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Old 06-28-2010, 03:30 PM   #1
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Shocking

Didn't see a post on this so any ideas will help. We have our Sunny in a campground and it was ok at first then one day Penny opened the trailer door and got shocked. She was wet from swimming. I thought she was kidding so I touched the trailer after coming back from swimming and POW it got me too. Question is why is this happening and how do we stop it? Any ideas on this?
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Old 06-28-2010, 03:33 PM   #2
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My first reaction...
Check your grounds.
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Old 06-28-2010, 03:36 PM   #3
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Would love to but where and how electricity is not my best subject
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Old 06-28-2010, 04:08 PM   #4
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Buy a simple plug-in tester at any home improvement store. The yellow one is for regular 110 vac outlets. The red one is for GFCI outlets. (I carry both.) Plug it into the campground's power post (use a RV adapter if necessary.) The combination of lights on the the tester will tell you if there is a problem or not. The codes are printed right on the body of the tester.

If there is a problem, do NOT plug in the TT until the campground has fixed the problem. I must emphasize that there is the possibility of a severe electric shock if you plug into a mis-wired outlet, especially at this time of year when the ground may be wet from rain and the people wet from the pool.

If the power post is OK, then the problem is in your trailer somewhere. If you are not comfortable working with electricity, have an electrician or RV tech check it out. Bad ground is usually the cause of this, but without a full inspection, it isn't easy to diagnose remotely.
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Old 06-28-2010, 04:09 PM   #5
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Have the campground check their recepticle, it could have reversed polarity, bad ground, no ground, etc. Also, there are simple circuit checkers that plug into a regular 110 v outlet, also. There are pictures of them on this site, Sorry, I don't have time to find right now, will be back tomorrow, if someone doesn't post it first. (Steve already posted before I submitted!! ;o)
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Old 06-28-2010, 10:12 PM   #6
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Hi Dan and Deb

This is not good and is the sign of something more seriously not right. The yellow polarity tester Steve showed will tell a lot, but this needs to get corrected.

Either the campground has a wiring issue in the power post, or you have an issue inside the camper itself. If you are getting shocked it means the trailer metal has live voltage touching it and it is finding “you” as a better ground then the electrical system.

If you are not electrically handy, tell the camp ground host of the issue and request they come and check there power post leading to your camper. They can also check the camper fairly quickly while that are at it.

Good luck and hope this helps

John

PS: the reason damp skin get shocked and dry does not as quickly is the damp skin conducts better then the dry skin which insulates to somewhat of an extent.
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Old 06-29-2010, 02:31 PM   #7
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Thanks everyone much appreciated will be picking up a tester and heading to the camper this weekend I sure hope it's something simple I'll post next week to let yinz know what I found out
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Old 06-29-2010, 08:59 PM   #8
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There's another post about someone being shocked, by their entry door. Perhaps you could find some useful info HERE
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Old 07-06-2010, 12:55 PM   #9
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Well we know where the problem lies! Plugged the tester into a socket and it reads open ground. So i shut off the breaker to the A/C and the tester change to read correct. So with the temp being in the mid 90's we melted for a couple of days but at least we were safe. Now to figure out whats up with the A/C. Thanks All Dan
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Old 07-06-2010, 06:16 PM   #10
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Something about that just doesn't sound right. Turning of the breaker for the Air should not affect the ground for the entire unit. I have been troubleshooting electrical and electronic stuff for 40 years and I am just scratching my head on that.

I am assuming this is a standard 30 amp service with the 3 prong plug.

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Old 07-06-2010, 08:32 PM   #11
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yes this is a standard 30 amp service I haven't a clue as to why it worked that way. Any electricians with answers.
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Old 07-06-2010, 10:15 PM   #12
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Hi Dan

Something is not adding up right.

First let's fill on some missing info.

Was the AC unit running when you first "tested" the system?

If you turned the AC unit off with the T stat did the tester show OK? Don't try it, just asking.

Where exactly did you plug the tester in? In the power post at the Campground or inside the trailer?

Does your camper have a “metal” roof?

If the AC unit when it is operating is "feeding" the side of the camper with volts due to an internal problem, then the ground that is connected to the side of the camper is not a good ground or it should of tripped the breaker as a direct short or made a bunch of sparks in the AC unit. Bascially looking at this in a simple format, the person who was shocked was a better connection to earth ground then the wiring in place on the TT.

At this point an ohm meter needs to be used to sort out what is a true ground and what is floating. The plug in tester is somehow getting tricked. It is looking for a potential hooked up or not hooked up in certain combinations. We do not have enough info to sort this out just yet.

If you have access to an ohm meter and someone who knows how use one this can be sorted out. Sunline, at least on mine, subscribed to single point grounding and AC common and earth ground should not be tied together inside the camper. It should only be common back in the main power distribution panel supplying all the power posts. Basically the camper is one big appliance, like an electric drill, a toaster oven or portable room air conditioner.

