Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

phoenixbound wrote:I am betting this has already been covered and that there are some folks on the forum that know way more about electricity and wiring than I do, but I will bring this up anyway. I am getting a concrete pad added to my my driveway specifically for the CTC (whoop, whoop!). To make things easier I decided that it would be good to have an outside outlet to plug the CTC in while it is in the home port to work on it or whatever. And it should be a GFI, right? Got it all installed with the new GFI plu and plugged it in for the first time, it tripped the GFI and wouldn’t work at all. Did a little internet research and it turns out GFI’s don’t work well with RV’s. Not saying it can’t be done, but generally they don’t work. That’s why you don’t see them in the RV Parks. So, going to put a standard outlet in the outside outlet. I have it totally covered from the elements so it will be okay. Lesson learned, again.

phoenixbound wrote: So, going to put a standard outlet in the outside outlet. I have it totally covered from the elements so it will be okay. Lesson learned, again.

hankaye wrote:phoenixbound, Howdy;

There is another thing you and everyone here that is doing their own wiring should be
aware of and that is called a ' Hot Skin Condition '. Here's an article by a true electrical
' expert '. http://noshockzone.org/rv-electrical-sa ... -hot-skin/
Worth a read.

hank

flboy wrote:... Stepping out of the RV onto damp grass in bare feet with one hand on the door knob is all it takes if there is a sizeable voltage potential on the chassis to Earth Ground. You should never even feel a tingle....

• Not the same thing as the Hot Skin problem, nor was it life-threatening, but it reminded me of it....
• When my youngest brother was living outside Beeville, Tx., while stationed at the Naval Air Station there in the mid-1980's, he resided in a broken-down single-wide trailer, that had been used as a rental for 15 years or more. Everything was rusting, including the front metal steps/porch, and falling apart, so when I visited him in late '85, I figured I'd help him make it a little better & safer. After sealing several windows, re-plumbing the leaking propane lines, and replacing fencing around his "chicken yard", I addressed the shaky, about-to-collapse front steps/porch. I removed the thick rubber mat on top, slick with a S.Texas mist, sat on the step below, and reached into my metal toolbox...and got shocked. I promptly jumped off and looked for a live wire somewhere, but found none. I tied a couple of ropes around it, and dragged it away from the house with my truck, uncovering the culprit: a phone line, pinched & pierced by the bottom step/leg.
• It turned out that my brother had an extension line run around the back from the pole, but didn't take care to make sure it didn't snag the nearby front steps. And he wondered why his two raw-boned hounds, who he had named "Yowie, and Capt. Wow, had made the sounds he had named them for, when going in-out of the front door. Everytime they'd jump onto the porch, they'd rock it against the aluminum skin of the trailer, and not being insulated by the rubber mat placed to the side, would get shocked. My brother never felt the shock, even when bare-footed, as he always paused and wiped his feet on the rubber mat when entering, and didn't rock the steps into the house like the 90-lb dogs did.
• Phone landlines carry up to 90 volts, but few amps, compared to household or RV wiring. Back in the day, my grandmother warned us not to use the phone during a T-storm, as she had been shocked that way. I did, too, but I'm not so sure it was from the T-storm outside, or from the thick wool rugs combined with the dry floor-furnace heat of her house (perfect for static-electric shocks!). Anyway, I do check grounding at every campsite, use both GFCI testers & plugs/receptacles, and surge suppressors, too. After nearly being electrocuted by bad electricians at work, and through my failure to check their work, I am now very cautious around ac current (12vdc, not so much).

phoenixbound wrote:All good now. Bought a GFI tester from Amazon, read up a little more and figured out I had the wires hooked up on the Load side of the outlet. Moved the wires to where they should be and it's working perfectly now. Passes the GFI test and I can hook the CTC to it without any problems. Learning more all the time, even at my advanced age.