renosteinke - thanks for your reply. Your explanation of the ground returning to its source makes perfect sense and I agree completely. Another reason I don't like sharing the neutrals is that you're required to isolate the neutral and ground in the generator. Since it's portable, it can be used for other applications where an appliance or tool can be plugged directly into the generator. Would it be dangerous to use it like this with the neutral and ground isolated? Would the overload trip on a fault to the grounding wire? It would be easy for the user to forget to change this connection for each change of use.
Similar problem with connecting the generator to a GEC. Likely the generator will be stored elsewhere and moved to the house connection point when it's needed, requiring the user to remember to make that connection. And if the GEC is for handling overvoltage problems, where is the overvoltage going to come from anyway?
