. The plans that came with it says to hook up the hot and neutral. Would this only give me 110 and not 220? Thanks

richard5933 · May 21, 2018, 11:50:44 AM

Quote from: bobofthenorth on May 21, 2018, 10:57:42 AM
I believe from the rest of your post that you are aware of this but it bears reinforcing: this arrangement LIKELY sets up a ground fault on the coach by permanently connecting the neutral and ground through the genset bonding. The message for the OP is that to do this correctly he needs a 3-pole transfer switch.

No doubt many coaches and RVs have such a ground fault but that doesn't remove the risk it creates. Its a code violation for good reason.

Not true. If you read my post you'll see that we were switching L1, L2 & neutral. As long as the switch is turned to 'gen' then of course neutral/ground are bonded. However, when the switch is turned to 'shore' the neutral is also switched to the incoming shore neutral and separated from the generator's neutral. That's the reason for using a 3-conductor switch and not a 2-conductor switch. You'll see that I even asked the OP if he was sure that he is using a 3-conductor switch.

richard5933 · May 21, 2018, 11:52:23 AM

Quote from: Danny on May 21, 2018, 11:19:45 AM
The switch has two options to hook up the power from each source. The plans that came with it says to hook up the hot and neutral. Would this only give me 110 and not 220? Thanks

If the plans that came with the switch say to hook up the hot and neutral, then it sounds like you have a 2-conductor switch (two pole) and not a 3-conductor switch. To do this right you need to switch both L1 & L2 as well as the neutral.

Geoff · May 21, 2018, 05:53:35 PM

Quote from: Danny on May 21, 2018, 09:42:33 AM
I got a NewMar ship/shore/genset switch. Trying to figure how to wire it up. I have 4 wires each coming from Generator, shore connection, and panel. To wire the switch up as 220, it seems like I would have to wire the two 110 hot wires from each source to the switch. However, the diagram has the hot to one and the neutral to the others. How can this get 220 Volts? Can anybody give me simple directions on how to connect it? I may be missing the obvious... Thanks as always....

It sounds like the last "diagram" is for a 30 amp 120v connection. Anyway, please update your terms to. 120v and 240v. 110 and 220 are totally out of date in a 60HZ modern American electrical system.

buswarrior · May 21, 2018, 06:32:37 PM

Quote from: Geoff on May 21, 2018, 05:53:35 PM
It sounds like the last "diagram" is for a 30 amp 120v connection. Anyway, please update your terms to. 120v and 240v. 110 and 220 are totally out of date in a 60HZ modern American electrical system.

Yes, outdated, but too easily mistyped or label damaged or misread... really important when we all do technical communication by typing and reading on an Internet forum.

110 and 220 are harder to mix up with 12 and 24.

11/22 or 10/20 if they get messed up...

120/240 and 12/24 is asking for trouble...

Defend against confusion, some of us need every advantage we can make for ourselves?

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

eagle19952 · May 21, 2018, 07:49:05 PM

f you don't no 110 from 120...
or 220 from 240...
Probably a good idea to put the wire nuts back in the box..

buswarrior · May 22, 2018, 05:35:34 AM

Typographical errors...labels partially wiped off

Not absence of knowledge.

See how easy words mess us up?

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior