[Murphy625]

Hi, and thanks in advance for your expertise. I have 4 distinct questions that I can hopefully get answered.

1: My new Duromax generator is considered floating neutral. The documentation states that the Neutral and Ground circuits are connected together in the stator housing. They are simply not bonded to the frame. I’ve also seen definitions that state “Floating Neutral: Neutral is completely separate from the ground circuit.” Are both setups considered floating neutral?

In a 120/240 volt split phase system, the neutral must only be Earth Grounded in one location. If you are hooking this generator up to your home with a 4 wire patch cord, then the Earth Grounding (green wire that eventually goes to a rod in the dirt) is provided at your home's breaker panel.

If you were to also provide Earth Grounding at the generator itself, it could cause stray currents to flow between the two different ground points, which could cause problems.. most of which would be related to either delicate electronics or GFCI protection. With a "bonded neutral" generator, grounding the generator would result in a 2nd ground so that's a problem.

In your "floating neutral generator"
Your Generator's frame is connected to the green ground wire in your 4 wire cord, it should not be connected to the generator coils or any part that conducts current like the neutral wire. This green wire eventually goes back to your home's breaker panel ground bar. This green wire is NOT connected to the neutral in any way EXCEPT inside the home's breaker panel.
If you have a ground lug on this "floating neutral generator", its there so you can use it on a job-site where an earth ground isn't already available.

2: I also have a 20 year old Craftsman that is Bonded Neutral. I’ve always used this for backup power by running extension cords into the home. We just hired a local electrician to install an interlock and he said this generator would work fine. Not until I started researching a new generator did I stumble upon the floating/bonded conundrum and realize that connecting this generator as is would probably not be fine. Can I simply remove the wire that from the alternator to the frame to make it a floating neutral? I’d like to keep this generator as a backup to my new generator. It seems like it would then be the same as the new Duromax, Neutral and Ground connected internally, but not bonded to the frame.

I would not suggest modifying the generator without more specific information on how it's set up.

3: I also see people stating that rigging a 3 pronged plug to connect ground and neutral, and plugging into a generator receptacle, would bond the circuits together. But this does nothing to bond it to the frame. It would simply bond the internal circuitry like my Duromax, correct?

That would be dangerous..

4: Lastly, my Duromax has a lug for grounding the generator. If it were to be used camping, or on a job site, could I simply run a wire from the ground lug to the frame? It seems like that would make it Bonded Neutral just like my old Craftsman. It doesn’t seem practical to carry and pound in an 8’ copper rod with you everywhere you use the generator.

That ground lug is there in case you use the generator were there is no available earth grounding. It allows you to run an Earth Ground bond to whatever Earth Ground source you have available.

Running a bonded generator to ground when it is also connected to a home's electrical panel where the neutral is also grounded, can be problematic. It's usually NOT the end of the world and you most likely won't see smoke or sparks flying, but it shouldn't be done. It can, and most likely will, trip your GFCI protectors and can causes issues with other things as well.
That said, I've done it when I had to.. no problems.. I just would never do it if I had a choice.