Help...Shock when touching the door??!!

[al_in_cedar]

ok... just picked up this nice 1988 15.5 Sunline... everything going good, cleaning it up an such... well, had it plugged into the house and after a little while we noticed that when we touch the metal; in particular, the door handle we get shocked...

What the heck??!!!

Ive been running the air conditioner, but other than that nothing else..

Oh, I also started the microwave today and it ran for about 5 seconds and it quit as if I blew a fuse or something. I checked the electrical box and the circuits were not tripped.


any ideas??? I've not a clue...

UPDATE: I turned off the air conditioner and the camper was no longer "hot" as in electrified... I plugged something into an outlet and the outlets have no juice... The circuit breakers are not broke and the fuse box has good fuses... ugh
thanks

[Gene]

Originally Posted by al_in_cedar

.... well, had it plugged into the house and after a little while we noticed that when we touch the metal; in particular, the door handle we get shocked...

Was that while standing on the ground outside? If so, you are missing the ground wire in your house outlet or extension cord. To be extra safe get one of those little test lights that plugs into a 3 wire socket (Ground Fault Recepticle Tester)

Originally Posted by al_in_cedar

.... I plugged something into an outlet and the outlets have no juice... The circuit breakers are not broke and the fuse box has good fuses..

Check the GFI. I have one in the bathroom and when it tripps the outside outlet doesn't work!

[al_in_cedar]

thanks you were absolutely right.. the ground prong on the extension cord that was plugged into the house was missing!! Then, I found a GFI outlet that was tripped..

everything works including the microwave!!!

thank you, Gene..

[DianeScraps]

We've run into the GFI tripped issue already - hubby found it at about 6am one day and we all got (not so pleasantly) woken up while he tried to figure out why our other outlets weren't working. One he found that tripped GFI we were good.

[Ted-Thompson]

You may have found something serious by accident... If all is normal, no current should be on the ground (IE skin) of the camper. Having the ground prong in place may be simply dragging the current that shocked you down to "0" but there will still be somewhere that the current is coming from that's at fault. Example might be a faulty motor in the AC, but just about any appliance can do it.

There is such a thing as a plug in GFI, I bet if you put one between the extension and the outlet in your house it will trip... Ignoring this could potentially get someone hurt or cause a fire.

[nasa42a]

AL.....
I'm with Ted on this one. I recommend you get a competent electrician to find the source of your (now temporarily hidden) symptom....and solve it. Electrical problems remind me of diseases.....just because some symptoms are made less obvious doesn't make them less dangerous.

Frank

[Gene]

I have seen this numerous times in my 40++ years in electronics. The simple explaination is that in any 3 wire power cord there is capacitive coupling from the hot wire to the floating (ungrounded) ground wire. The amount of current is small but, as Al found out, noticeable. That is the reason for the ground wire which must ALWAYS be seperate from the neutral wire.

Now, a simple test to see if there is dangerous leakage anywhere from the hot to the ground, take a small 110 volt light like a 7 watt nightlight and connect one side to the frame and one side to an earth ground. A dangerous amount of leakage will cause a low current light to glow or get to full brightness. (7 watt light = .063 amps)

[Honda03842]

I don't know that this is the source of your problem however in old trailers particularly, the ground connection to the frame has failed.

My trailer is a little older than yours but I suspect you may have similar problems. In my 1982 15.5 Sunline there are three connections to ground.

The first is at the Inverter at the rear of the trailer under the gaucho couch and connects the case of the inverter to the frame. An aluminum wire leads from the case to the frame. You can follow the aluminum wire to the frame.

The second is at the Breaker Box and is behind the black tank. It connects the ground bus bar of the breaker box to the frame. The ground bas bar is where the green wires, neutral white wires and the safety uninsulated copper wires all come together. An aluminum wire leadds from this bus bar to the frame. This is probably the most important connection to the frame. The aluminum wire comes out the bottom of the breaker box and is easy to follow to the frame.

The third connects the batttery;s negative terminal to the frame and is located under the driver's side dinette where it connects to a little bus bar. I believe a white wire leads from the negative terminal to the frame or it may simply lead to the negative side of the Inverter..

The connections to the frame are the weak point. These connections are made via a bolt that runs thru the floor and than thru a frame member. Over time the bolt rusts and the wood collapses, loosening the connection and certainly making a bad connection. I generally replaced mine with stainless bolts and nuts and eliminate the wood as part of the stack (wood changes with time.)

As well I loosen and retighten all connections in the breaker box to insure they are good connections. I find they loosen over time. BE SURE TO DISCONNECDT THE POWER PLUG BEFORE DOING THIS.

I hope this helps though.

