Shocking information

[Montana_3845]

Faulty ground found the hard way!!!

When checking the water level in my battery I laid my arms on the aluminum door frame and my bare knees on the damp ground, to my surprise there was a shock on my arms. It was time to check things out.
There had up to this time no indication of any malfunction of the electrical system because of insulated door handle,shoe soles and carpeted steps.
I made a quick check by driving a metal rod into the ground, placing the voltmeter between the rod and the metal step. Found 48 volts A.C. with this check.
It turned out that when building my horse barn 30 years ago I had failed to tie up a gound wire on the outlet used to furnish power to the 5th.wheel.
After correcting the wiring error in the barn the voltmeter shows 2 volts which probably is normal for small leakages in the traler.
I am posting this because it is a simple and fast check to insure that the metal on the trailer is at ground potential and safe.
GENEO

[Montana_2785]

About a month ago I was at a local campground and ran into the same thing. A little checking showed that the outlet at the pedestal had a faulty ground as well.

It'll get your attention!! It pays to check every outlet you plug into...

Eric

[NJ Hillbilly]

I have been battling the same problem, My shock was an intermittant one. Sometimes I would get a shock, other times not. I finally traced it back to the 30-15 adapter, the ground pin (top) was sloppy and would intermittantly lose contact. I squeezed the rubber adapter with a pair of pliers and made the connection tight. Now the shock and the open ground issue is solved.



John