You may be suffering from 2 issues. 1. The roof AC unit has a problem inside it that is sharing voltage with the side of your camper. Turning the 120 VAC off to the air conditioner will stop that. However, the other is you may not have a good ground to the side of the camper. The connection may be corroded, not hard to end up with, and as such the next time a device has an internal short the side of the camper may become alive once again.

Hope this helps

John


PS. Do you have a 30 amp plug to 15 amp plug adapter that you can put the circut tester right in the 30 amp receptacle at the CG power post with no camper plugged in? Trying to easliy confirm the CG has a good ground to start with. An ohm meter can sort this out as well, but I do not want to start that typing that method just yet unless you are totally electrically friendly.
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Old 07-07-2010, 03:22 PM   #13
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Hi John, I will try to answer your ?'s to the best of my ability. Yes the a/c was running when I first tested it and the tester read open ground.
a/c does not have a t stat however I turned the knob to shut it off and the tester still read open ground.
I pluged the tester into the cg plug with an 30 amp adapter and it read correct.
I plugged the tester into every socket in the trailer and on the outside with the breaker on and the a/c running or switched off all sockets read open ground.
with the breaker swicthed off all sockets read correct.
The roof has a coating on it so I am not sure if it is metal or not

At some point and I dont know when the tester read hot/neut reverse
and remained that way when the breaker was on.

With the camper in WV and us in PA for the next 2 weeks I have time to learn some more about this problem.
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Old 07-07-2010, 03:34 PM   #14
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Dan,

You mention that your Sunline is in WV, where in WV is it located. You "might" be close to us.

Kitty

I'm thinking you have the metal roof, but without looking in my brochures I'm not positive, but Jon would know or sure. Or, I'll dig out my brochures to look it up.

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Old 07-07-2010, 03:49 PM   #15
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Hi Kitty
We have the Sunline at Camp Copperhead near Middlebourne, Tyler County

And we love your state hope to relocate there in 5 or less years
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Old 07-07-2010, 09:25 PM   #16
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Dan

Thanks. This helps.

Let me do some digging on how those plug in testers are wired inside and put together a few possible ways this might be occuring. This much I know, turning the AC breaker off will kill the power to the AC and may stop the 120VAC leak into the camper. But is will not make or break a ground that is a good one to start with.

I'll be back with some more after I do some digging on that tester. I have a few of them myself I do a quick check at the CG each time I ever plug in.

John
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Old 07-25-2010, 06:47 PM   #17
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Just got back from the Sunline after a nice and fruitful weekend. We were able to find the electrical problem that had been "hair raising" for us. Pulled the inside cover from the A/C then the cover of the electrical connection. There I noticed a small black mark where the blck wire was touching the metal box. The same metal box that the green(ground)was connected to. A little repair and adjustment of the wiring(so that only the ground was near the box) aflip of the breaker and back to normal! The trailer is no longer Shocking and the tester is reading correct when pluged into any socket. Thanks all for your insites and help Dan and Deb
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Old 07-28-2010, 09:19 PM   #18
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Dan

Thanks for reporting back. Glad you found the issue in the AC unit. Something still does not add up in my head at least on why you where getting shocked if the ground in the system was and is good. You did not mention or I missed it about fixing any grounding, only the source of the power touching metal surfaces that where suppose to be grounded. And if the AC unit ground was good it should of bleed the charge off and if the spark was big enough, tripped the AC breaker.

I'm assuming you are using one of those plug in testers. Since you removed the source of applying power into the camper siding the wall receptacle may now be reading they are showing a ground. However the AC unit may have a grounding issue and some how the side of the camper is not establishing a good ground.

I'm going camping this weekend and I will take my meter to see just how good a ground exists in the siding.

If you have a buddy who has an ohm meter and can test the AC unit ground that will confirm that unit is OK ground wise that is.

While you fixed the issue creating the power into the side of the camper, the thing nagging me is, you yourself where a better path to ground then thru the camper wiring ground. It is not suppose to work that way.

I'll report back next week what I find on how good a siding ground actually is.

Thanks

John
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Old 08-13-2010, 11:09 PM   #19
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Hi Dan

I did some checking and learned a few things too. See this post it may help. Your camper frame/siding ground connection still may be corroded even though you stopped the AC from shorting to the camper siding. The siding still may not have a good ground on it. You just removed the live wire feeding the siding
http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...html#post89229


Hope this helps

John
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Old 08-14-2010, 05:43 AM   #20
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Wow John, very informative. I am going to print that post out and go step by step to check the ground of my TT. Even though it's not SHOCKING us now I'll sleep better once I know for sure Thank You John
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