What would make the overload light come on on my GenSet???

[Surviver76]

I have an little Sportsman GEN1000i genny and yes it was inexpensive and not the Honda. It is under a month old and has been powering my Lance 3000 shore power flawlessly until today.
The "Overload" light comes on when I plug in shore power and the motor shuts down. There is nothing switched on in the camper and I'm stumped. The little genny did blow a bunch of white smoke for a while there after this happened but is now running fine. The lady on the Buffalo help line said to try plugging something else into it so I now have my laptop charging with an extension cord through the screen door. I'm in Oregon and it is a rain free day but this will not be good for tomorrows rain day and all the rest that we have here.. Any help appreciated..

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Update: My wall Systems Monitor may have a short in it.
I pushed the button to check it and the entire thing is dead!
No lights at all. Then it came back on line and now it's dead again. Perhaps my 20 plus year on camper has become possessed!

[time2roll]

enblethen wrote:
I believe the OP is talking about the system monitoring panel which includes tank levels and batter levels.

Yes I am trying to figure how this low power 12v system overloads the generator.
Unless it is the symptom of another open or short circuit affecting the converter output. Hmmmmm

[enblethen]

On a normal electrical system like in your house, the neutral and ground are tied together in the electrical service panel.
On many gensets, they are not connected together. This becomes an issue on some electrical systems with electronic components. By tying the neutral and ground together, the system sees this and operates differently.
Do Not do this in the rig!
I believe the OP is talking about the system monitoring panel which includes tank levels and batter levels.

[time2roll]

Exactly what panel is are you talking about? Picture?

[Surviver76]

Hmmm, do not understand any of that..

[enblethen]

Another thing comes to mind.
Most inverter gensets do not have the neutral and ground tied together. If you use a standard three wire cord body and jumper the ground to the neutral, plugged into a genset receptacle it will lie to some elctronic equipment.
Did you disconnect the display panel?

[Surviver76]

MORE UPDATES :::
OK here's the latest. I realized that if I continue without the genny I would have no house batt and screwed so I found a local rv repair shop and made an appointment. An hour before the appt, the thing came back to life so I quickly set up genny and tried a quick charge and it worked! So when the panel is live, the "short" goes away and charging is again possible...
I went in to the shop anyway and kept my appt. the tech was astoundingly horrible and I would not let him touch my camper with your meter as the saying goes.. I decided to wait since you cannot diagnose a problem if there isn't one at that time of the attempted diagnoses. At this moment, little genny is out there happily humming away with it's rain coat on and all is well... Fingers crossed!!!

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Footnote: I have decided to head south the the Quartzsite show after Thanksgiving so will have solar and a big smile on my face!

[Surviver76]

enblethen, no but I will next time it happens...
Guess what!!? I was correct about the dead led panel causing the gen issue..

[enblethen]

Have you tried this from manual? Doubt if it will work but worth a try!
"The reset button has been triggered by a power surge. Press the AC or DC reset button to reset the circuit breaker"

[ScottG]

I agree with Enblethen.
When electronics smoke they aren't going to then work fine or fix themselves.

[enblethen]

Not sure where some are getting their numbers. 800 Watts continuous is about 6.66 amps without figuring in power factors. Even at 1000 watts is only 8.3 amps.
Genset
OP I believe you smoked the genset when you saw the white smoke.
My PD9245 draws 725 watts when fully loaded and charging.

[time2roll]

Just the converter could overload that generator. Not just watts but the power factor requires additional apparent power to drive most converters. Need an additional 35 percent over rating. That generator is good for maybe 30 to 35 amps into the battery max.

Was the fridge set to automatic? That would add 300 watt load.

[enblethen]

Batteries run down somewhat, then the converter works a little harder to charge them back up.

[2oldman]

enblethen wrote:
That genset only has an 800 watt continuous output. My guess would be that your converter is enough to overload it.

One review on The Home depot site says it will shut down at 500.

[Surviver76]

enblethen, Thanks for your response. I will try that tomorrow. I do wonder however how I could be using the gen all this month and then that starts to happen only now.
Also, I believe there is a short in the wall mounted systems monitor as it has gone dark. I think that whatever has happened in there, on that small circuit board I see behind the front facia, has caused the genny to act in a way that replicates an overload somehow...