Getting electrocuted

Marineco

New Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2021
Posts
4
Hi all.
So a few weeks ago I got a 2021 350G. I'll get that in a signature later.

Yesterday I was working on installing my E-Track in the garage. I'm using nuts and bolts. So at first I was sitting on the rear stairs, putting the nuts on the underside. I felt a few times like I got stabbed or bit in my arm that was resting on the top stair, but there was some dirt and drill shavings there, so I didn't think about it too much.

I moved to the next section, which was laying on the ground to the rear of the stairs. As I reached up my arm touched the metal skirt panel that comes down below the frame. More stabbing. I finally figured out at this point I was getting electrocuted. (very mild, I'm fine)

I unplugged the shore power, and no more shock. I take this to mean it's not a 12v source, and must have a short to the frame somewhere in the 120 system. I did a couple tests to see if I could find it, but didn't really point me anywhere. The first test was checking continuity between each breaker and chassis ground. No tone. I didn't check actual resistance because I wasn't sure what range to try. The next test I did was to stick my ground probe into the dirt, and check for AC voltage. Sure enough, about 16v off the stairs and that skirt. I didn't check any other locations. The next test, I flipped each breaker one at a time, with the mains being the last. Each one brought the 16v down a volt or 2, but no single one cut it entirely. I think we still had 8v with the main breaker off.

I'm not really sure where to go from here. I feel like it could be something before the breaker box, but if that's the case why did it step down with each one turned off? I know I could have an issue anywhere, but is there anywhere more likely than another place?

Thanks,
Brian
 
I would next look carefully at your shore power source. The fact that you're getting voltage to earth would indicate that the issue is happening before the RV (I think). Anyway, I would check for grounding, neutral, ground fault(s), and proper polarity, etc., on your shore power source.

Rob
 
What you have is a "hot skin". Somewhere along the line your neutral and ground are not bonded. Tons of information about this on line, Google, YouTube, etc. And even references on this forum.

Start here.... https://rvelectricity.com/2018/09/24/rvelectricity-what-is-hot-skin-stray-voltage/

Get one of those non-contact voltage testers and use it every time you connect shore power. Even the best EMS devices won't find a hot skin or "reverse dog-bone" ground fault all the time (I think it's called a reverse dog bone - I need to go Google that). That non-contact tester will.

Obviously, fix it fast before you really get hurt or a 'little one' with bare feet starts running around and grabbing bare metal on your rig.
 
Maybe further info will help. I am at home, using a regular wall outlet extension cord, with a dogbone. I did install a permanent EMS. Wondering if I messed up the install.
 
What you have is a "hot skin". Somewhere along the line your neutral and ground are not bonded. Tons of information about this on line, Google, YouTube, etc. And even references on this forum.

Start here.... https://rvelectricity.com/2018/09/24/rvelectricity-what-is-hot-skin-stray-voltage/

Get one of those non-contact voltage testers and use it every time you connect shore power. Even the best EMS devices won't find a hot skin or "reverse dog-bone" ground fault all the time (I think it's called a reverse dog bone - I need to go Google that). That non-contact tester will.

Obviously, fix it fast before you really get hurt or a 'little one' with bare feet starts running around and grabbing bare metal on your rig.

And just for clarity.....the Neutral and the Ground connection IN THE TRAILER should NEVER be bonded together. The neutral/ground bonding occurs in the breaker panel of your house....or in the case of an RV park, at the pedestal.....but NEVER in the trailer breaker panel. This would lead me to the wiring from the house breaker panel and the circuit feeding the house recept. and possibly the dogbone and the extension cord and all the way up to the recept. on the side of the trailer where your shore power cord plugs into and then to the transfer switch (if you have an onboard generator...and then double check you installation of the EMS wiring. Make absolutely sure the EMS wires have the ground wire bolted to the inside/metal box of the EMS and not touching anything else.
 
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....
[MENTION=21739]xrated[/MENTION] had good insight and advice too..... check the outlet you are plugging your shore power cord into as a starting point.
 
Unplug your shore power. Go to the converter and do a resistance check between the ground and neutral buss. It should read open. If you measure a resistance you have ground and neutral joined somewhere in the trailer.
One of your best friends here will be a $7 outlet tester from Lowe's. They won't find every type of electrical problem, but they will give you a lot of information.
 
If you are in the yard, away from the house, what you are experiencing is common and even to be expected. It has nothing to do with ground-neutral bonding.

The problem is that the EGC is referenced to the soil at the service entrance to your house, while the soil where the camper is parked is at a different voltage. A very easy way to verify that this is the issue is to first confirm your extension cord and the outlet to which it is connected are wired properly. Measure from hot to neutral, hot to ground and neutral to ground on the extension cord end. You should see about 120, 120 and 0V. If that is good, measure from the ground lug of the cord to the soil under the trailer. You’ll probably see your 16V there.

In short, there is likely no problem with your trailer or your wiring. The problem is that your RV out on the end of an extension cord is essentially another building with a sub panel, and in my opinion needs a grounding electrode at the point where the power is being used.
 
Your EMS should have detected a missing ground, and the GFCI on the outlet should have tripped if the frame was energized.
 
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?
 
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....
[MENTION=21739]xrated[/MENTION] 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!
 
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?
 
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.
 
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.
 

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