HR is electrocuting people.. Not good..

fasteddie313 · August 02, 2016, 09:51 PM

So I left for a while and came back, battery is flat in the HR..

Plug it in and now all of a sudden if your standing on the ground with bare feet and touch the camper anywhere it shocks you.. AC...

Shut off all the breakers and it still does it..

What do I do now?

Elandan2 · August 03, 2016, 08:33 AM

With all the breakers off, the leak to the body can only be coming from the service line coming into the unit. I would start by checking the connections at the panel and the connection on the sidewall (if your cord is removable.). There must be a wire making contact with the ground wire or the motorhome body itself.

Rickf1985 · August 03, 2016, 09:57 AM

OR, Your ground wire from the motor home to the service panel is broken or disconnected. Or the ground AT the service panel on the pole or your house is not connected. I would check that first before chasing things in the coach.

NOTE, THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION. CHECK IT OUT WITH A METER BEFORE PLUGGING BACK IN!!!

With an Ohm meter check from the ground terminal on your power cord to the pole to the skin of the camper and you should show continuity. If you do then the ground in the coach is good if not then there is a ground issue and it is probably in the wire or the box it is attached to. If you do show a goos reading then check the outlet at the house to be sure the ground is good there.

fasteddie313 · August 03, 2016, 11:37 AM

Quote from: Rickf1985 on August 03, 2016, 09:57 AM
OR, Your ground wire from the motor home to the service panel is broken or disconnected. Or the ground AT the service panel on the pole or your house is not connected. I would check that first before chasing things in the coach.

NOTE, THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION. CHECK IT OUT WITH A METER BEFORE PLUGGING BACK IN!!!

With an Ohm meter check from the ground terminal on your power cord to the pole to the skin of the camper and you should show continuity. If you do then the ground in the coach is good if not then there is a ground issue and it is probably in the wire or the box it is attached to. If you do show a goos reading then check the outlet at the house to be sure the ground is good there.

There is no ground...

Would using a ground fix this or just make me blow a breaker?

fasteddie313 · August 03, 2016, 11:41 AM

Quote from: Elandan2 on August 03, 2016, 08:33 AM
With all the breakers off, the leak to the body can only be coming from the service line coming into the unit. I would start by checking the connections at the panel and the connection on the sidewall (if your cord is removable.). There must be a wire making contact with the ground wire or the motorhome body itself.

So check continuity from black 110 hot to chassis ground.. Pretty much something in between the plug of my MH power cord and the breaker panel..

Elandan2 · August 03, 2016, 05:43 PM

There is no ground pin on your plug??? The coach has to have a ground. If that is the case, you will have to fix that first. Then as Rick said, check it with a VOM first. You certainly don't want to play around with your AC service. Rick

TerryH · August 03, 2016, 07:27 PM

you may find some informative reading here. Takes a bit of navigation, but if you take the time, a fair amount of understandable and followable info.

http://www.myrv.us/electric/

Rickf1985 · August 04, 2016, 10:35 AM

Please do not take this wrong or as an insult but if you do not understand how the electrical works you really should have an electrician look it over for you. There are three wires in the cord to the house, Black, white and green. Green is the ground, white is the neutral and black is the hot. These all need to be hooked up correctly at both ends to their respective connections for safe operation. I suspect that the green wire is not connected either in the house, (it will be a bare wire in there) or in the camper. This is not something you do by trial and error because one of those shocks could easily kill you!

By the way, the shock you are feeling is due to a short in the RV grounding through you to ground, it should be going through the ground wire to the ground in the house. So there is also another problem to deal with in the RV and that is what is leaking electricity into the grounding circuit. Once you reestablish the ground the problem may well blow a breaker.

fasteddie313 · August 04, 2016, 11:40 AM

My secondary extension cord has the ground pin ripped off of it on its male end, pretty simple and hardly uncommon..

Somehow I seem to have a magic pixie leak from the black hot wire (where all the pixies are partying) and my chassis (where no AC pixies should be).. This pixie leak must be on the black wire somewhere between the breaker panel and where the RV umbilical cord hard wires in because the pixies don't stop leaking over with the breakers shut off..

TBH I'm more comfortable with DC but this seems like a pretty simple AC proposition..

BTW I've been making pretty good headway on this Rambler, all new fuel lines to the engine and genny including dropping the tank, converted to electric choke, made an intake heat tube block off plate, all new carb gaskets, runs like a champ, cleaned genny carb and FP - runs like a champ and powers nicely, fixed all DC power draws on both sides, rewired my hydraulic leveling jacks and use them, fixed more gizmo's than you can shake a stick at and have more yet to figure out..

MH is pretty much storage for everything out of my houses kitchen right now because its getting new drywall and all cabinets/counter right now, walls and cabinets installed already. And I have the head off of my car right now for a top end refresh, ARP head studs, and stand alone engine management.

Theirs some wiring for ya..

So yeah the HR fixin has been on the back burner for a bit.. Its been in service as a guest house and active kitchen storage recently so I'm getting my use out of it and am glad I have it. It's not going anywhere..

Gotta tinker with this darn power though because I need it..

Rickf1985 · August 04, 2016, 12:59 PM

Let's see, a bower belt and idler pulley for a smaller Roots type blower, A head stud kit probably for the engine that blower is going on, a ECM and wiring, ditto and a line lock. Looks like someone is going to have fast fun.

I don't know what you panel looks like but another possibility is feedback through the neutral wire from something. How about the converter?

circleD · September 15, 2016, 01:54 PM

Or it could be the famous rat chewing on the wire or a worn spot in the rear bumper. From years of movement they tend to wear thin.

EldoradoBill · September 15, 2016, 10:07 PM

Or you could have this resting above your exhaust system...