We have moved on from rewiring my friends solar system. He's somewhat disappointed in Blue Skys method of only letting you see ah used and battery state of charge AFTER the system is 100% charged. I told him they all do things differently. So now we are moving on to his next problem. He has said for a while now that he keeps getting shocked. I questioned him more on it and started checking things and the frame is bonded or there is a short of some type. After cleaning up some of the wiring in the converter power center we moved on to the inverter and sub panel. I read his manual and it appears that magnum uses a relay to make or break the bond depending on if a generator or shore power are used. In the case of shore power the bond is at the pedestal. So on one page they seem to say that a bond is always needed but also say that under certain jurisdictions or situations it's not used.I would take that to mean in RV's. When not using the bond/relay system they say to unplug the green connector in the terminal strip area to disable it. I did that and the hot to frame dropped from 117 to 47 volts. The neutral bar to frame now reads 70 volts. Next step is remove the house panel feed wires to the inverter and try to isolate further. I also want to see if 2 of the ground/bare wires in the magnum terminal strip are actually bonded???

The automatic bond relay makes sense in cases where one might access pedestal power, I doubt that that is your problem but more of a red herring of sorts....I have occasionally gotten false volt readings when using a digital voltmeter, this is why I always have a analog backup...It could be an interruption in the campers returning ground (not the neutral) back to the generator (or pedestal), I'd try checking for ground continuity....Good Luck, 3 tons

It's common for portable gens to not be bonded. Not sure what equipment he has.I have 3 possible bonds. Shore power and gen power both are bonded with the ATS selecting one or the other. The inverter is a pass through type and if it's inverting with no AC input then it bonds the output circuits. If it has AC input it does not bond.

I got to the point of disconnecting everything but the inverter power terminal output. I can still read 48 v at the inverter 120 terminals to the frame. I took him through the history of this whole thing. He gets a minor shock when he touches the steel mini blinds, microwave steel interior, and many other things inside and out. He had the inverter installed 4.5 yr ago when he started using the TT.He has always gotten shocks. He never used the TT without the inverter. He gets a shock when everything is off. NO generator. No shore power. No inverter.He cant plug into his sons gfci plug out at the garage because it trips. He removes the gfci it and installs a regular receptical. We totaly isolated his TT circuits. I said do you get shocked at friend 2's rig, at walmart, at your truck? No, no, no, just at this trailer. I isolated all the house circuits and removed the wire nuts to the hots and neutrals. Searched for a bond on all that stuff. Removed the ground wire from the inverter case. Shut off all breakers in main and sub panel. The hot lead was disconnected from his wfco converter when the magnum was installed. (Humm, I didn't remove his old wfco neutral and ground from the neutral and ground bars but I think it still has 12 volts, back feed capacitor from wfco???) Removed the screws that hold the inverter to the basement floor. To get shocks with everything shut down it almost seems that there could be an inverter problem and a capacitor is shorting to the negative cable???? Or as I mentioned above could the wfco charge the frame?? Need to totally disconnect wfco. Maybe having the hot off freaks it out or it has a problem????I'm not an electronics guy. I have often looked at various circuit boards and repaired a solder joint here or there over the years but I dont know if it's possible for an inverter to do something like that?As I think about it more the wfco needs to be totally isolated. I should doubt wfco far sooner than magnum.

There have been lots of threads about getting shocked from the trailer's skin or wherever. Nothing to do with the inverter or converter as such ISTR. More like a bad shore power plug or something.Bonding threads make you insane. IMO just don't have any bonding in the gen or inverter and stay sane. The stick house /pedestal is bonded and from there on out, not. I would not like to depend on an "automatic" relay for that. ( Nothing stays automatic for long. )

BFL13 wrote:There have been lots of threads about getting shocked from the trailer's skin or wherever. Nothing to do with the inverter or converter as such ISTR. More like a bad shore power plug or something.Bonding threads make you insane. IMO just don't have any bonding in the gen or inverter and stay sane. The stick house /pedestal is bonded and from there on out, not. I would not like to depend on an "automatic" relay for that. ( Nothing stays automatic for long. )He gets shocked when nothing is powering the TT. No generator. No shore power and no inverter on. He said he has seen a blue spark. That sounds like static to me but the volt meter is saying the frame is bonded yet we separated and isolated what I believe to be everything. If I wasn't seeing full voltage with my meter on a hot wire and the frame I would say it's static. We did try his little analog meter and it showed 50 volts from hot to frame too. The only real path I can see is over his negative battery cable. ???

