A few days ago i had the generator hooked directly to the well wire with no luck. 10 gauge submersible wire down 150ft.
I pulled the submersible out and put back the old 1hp shallow well pump. It ALWAYS works. Even on my 2000watt generator. The shallow pump is 10amps as well...The reason why it works on my small generator with 200ft of thick extension cord is because the startup amps required on the shallow well pump is waaaay less than the 10amp submersible, which needs 65amps to start up. All I can provide is 30amps via gen.
And yes...i know...115v for a well pump is stupid. I knew it before I even ordered it. But we have no power, hate loud 8500watt generators, already have 3 generators and I can't have loud obnoxious noise through the valley in the morning for my neighbors sake.
The biggest gen i have is a super quiet 3500watt invertor generator that provides 25amps. The problem is, the invertor gens do not spit out 240v. And that's why I ordered a 10amp, 115v submersible pump. I would not even consider 115/120v pumps if i had power. All they do is take up more space in a panel and require shitload of juice to start up.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will consider them when I get actually have power and buy another pump, which will be 240v for the house.
We have 2 wells on the 5 acres and I'll use the 115v red lion strictly for the garden in the future.
Your 2000 watt genset does not provide 30 amps at 120 volts:
How to convert Watts to Amps or Amps to Watts or Volts to Watts
Basics
You cannot convert watts to amps, since watts are power and amps are coulombs per second (like converting gallons to miles). HOWEVER, if you have at least least two of the following three:
amps, volts or watts then the missing one can be calculated. Since watts are amps multiplied by volts, there is a simple relationship between them.
However, In some engineering disciplines the volts are more or less fixed, for example in house wiring, automotive wiring, or telephone wiring. In these limited fields technicians often have charts that relate amps to watts and this has caused some confusion. What these charts should be titled is "conversion of amps to watts at a fixed voltage of 110 volts" or "conversion of watts to amps at 13.8 volts," etc.
Some tidbits of information that you might need a refresher on:
To convert mA to A (milliamps to amps) 1000mA = 1A
to convert µA to A (microamps to amps) 1000,000 µA = 1A
To converter µA to mA (microamps to milliamps) 1000µA = 1mA
To convert mW to W (milliwatts to watts) 1000mW = 1W
To converter µW to W (microwatts to watts) 1,000,000 µW = 1W
The Following Equations can be used to convert between amps, volts, and watts.
Converting Watts to Amps
The conversion of Watts to Amps at fixed voltage is governed by the equation Amps = Watts/Volts
For example 12 watts/12 volts = 1 amp
Converting Amps to Watts
The conversion of Amps to Watts at fixed voltage is governed by the equation Watts = Amps x Volts
For example 1 amp * 110 volts = 110 watts
Converting Watts to Volts
The conversion of Watts to Volts at fixed amperage is governed by the equation Volts = Watts/Amps
For example 100 watts/10 amps = 10 volts
Converting Volts to Watts
The conversion of Volts to Watts at fixed amperage is governed by the equation Watts = Amps x Volts
For example 1.5 amps * 12 volts = 18 watts