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Old 06-23-2013, 10:39 PM   #1
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Shocking problem!

I was hooking my 314 bds up Friday to leave and kept getting shocked. I had already plugged into truck and realized I was still plugged into extension cord. I thought that was the issue. Got home today and unhooked from from truck and plugged in extension cord. Getting shocked on steps, screws on the door, most anything in hitch area. Seems like any metal on exterior. LooKing for suggestions. Thanks.
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Old 06-24-2013, 12:03 AM   #2
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I had a similar thing happen with our Prowler travel trailer. It seems the old garage had been wired by an amateur and the plugins were all wired backwards. It burned out our mother board in the refrigerator. If it is happening with different sites (plugins) the problem could be a loose wire in your trailer fuse box.
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Old 06-24-2013, 12:50 AM   #3
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Sounds like a short to ground. Get a electrician to check it out.
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Old 06-24-2013, 04:07 AM   #4
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The only ground your trailer gets is from the connection to the garage. You must be plugged into a good working 15A/20A Garage connection. I always check my receptacle with a circuit tester from LOWES/WALMART... The bottom two lights combination "ON" will indicate if the receptacle is operating correctly... Looks like this

Try plugging into another receptacle in the garage. Also check your adapter and make sure the large pin has not been snipped off. Must have three wire connections going to the garage.

I always use a 10-gauge (10-3) HD contractor type "yellow" 50-foot extension cord coming from the garage. I have used a 12 gauge (12-3) without any problems as well. You will not have any luck using the small size 14-16 gauge "Red Orange" extension cords you find a WALMART-LOWES... They are too small to carry your trailer...

Also if you are using the small round RV30A-15A adapters - throw them away and get a RV30A-15A DOGBONE STYPE long adapter from WALMART. Looks similar to this


I never have any luck using these kinds of small round adapters...
[ATTACH][/ATTACH] [ATTACH][/ATTACH]

These small adapters will get hot on you and may burn up your shore power cable plugged into them


just my thoughts
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Old 06-24-2013, 05:13 PM   #5
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Make sure you don't have a defective 110vac appliance (that includes fans, chargers, etc...) plugged into one of the inside receptacles. Even at that if you have a proper ground on your trailer plug you shouldn't feel it so that needs checked as well.
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Old 06-24-2013, 06:38 PM   #6
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I still think he has a short to ground which can be dangerous and should get a electrician to fix this.
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Old 06-25-2013, 10:01 AM   #7
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I agree with Richard. If Merrellroofing isn't comfortable or knowledgeable enough in RV electrical, get someone who is to trace the electrical- if it was an appliance, a breaker more than likely would have tripped. My guess is a bare wire touching ground (any metal surface of coach)
With your shore power unplugged and just for extra precaution, your DC side shut off, start with cord going into unit and see if any part of cord is damaged or exposed to trailer. Also go from battery and work back to camper.
If all of a sudden your having an issue, I would suspect wiring that nay have rubbed thru to bare wire.
I found short to ground on brother's trailer where wire from battery was rubbed open from propane tank cover. It caused light issues and converter issues. Tgat was obviously a DC short , but yours can be doing it on AC side
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Old 06-25-2013, 10:33 AM   #8
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He does not have a short to ground. If he did it would pop breakers. The problem is a missing ground circuit. We had that happen on a 30A extension cord I bought and had out old hybrid plugged in with it. Our kids kept saying they were getting a tingle stepping into the camper. I grabbed my meter and found voltage (I forget how much maybe 5 or 10 volts AC) between any metal parts and the earth ground. I repaired the extension cord female plug end and no more issues.

If you can't fix the issue due to lack of knowledge or skill, here is a quick temporary solution. Grab a piece of round stock metal about a foot or 2 long, drive it into the ground near where the battery is on the camper and connect the black leads of a set of jumper cables from the battery NEG to the round stock. This will ground the camper and send any errant voltage through there rather than fingers.
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Old 06-25-2013, 03:55 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LiftedAWDAstro View Post
He does not have a short to ground. If he did it would pop breakers. The problem is a missing ground circuit. We had that happen on a 30A extension cord I bought and had out old hybrid plugged in with it. Our kids kept saying they were getting a tingle stepping into the camper. I grabbed my meter and found voltage (I forget how much maybe 5 or 10 volts AC) between any metal parts and the earth ground. I repaired the extension cord female plug end and no more issues.

If you can't fix the issue due to lack of knowledge or skill, here is a quick temporary solution. Grab a piece of round stock metal about a foot or 2 long, drive it into the ground near where the battery is on the camper and connect the black leads of a set of jumper cables from the battery NEG to the round stock. This will ground the camper and send any errant voltage through there rather than fingers.
This.

I had it happen to me. The shore cord 50-15a adapter was missing the ground prong. This caused the chassis of the motorhome to be at a different potential than the earth. Once I bought a new adapter with the ground prong the shocking issues went away.
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Old 06-26-2013, 06:42 AM   #10
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He does not have a short to ground. If he did it would pop breakers. The problem is a missing ground circuit.
BINGO!!

This happened to me as well. Hauled the 5'er back to the family farm in Ohio and was planning on just hooking up water/electric out by the barn. Hooked up --- everything seemed fine --- until I got zapped by the steps. (NOTE - I had not yet completed my mod of wiring in my Progressive Industries EMS system).

Check the outlet with a tester and it indicated missing ground.
Checked the wiring in the barn... sure enough... no ground. Here's a barn/workshop that had been standing since the '50s - running air compressors - etc .... no ground.

Quick trip to Lowe's - picked up a 10ft grounding rod and some wire... problem solved.

100% == you're missing the ground connection.
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Old 06-26-2013, 11:44 PM   #11
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Well it sounds like I was wrong. Sorry if I misled anyone here. That was not my intention. Just glad to here that it was not as serious as I thought it might have been. I had gone to a local trailer show and they happened to have a expert speaking to an audience on the dangers of this condition. (trailer giving you a shock) I was looking at a jayco trailer which was close to his area and could overhear what he was telling the audience. Thanks for clarifying this for us.
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Old 06-27-2013, 06:05 AM   #12
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"Short" is a commonly used term to describe almost every electrical problem, mostly by people who are unfamiliar with electrical wiring and troubleshooting. Shorts cause arcs, sparks, and trip fuses and breakers. Opens" created a difference of potential that causes current to flow when something like a hand or body is placed across it such as standing in water and touching an ungrounded frame.

We have to assume the OP's trailer is correctly wired because he did not indicate a problem when hooked up at a campground. So, the trailer and shore power cord can be eliminated. The problem is an open ground somewhere. If the problem occurs when he plugs into his garage outlet, that leaves two possibilities. One is a misfired outlet or if it's an older structure, it was common practice to not use safety grounds at all. Fortunately, current electrical codes have fixed eliminated that practice. If the outlet checks out OK, then the next likely cause would be any adapter that is used to between the trailer and the outlet. Those have been known to fail and create shock hazards. It's also possible that if the trailer is at fault, the OP may or may not have experienced it at a campground unless conditions were just right, and if everything else checks OK, the it's possible that ground and neutral may be tied together somewhere in the trailer or a ground wire has come loose at the power distribution panel. At any rate, a ground has been lost somewhere.
I recommend that anyone not familiar with electricity get a qualified person to check all of this stuff out. Electricity is serious stuff and not for amateurs. The lives of you and your family are at stake.
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