FlounderAssassin

so let me see if i understand this correctly. definatly put one on but it wont work??? i guess im missing something here. i have had a $hitty day here at work so i may not have read it correctly :banghead

fishnfever

Basically you have no ground in a fiberglass boat, in other words if you have a short you are the ground (not good). That's why you would not want to take the rubber feet off the bottom of the generator. However in a Aluminum boat the boat acts as your ground and therefore trips the breaker. Hope this helps.

Gnwdad

I have a hard time trying to type what I'm trying to say so bare with me.

Like the post above, the rubber feet keep the generator from being grounded. Therefore the GFCI will not work as it would in your yard (for the lack of a ground). An aluminum boat or a soaking wet fiberglass boat would act as a indirect path to ground if there was a short and a conductive path to the housing or the frame of the generator.

With or without a GFCI: If you were standing on the front of the boat and touched a short in the wiringand touchedthe bay it will be bad news. The GFCI would not trip because the generator has its on magnetic field. If you had a short and a conductive path back to the generator (aluminum boat, conductive gig pole, or a standing amount of water that was touching the generators frame) you would be hurting without a GFCI, with a GFCI it would trip at 5 millivolts.

X-Shark

And so does the plastic case on the quiet gennys, BUT there is a GND terminial on the front of all of these generators to tie to GND.



And as my neighbor told me the GFI will not work without a GND, like a grounding rod at your house. He's a pretty sharp guy on a lot of things.

Gnwdad

You are correct on the grounding lug. There are several guys I know that are using the open frame generators that could ground out in the case of a short through a conductive path.

jsaddiction

The gfci will compair the hot and neutral lines. If there is a difference then it is designed to shunt all of the voltage to ground tripping the breaker inside the plug housing.

First scenario: If you are in an aluminum boat.. "bond" your generator to the boat. (bolt a cable to the boat and to the genset) If there is a problem it will use your aluminum boat as a ground and discharge everything into the water. as long as your ground wire is a good connection then there will be no difference in potential between you and the generator. (you won't get shocked) Use the GFCI it will keep you from getting shocked ... to bad

second: if you are in a fiberglass boat and do not have a ground plane the GFCI is useless. If there is a bare wire and it has not tripped the installed breaker on your genset then this wire will shock you and it will hurt. A GFCI will be unable to shunt anything to ground since there is none. Be care full of wires on a fiberglass hull. There is no common ground and you will almost always be at some potential other than whatever wire you touch.

Use plenty of heat shrink (the kind with glue in it) and good quality connectors. Use plenty of silicon greese (doesn't conduct) in your connectors this will keep water away from the contacts.

X-Shark

Those were exactly my thoughts.