Getting electrocuted

**Marineco** · 04-04-2021, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by jkwilson

Your EMS should have detected a missing ground, and the GFCI on the outlet should have tripped if the frame was energized.

Yes I'm a bit disappointed the Watchdog didn't fault. I did have a tripped breaker, and one that was completely off. I didn't check the GFCI outlets yet. I think I may have knocked the breakers removing the panel though, because I've been using that cord the whole time. Replacing it definitely made the hot skin go away.

On a separate note, I actually had 2 breakers off. But one is labeled 3rd AC, which I don't have installed. Probably nothing running off that anyway, right?

**AZMike** · 04-04-2021, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Marineco

Found it. It was a bad extension cord. The ground wire broke.

Wow. It appears that your EMS is not doing it's job.

**Roll With The Changes** · 04-10-2021, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by traveldawg

I found what I was looking for ....

An EMS won't find a Bootleg Ground. You need the non-contact tester for that.

Here is an explanation of that....
@xrated had good insight and advice too..... check the outlet you are plugging your shore power cord into as a starting point.

Reverse bootleg ground is a new one for me. Excellent article, as are all of his...

Thanks for sharing that one!

**AZMike** · 04-10-2021, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by traveldawg

I found what I was looking for ....

An EMS won't find a Bootleg Ground. You need the non-contact tester for that.

Here is an explanation of that....
@xrated had good insight and advice too..... check the outlet you are plugging your shore power cord into as a starting point.

Excellent article! I learned a lot. Thanks, Larry!

**1phatboy** · 04-11-2021, 10:11 AM

Hello, we have a 21g, 2019, and had the same thing happen. It actually tripped the ground fault interrupter in the bathroom. That rendered all of the outlets powerless. Got a good tickle from the frame of one of the cubbies. Grand design found nothing wrong. It only happened once. I was told also to check to make sure of proper ground placement. Is this an issue with generator equipped only trailers?

**traveldawg** · 04-12-2021, 08:38 PM

In generator equipped rigs (the ones with factory installed generators) the ground and neutral are bonded when the transfer switch getting power from the generator.

i think somewhere on this site some folks found that GD failed to bond them. At least I think that was what was wrong on some rigs.

On shore power the bonding of neutral and ground is done at shore power side of things (not in the transfer switch).

If you only got a tingle one time and it was at once pace and GD couldn't find anything wrong, it could have been on the shore power end of things. And that is why you should use a non-contact voltage tester each time you connect to shore power - whether you have and EMS or not.

**1phatboy** · 04-13-2021, 07:45 AM

Thanks Larry, going out to purchase tester. Its so easy to not check the ems, just plug in and walk away. I won't be doing that anymore, newbie mistake.