Short in the frame

[Saber-MOC]

Hi, anybody ever had the frame become charged? I was lowering the front landing gear and when I touched it I got shocked pretty strong. The trailer was plugged in .
Any idea where to start looking for the short? Thanks

 

[BB_TX]

Called “hot skin” caused by bad green wire safety ground connection. Actually an open, not a short. Need to find where the connection is missing. Could be bad power cord, bad connection where your cord plugs into the trailer, bad ground connection in the pedastal, bad connection to your frame, etc. Just a matter of checking all possibilities until you find it. But it does need to be corrected since it presents a shock hazard.

 

[bobbecky]

This is another case for a hardwired EMS. We arrived in a park some years ago and were setting up, had the shore cord plugged in and the pedestal breaker turned on. Was informed that power was not getting inside the rig. I turned off power, unplugged the 50 amp cord from both ends and everything looked good. I even installed the 30 to 50 amp dogbone to plug into the 30 amp outlet on the pedestal. Finally had the park's maintenance guy come over and he got into the pedestal and all the grounds and neutral was where they were supposed to be. When I removed the dogbone from the shore cord, the reason for the problem was obvious, the ground prong on the 50 amp plug stayed in the dogbone, so it was broken inside the molded 50 amp plug, and the EMS would not turn power on without the ground working, preventing a dangerous hot skin condition. A portable EMS plugged in at the pedestal would not have seen this issue because they only look at the source power.

 

[Saber-MOC]

Thank you, I’ll start with the green GRN.s. Yes the shock is real, lol.

 

[foldbak]

This at the bare minimum. It will prevent AC passing from the pedestal to the trailer if there is a fault.

 

[Saber-MOC]

I’m going to buy one of them tomorrow, thank you.

 

[JJ76]

I also get the odd shock when working under trailer. Believe it is on the 12v side though. When it first happened, I unplugged 120v cord and was still doing it. Also tried it with solar, 12v and inverter disconnects off but didn’t make it any better

 

[Saber-MOC]

Thank you will give that a try when I get back south. I’m at my place in Alaska right now, great weather.

 

[PRNDL3]

I had a melted neutral wire on my 120V plug where I plugged in the trailer at the house. Did the same thing. I would start at the source i.e. where you plug in for power.

 

[Daryles]

Excellent article
Hot Skin troubleshooting

https://rvelectricity.substack.com/p/hot-skin-voltage-troubleshooting