Before I retired, I worked for the Air National Guard - full time. On deployments the guys from our shop (truck mechanics) would help the guys from the Power Production section and we were taught to remove the load from a generator before shutting it down. The reason that we were given was "that is what the regulation says!" I just called the technician in that section and he said that the reason is to let the coils in the alternator (the part that makes the electricity) cool off because they get pretty hot making all that electricity. He said if you don't remove the load, and let it run free, the coils can burn the insulation and short out. If you do that in the military it's considered abuse and you may end up paying for repairs out of your own pocket. I guess it's your choice what you do with your generator - I was just passing along information I was taught. Now we both know "the rest of the story!"
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