question? can you get shocked from 12volt?

ron.dittmer wrote:
Yes you can get a shocked by 12V.
Noticeable to the human body - Yes
Dangerous to the human body - No

If touching the trailer in the rain gives a shock, it could be nothing. But I advise to check your wiring making sure the hot lead is properly isolated & insulated, and ground is proper or you could risk draining your 12V battery. Worst case scenario would be potential for an electrical fire. If everything is in good order, consider unplugging the electric jack when not using it, or adding a water-proof switch to power it.

Being a trailer, you can't rule out the possibility that the issue is related to the tail lights. Inside where the bulbs are might be taking on water. Make sure they are properly sealed. Sometimes a wire-sealing rubber grommet has dry-rotted and fallen out. Sometimes the lens can tolerate taking in water. Then make sure the weep holes are clean.

You can be killed by 12 volts with sufficient current. A battery is essentially an unlimited current source so if the appropriate conductivity is available, yes it's deadly....the current will do it. I've been nailed by car batteries when my hands are contaminated enough to conduct well....just shock...not enough current.

I taught auto shop for 24 years and showed students frequently you could not get shocked by a 12v battery. I learned my lesson otherwise one day. I was standing in a lake holding jumper cables from one boat to jump start another. Amazing what lowering your body resistance will do for the flow of electricity.
Dave

DrewE wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Friend of mine has a 'permanent' ring on his left hand ring finger.

Touched both battery terminals with wrench which was touching his wedding ring.
Ring had to be cut off.....now he doesn't need to wear one (can't anyway do to scaring)

YES 12V DC can be felt, hurts and can cause damage

That's a different situation entirely. Your unfortunate friend did not get an electric shock; rather, he got a bad burn (as in temperature) from the ring, which was conducting a very high current and dissipating a lot of power. This is more along the lines of an arc welder.

12V, when applied to ordinarily dry skin, is not perceptible nor dangerous in and of itself.

Yep, he could have had 1V but with the current available from an automotive battery it would still easily heat up a ring.
Voltage cant kill, it has to have current.

He is citing the numbers required for bodily damage. How you achieve that is you're problem. Take my salt water bucket test for example....
Under those and similar circumstances it's pretty easy to see how its allot easier than one thinks

Oldme wrote:
Amps are what kill not volts.

BUT there must be enough voltage present to make the current flow.....through the resistance of the "conductor" in use.

The human body has a fairly high resistance and your table is misleading.

Just grabbing a hold of any old AC voltage will NOT make those given currents flow.

In most situations, it takes both.
You can't produce a current flow (amps) without a voltage to drive it.

Naio wrote:

Me,I once got an electrical burn from tiny (20ga?) 12v wires. I thought they were just poking me, and ignored them until I heard my skin sizzling.

But the part that you forgot to tell is that the wires were also burning at the time.

JAXFL wrote:

OH yes... had shoes on, no rain, dry California summer, 1957 Chevy, knocked me all the way off the bummer onto my rump.

Was the car running at the time ?
That's about the only way to explain your story.
Well, maybe except something you had been smoking at the time. :B

Honestly, I've had my hands on both posts of maybe a hundred different 12 volt batteries over the years and never a tickle......including a 283 '57 BelAir.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Friend of mine has a 'permanent' ring on his left hand ring finger.

Touched both battery terminals with wrench which was touching his wedding ring.
Ring had to be cut off.....now he doesn't need to wear one (can't anyway do to scaring)

YES 12V DC can be felt, hurts and can cause damage

That's a different situation entirely. Your unfortunate friend did not get an electric shock; rather, he got a bad burn (as in temperature) from the ring, which was conducting a very high current and dissipating a lot of power. This is more along the lines of an arc welder.

12V, when applied to ordinarily dry skin, is not perceptible nor dangerous in and of itself.

I'll share my stories.

One hot, sweaty Texas summer day several years ago I was working on my truck which had a chrome bumper. I don't recall what I was replacing but I had both sweaty knees on the bumper supporting me and a wrench in one hand trying to break a bolt lose. I touched the +side of the battery with the other sweaty hand and bam, I got the unowhat shocked out of me at the knees. I felt it all at the knees. I definitely knew I got shocked.

Years before that I dared my younger brother to p on a lawn mower spark plug. I don't think he p'ed for a week after that. Of course I laughed for days. Pour kid.

Yaj wrote:

Terryallan wrote:
Can 12 volt power shock? Start the engine. Reach under the hood, and grab the coil wire. Come back and tell me what you felt. IF you can still type.

Well yes I did, on a 1970 460 CI Lincoln. Couldn't move my arm for a whole day after.

That's not 12 volts, the coil puts out 30,000 +,- volts.

X2
Yup it's 12 volt battery in your car but it's amplified for sure depending what you touch when it's running!

I did the same thing years ago and it knocked me against the garage wall, thank god it didn't hang on to me!
Compliments from my 455 SD Pontiac! :C