Shocked When Touching RV
Today while working on my RV I noticed when I knelled down on the damp ground and touching a metal portion of the RV I would receive a mild shock. I have the RV plugged into a 15 amp home outlet us...
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"If the fault current is not high enough to trip the supply protection, even with your own "earth" connection, you can receive a shock between the fault & the earth."
Try it sometime. I managed to pass 75 amps of 120vac dead short through such a ground wire jumper. Then I connected in series a 500 watt quartz (is this enough of a shock?)light in series to a TT with the jack insulated. A deadly series connection through the light and to the trailer skin. Lamp did not glow.
252 Volts potential between the trailer and earth ground. 500 watts of potential fault. Opened power switch, connected grounding rod, and jumper wire, threw switch and there was ZERO potential between trailer and earth ground. Oh yeah the quartz lamp was blazing mightily. For an hour. The idiot of of a Mexican Engineer (structural) who had argued this point stomped off.
ELECTRICAL IS UNFORGIVING. I spent several hours recently with an unstable heartbeat because of my sheer idiotic laziness. Did not want to reach for the gloves.
I do not ever intent to MIRACLE GAZE at some over-used under-tended RV park receptacle and wonder "what it looks like" on the other side. ONE CORRODED STRAND of ground wire can out-stupid the finest, most expensive "connection tester" available to the general consumer. The connection can read PERFECT! GREEN! And then fail when a too slight ground fault completes the connection degradation. I ain't no freakin' guinea pig. I have seen people blown on their ass, asssssuming a connection meets code. And others with vertical hair because they were sure their Mother Fletcher's Do It Yourself Tester would not fail them. I am just a stupid Electrical Engineer. I intend to stay merely stupid and not Dead Stupid.
Try it sometime. I managed to pass 75 amps of 120vac dead short through such a ground wire jumper. Then I connected in series a 500 watt quartz (is this enough of a shock?)light in series to a TT with the jack insulated. A deadly series connection through the light and to the trailer skin. Lamp did not glow.
252 Volts potential between the trailer and earth ground. 500 watts of potential fault. Opened power switch, connected grounding rod, and jumper wire, threw switch and there was ZERO potential between trailer and earth ground. Oh yeah the quartz lamp was blazing mightily. For an hour. The idiot of of a Mexican Engineer (structural) who had argued this point stomped off.
ELECTRICAL IS UNFORGIVING. I spent several hours recently with an unstable heartbeat because of my sheer idiotic laziness. Did not want to reach for the gloves.
I do not ever intent to MIRACLE GAZE at some over-used under-tended RV park receptacle and wonder "what it looks like" on the other side. ONE CORRODED STRAND of ground wire can out-stupid the finest, most expensive "connection tester" available to the general consumer. The connection can read PERFECT! GREEN! And then fail when a too slight ground fault completes the connection degradation. I ain't no freakin' guinea pig. I have seen people blown on their ass, asssssuming a connection meets code. And others with vertical hair because they were sure their Mother Fletcher's Do It Yourself Tester would not fail them. I am just a stupid Electrical Engineer. I intend to stay merely stupid and not Dead Stupid.
