Portable Genset use located off the boat on dock

David W Bowers

New Member
May 12, 2019
9
Boat Info
2002 260 Sundancer
Engines
MercCrusier 5.6 Stroker 383 Bravo 3 I/O
Hello Sea Ray Friends. I heard all the warnings on using my Honda eu2000i on the boat. Safety before comfort!! I do plan on going to a overnight on a small deserted island with great night fishing in south Florida and it has a dock. My question is would it be safe to have the genset 20' away on the dock to run my a/c. This gen only puts out 13.3 amps. I have the 260 Sundancer with a 7,000 BTU A/C unit. Would it hurt the system if I used my shore power cord with the 110 adapter. I attached the specs and front panel pic

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:1be76dc6-f013-49c9-a1d7-2510dc192c37
 
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I've not ever been a fan of running a genny at a fixed dock for fear of CO poisoning. At 20 feet you are probably ok but a gentle breeze while you are asleep could become an issue. My CO monitors have gone off a number of times from boats idling in slips more than 20 feet away. That's just me being conservative. I'm sure it has been done with out problems before, but I would not advise it.
Running your a/c with a genny on the dock through your shore power will work but you will be improperly grounded which is not good.
 
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I think you will be fine. Genny is far enough from the boat and the shore cable will be heavy enough so you won't have a voltage drop.
 
I don't see this as being any different than running a generator at a campsite when RV'ing. Further away and downwind is obviously better.
 
As long as your detector has good batteries, the genny is on the land far enough away from you, and isn’t posing a possible hazard to anyone else nearby I don’t see a problem.
I’d probably want it further than 20’ if I could do it though.
A common shore power cord length is 50’. If that’s what your is it might be better to use all that length on the deserted island.
Pretty much the same as guys do at campsites.
 
You fellas are so accepting of generators on land but scoff at the notion of a Honda floating on a dinghy behind the boat??? :)
S%$# I ran a Honda 2000 for years on the back of my swim platform, NEVER any problems, however I had several detectors placed in different locations of the boat
 
I'm no electrician and I didn't sleep at a holiday inn express last night but make sure you size you electrical cord appropriately or you will be on fire in no time. Longer the distance the larger the wire size in the cord.

In my camping days I've seen a number of RV's plugged into adapters then use normal household extension cords then live like kings with all the appliances running and the cord burns up quick.

On a side note..... especially with all the tornados and flooding here recently....... I do like some of the newer portable generators that have CO alarms built in that will turn the generator off when detected.
 
A lot of guys run them up on the bow pulpit . or actually suspend it hanging from the pulpit with a heavy dock line. I know the safety police on here will be screaming at me but that's alright. I've done this for many years on two different searay without any issues. And it wasn't just luck either......
 
I’m sure there are thousands of people who have done so and can say that they never had an issue.

There are also some people who did have an issue, but they were not available for an interview.

Regardless of the source, CO Can be deadly. 2 people died here last year, tied up in a slip at a busy marina in the late afternoon.

Make sure that you have CO detectors.
 
I’m sure there are thousands of people who have done so and can say that they never had an issue.

There are also some people who did have an issue, but they were not available for an interview.

Regardless of the source, CO Can be deadly. 2 people died here last year, tied up in a slip at a busy marina in the late afternoon.

Make sure that you have CO detectors.
I always have the two factory detectors and at least 3 other battery powered ones with fresh batteries installed, never an issue
 
I’m sure there are thousands of people who have done so and can say that they never had an issue.

There are also some people who did have an issue, but they were not available for an interview.

Regardless of the source, CO Can be deadly. 2 people died here last year, tied up in a slip at a busy marina in the late afternoon.

Make sure that you have CO detectors.

The couple at Cherry’s?
Was that a portable or a genny installed in the boat?
Can’t remember.
Seems like I hear about something like that all the time.
No way I would run a portable genny anywhere on the boat.
Aside from the obvious risk of death, it sure would suck if the genny fell in the water.
But I’ve seen guys do what the OP is proposing a couple of times at Gilgo where there is no electric at the docks and they had it sitting up on land behind the boat a pretty safe distance back.
It seemed to work out pretty well for them.
Saw one guy that had a setup with a small auxiliary tank connected to his.
Still not sure I would leave it running while I was sleeping, but it is nice to be able to have the option to run AC or other creature comforts as needed during the awake hours.
 
We have a motorhome and I see the towed RV guys with their generators set 25-50 feet away from their rigs. We have some very knowledgeable people on here and my understanding is very limited to hot, neutral & ground wires. The obvious is the boat is sitting in water and the trailer is on the hard so how is this impacting the electrical current and/or safety of said current.
 
kill.jpg


Before global warming we just opened the hatch to stay cool... we need to get back to simpler times
 

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