It helps to use common sense when figuring out whether or not to pound a ground rod here or there.
I've camped in a total of three parks where when I checked the outlet, hot and neutral were NOT oriented correctly on the receptacle.
Permit me to tell you of a real story. First hand, not someone else, not theory or conjecture, or regulations out of a NEMA or NEC manual. Reality...
BOCA de IGUANAS, JALISCO year 2002
I was offered the parking space behind the bodega blocking the view to the beach. Good price several months long term. Checking the receptacle I found it to be cracked and corroded. Went to the office. Told them I had a new receptacle free. They said mañana. But the next day the the camp worker did show up, was a good kid and we had fun changing the outlet. Had to cut six inches off the wires to not find almost pure green powder. Wire gauge was standard 14 gauge stranded. The kid had a hell of a time trying to curl the wire round the screws so I got some #6 spade terminals and crimped them onto the live wires. This is what nitrile exam gloves are all about. Job done but no ground wire, I asked permission to pound an 18" long 1/2" diameter varilla, (rebar) into the ground and clip my chassis to the rod. I was given permission. Into the ground it was driven the wet down with a couple of buckets of salt water.
Two months passed, then one afternoon, everybody started yelling. Smoke was pouring out of the ground in half a dozen areas. Then power went out.
The brother in law of the owner worked on the main panel, three phase 100 ampere CFE standard regulation. The IDIOT reversed neutral and L1, neutral and L2 and neutral and L3 in all three panels.
Guess what? When you reverse neutral ground there is NO FREAKIN' BREAKER. NO PROTECTION on the hot side to ground. No problem you say? Neutral will be protected by the breaker even though the polarities are reversed.
EL WRONGO
MUFAS meaning service drops must have a ground round before the breaker panel. This is a CFE regulation and they are strict as hell about it.
So the park burned up each and every junction point. Yeah! All those high tech twist and tape junctions.
The #8 ground wire on my rig sacrificed itself. The shore power cord neutral was fried. The neutral buss in the breaker box was discolored.
But it saved me from getting a deadly shock. The converter in my rig had a neutral to chassis ground fault. Never would have known it had not neutral been reversed with phase hot. Death by electrocution or helping a kid and two more workers fix all the blown junction points.
Sorry. I prefer to stay alive.
(Oh what a shame, a heart attack and he was so young).