Magnum inverter. | Good Sam Community

azrving
Explorer
Nov 22, 2015
BFL13 wrote:
There have been lots of threads about getting shocked from the trailer's skin or wherever. Nothing to do with the inverter or converter as such ISTR. More like a bad shore power plug or something.

Bonding threads make you insane. IMO just don't have any bonding in the gen or inverter and stay sane. The stick house /pedestal is bonded and from there on out, not. I would not like to depend on an "automatic" relay for that. ( Nothing stays automatic for long. )

He gets shocked when nothing is powering the TT. No generator. No shore power and no inverter on. He said he has seen a blue spark. That sounds like static to me but the volt meter is saying the frame is bonded yet we separated and isolated what I believe to be everything. If I wasn't seeing full voltage with my meter on a hot wire and the frame I would say it's static. We did try his little analog meter and it showed 50 volts from hot to frame too. The only real path I can see is over his negative battery cable. ???
BFL13
Explorer II
Nov 22, 2015
There have been lots of threads about getting shocked from the trailer's skin or wherever. Nothing to do with the inverter or converter as such ISTR. More like a bad shore power plug or something.

Bonding threads make you insane. IMO just don't have any bonding in the gen or inverter and stay sane. The stick house /pedestal is bonded and from there on out, not. I would not like to depend on an "automatic" relay for that. ( Nothing stays automatic for long. )
azrving
Explorer
Nov 22, 2015
I got to the point of disconnecting everything but the inverter power terminal output. I can still read 48 v at the inverter 120 terminals to the frame. I took him through the history of this whole thing.

He gets a minor shock when he touches the steel mini blinds, microwave steel interior, and many other things inside and out.

He had the inverter installed 4.5 yr ago when he started using the TT.
He has always gotten shocks. He never used the TT without the inverter.
He gets a shock when everything is off. NO generator. No shore power. No inverter.

He cant plug into his sons gfci plug out at the garage because it trips. He removes the gfci it and installs a regular receptical. We totaly isolated his TT circuits.

I said do you get shocked at friend 2's rig, at walmart, at your truck? No, no, no, just at this trailer. I isolated all the house circuits and removed the wire nuts to the hots and neutrals. Searched for a bond on all that stuff. Removed the ground wire from the inverter case. Shut off all breakers in main and sub panel. The hot lead was disconnected from his wfco converter when the magnum was installed. (Humm, I didn't remove his old wfco neutral and ground from the neutral and ground bars but I think it still has 12 volts, back feed capacitor from wfco???)

Removed the screws that hold the inverter to the basement floor.

To get shocks with everything shut down it almost seems that there could be an inverter problem and a capacitor is shorting to the negative cable????

Or as I mentioned above could the wfco charge the frame?? Need to totally disconnect wfco. Maybe having the hot off freaks it out or it has a problem????

I'm not an electronics guy. I have often looked at various circuit boards and repaired a solder joint here or there over the years but I dont know if it's possible for an inverter to do something like that?

As I think about it more the wfco needs to be totally isolated. I should doubt wfco far sooner than magnum.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Nov 21, 2015
It's common for portable gens to not be bonded. Not sure what equipment he has.

I have 3 possible bonds. Shore power and gen power both are bonded with the ATS selecting one or the other. The inverter is a pass through type and if it's inverting with no AC input then it bonds the output circuits. If it has AC input it does not bond.
3_tons
Explorer III
Nov 21, 2015
The automatic bond relay makes sense in cases where one might access pedestal power, I doubt that that is your problem but more of a red herring of sorts....I have occasionally gotten false volt readings when using a digital voltmeter, this is why I always have a analog backup...It could be an interruption in the campers returning ground (not the neutral) back to the generator (or pedestal), I'd try checking for ground continuity....

Good Luck,
3 tons

Forum Discussion

Magnum inverter.

About Technical Issues

Related Content

Magnum inverter

Magnum Inverter/Converter Question

Magnum Inverter Panel

Magnum ms 2812 inverter

Magnum Inverter Issue, need some help