generator causing voltage to drop

[ChanceMaster]

I spent more than a few hours away from the truck today, I set the generator to auto start when I left. I came back to completely dead battery's , and a dead truck. The generator was running when I returned, but the meter on the inverter showed that voltage was Dropping ! I shut EVERYTHING off, to try and get the volts to climb....nothing. The only way to get the volts to climb ( never enough to turn the engine) was to shut the generator off ! Any ideas ? I give up trying to understand the complexities of this system. I thought I was making real progress, now this.

 

[zorry]

I would think if you threw a belt or the alt in the genset went bad, it would discharge as it runs.
I'd call Don in the am and he should walk you through it.

 

[ChanceMaster]

After getting off my lazy behind, I went outside and took the cover off. Discovered the main off/ on circuit breaker switch had tripped to the "off" position. The battery was so low by then that the generator wouldn't start, so a $50 jump from TA was the answer to all my dreams. I'm seeing the wisdom of just turning the main battery disconnect to off while away from the truck for even a few hours.

 

[TeamCaffee]

I stress over the truck not being able to start and either missing out on a load or paying dearly to have a jump. Our stress level has went down considerable since we added the Maxwell ESM. I did a blog about the ESM if you are interested:

Engine Start Module

 

[ChanceMaster]

I stress over the truck not being able to start and either missing out on a load or paying dearly to have a jump. Our stress level has went down considerable since we added the Maxwell ESM. I did a blog about the ESM if you are interested:

Engine Start Module

Our generator has settings to auto start at a certain low voltage, I think there was a service fault in the generator while I was away from the truck yesterday, and the auto start failed. I think it also tripped the main inline circuit breaker ( that I discovered later). Thanks for the link !

I'm trying to see the benefits of the Maxwell ESM over a properly operating auto start generator. Am I missing something ?