[qcj]

Why is there an alternator on generator engine and what does it charge?

[folivier]

On mine it charges the house batteries. But only puts out about 40 or so amps.

[qcj]

So the inverter and the generator both are charging the house batteries at the same time. That's interesting.

[77newell]

I've wondered about this as well. I chalked it up to Newell's propensity for redundancy. If the converter fails you still have the ability to keep the batteries charged enough to start the generator provided you know the converter has failed and treat the house battery use accordingly. The cost of doing this is minimal in this case, especially considering that our generators probably come from the factory standard with an alternator and it would cost more to eliminate it than run a bit of wire.

But the real answer is that only Newell knows, if even they can remember how it got started and why they kept doing it.