I just bought a 4.5 hp air compressor. It starts up fine and builds to 155 psi like it should but after the pressure drops and it tries to kick back on it wont it just turns over slow and pops the breaker. I am running it off of a 6200 watt generater with 9000 watts max (surge watts) is this caused by too small of wiring or is the generater not big enough. The compressor is a Kobalt 4.5hp 80 gallon design please help
the amps on the compressor is 20 max(start up) and the generator handles 30 amps I am running a 12 gauge cord from the generator to my cicuit breaker panel and the same to my compressor the cord from the generator to the box is probably 12 feet to 15 feet total and then maybe 4 feet to the compressor from the cb box

Brine has good answer

12 gage wire isn't really big enough, unless it solid strand wire, which if your using a cord its not. should be at least 10 gage if its a cord, you could always buy the length of romax you need and put plugs on the ends. if that don't work probably need bigger generator or more permanent power supply