[264SRinPA]

As Gene recommended get a circuit tester and test the receptacle that you had the trailer plugged into. You already said there wasn't a ground prong on the cord. That is more of a safety device and probably not the under lying problem. The 2 main problems could be the receptacle is wired in reverse polarity or there is a short in the trailer wiring. Even missing the ground prong you shouldn't be getting a shock.

[Honda03842]

The only way you can get shocked by the frame is if the frames not at ground level.

There are two paths to ground for the frame. One is thru the neutral white wire in your power cord and the other is thru the green wire or bare uninsulated copper wire in your power cord. This provides two paths to ground thru your power cord.

The three prong power cord provides two connections to ground. You can only get a shock with a three prong plug if the frame is not connected to ground at the trailer.

I believe there are at least two possibly three ground connections to the frame. I suspect, unless they've been replaced, all are in poor condition in a trailer built in 1988.

They are a little hard to get to but easy to fix when you get to them.

Actually if you can't get to their mounting point on the frame you could run a new wire to any point on the frame in parallel with the old wire.

[jbstrailer]

Hi all, new here. I have a 97 Sunline. I'm experiencing the same shocking troubles.
It happened when i turned the fridge on to AC. When I unplug the fridge it no longer happens. What should I be looking for? Is it something to do with the element?

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by jbstrailer

Hi all, new here. I have a 97 Sunline. I'm experiencing the same shocking troubles

Originally Posted by jbstrailer

It happened when i turned the fridge on to AC. When I unplug the fridge it no longer happens. What should I be looking for? Is it something to do with the element?

Hi Jbstrailer

First off welcome to Sunline Oweners club. Glad you found us and glad to have you with us. Out of curiosity what model is your 97 Sunline? While it may not be part of the issue at hand it gives us more info that may be unique to that model.

Now to your issue. See this post it may help

Shocking

However tell us more about your problem as you may have 2 problems at the same time in this case.

When you say you get a shock, what are you touching that is giving you a shock?

Are you plugged in at home or at a campground when this happens or does it happen both places?

It sounds like this is occurring when you put the fridge on AC. The only AC thing on the fridge is the 120VAC heating element. There may be a problem in the element or the wiring to it. However you may also not have a good AC ground in your system which is a second problem.

Are you electrically friendly and have a volt/ohm meter and know how to use one? If not do you have one of the plug in circuit testers as shown above and in the post I linked you too?

You may not have a good ground at the source you are plugged into. That is 1st to check.

Then check the plug back in the fridge compartment for ground and or AC neutral being the correct polarity. My 2004 has a receptacle right in the fridge compartment. I do not know if you 97 does but if not then check a wall receptacle in the camper.

Do you have a GFI receptacle in your bath room? And does it work?

Hope this helps. Give us some more info and we can help more.

Thanks

John

[jbstrailer]

Hi John,
Thanks for the detailed response. I've had my Sunline for about 7 years now. A 1997 Saturn. No real problems other than the odd plastic component breaking down. and a blown fuse in the microwave. It's been good.
This shocking thing is a recent development. I read those other posts earlier. Checked all the grounds at the frame cleaning them up and making sure there was good contact.
I swapped out the electrical cord i was using with another but that did not help.
Finally I used yet another cord, a new one I had just bought and used a different plug. Guess what , no shock.

Still I'm not sure whats going on with the fridge and can not see where it is grounded. I'm thinking it should be grounded to the propane line , close by the fridge. Unplugging the fridge at the receptacle eliminates the shock. So I don't think it is the receptacle but the fridge itself. Might have to pull it out to see whats going on.
The shock is gone now that I changed the cord. It's in the driveway right now and i won't have time to pull the fridge before we leave to go camping. Hopefully the cord was the only thing the matter.
My brother in-law is the mechanic / electrical guru so hopefully he comes for a visit and checks things out.

By the way this is a great site.

[Steve Collins]

There are two versions of this tester. The red one shown above is for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter outlets only. The black button on it is to test the GFCI function.

The other version is yellow and does not have the button. It is for testing regular, non-GFCI outlets.


I think these two little items belong in everyone's TT. When we stay in a campground with hookups, I first use the appropriate tester to make sure the campgrounds outlet is properly wired. After I plug in the trailer, I then use the testers to check several outlets in the trailer. Under normal circumstances, proper readings on these testers will avoid most potential shock issues. (I also grab my multimeter and check voltage before plugging into the campground's power.)

They're available in the electric aisle of Home Depot, Lowes, etc. and are very reasonably priced. Lowe's currently lists the red GFCI tester for $7.67 and the yellow one for $3.98. An inexpensive multimeter can be purchased for less than $20.

I suggest that testing your power outlet first and then the camper are the first things that should be done when a "shocking" problem arises.