I've seen magnetic earths for use with welders instead of a clamp. So thinking along those lines could a magnetic earth be used with one of those tent hook up leads so if the cable is damaged and touches the body work then the rcd will trip?
Bit of food for thought chaps. I'm sure were all aware of fuse or circuit breaker sizes aren't we. Smallest circuit breaker in your van would be , say, 6amps. the hook up is rated at 16 amps. Well 100 milliamps, ie. 0.01 amp is sufficient to kill you in about 2 seconds. a child may be killed at a much lower time or current level. In terms of the bus becoming live if not earthed then should there be a fault on your wiring such as a chafed cable running through your floor and not grommeted or damaged under the bus, or even where the supply cable runs into your engine bay or deterioration of an appliance or your dodgy battery charger, and it doesn't need to be a direct short then the van metalwork effectively becomes part of the live circuit. this isn't earthed due to it sitting on air and rubber and so when you touch it then you make the circuit with your body, you effectively become the live element, because your body has resistance it will create a heating effect as well as having an effect on your nervous system. The effect of current passing through the body often causes muscles to contract so lets say you get hold of the cab door handle, you cant let go, in fact the contraction of the muscles causes you to tighten your grip. You are effectively stuck on there. You don't have control of your muscles. Your heart goes into fribulation and may stop. if the supply isn't disconnected the heating effect will fry you from the inside out. If you survive you may have burns, brain damage..... In respect of magnetic earths then that would be onto bare metal and anything causing resistance such as muck grime and grease would render it ineffective! But what about the RCD - that will protect me! It might do but there are circumstances where it wont, and particularly if it has been abused, left in the damp, sat on a shelf and not been used for months, been rattling around under the seat etc. you should alo bare in mind that the fault may be before the RCD and you are then reliant on the site rcd which is intended to protect the supply cable. Lets hope that one is properly wired, connected.... Im bored now. its just easier to do it properly to be honest than risk yours and other peoples lives isn't it?
Forgot to say a 30 milliamp rcd (0.003 amps) is the standard protection at the supply post and in your bus. At levels below this its unlikely but still possible that you could receive a fatal electric shock but more likely that a child would! As leccys know they don't always trip at their rated value and if they do then often on first testing it takes much longer than it should. so that's another lesson there. even if you have a fully compliant system then check that it trips on a regular basis (ie every time you hook up at least) as the more they are used the quicker they seem to get!
So @Dicky are you saying it's best to have no electric hook up? I've got hook up in the T4 installed before I bought it. In the T2 I've got no leisure battery etc so I do just put cable through the window. I'm a bit of electrics div but reading your post it sounds like even a proper hook up could essentially be dangerous if not installed/working correctly?
Yes if it aint done right Your choice - you have been warned Yes but that's obvious so nothing wrong if installed correctly and maintained appropraitely
When we fitted the hookup to Gusbus, we got our PAT and Electrical Installations guy at work to give the install a once over and check for safety etc. Better safe than sorry!
Yeah, it's a bit of a job if you're not competent with electrics. It's almost impossible to get someone qualified to do a set up in your own van, that' s why I've never done it.
Well said Dicky. I think I read on here that getting electrics to work is easy but making them work safely is a complex skill. I've done my own but only after reading and listening to loads of advise from people I trust. I've done a course on electric cars and 90% of that was on how not to get killed or kill others.
Because eventually you will either pull the plug off the wire or damage cables shutting it in something like the engine hatch or slider. Mine is just forward of the jacking point screwed to the underside of the floor. Crouch down feel under for the connection point and plug in. No need to kneel down. And it charges both batteries so it took 20 seconds this morning when I realised the inverter had been left on to plug in the hookup just outside the garage..
just a point - dickie if your plugged into a hook up you van should be earthed throught the hookup supply RCDs are designed to save lives if they didn,t do that what would be the point of them IT is a fact that regular testing of a RCD keeps it in peak efficiency I regularly test RCDs by shorting out neutral and earth , completely safe BUT not for anybody who hasn,t read "the idiots guide to electricity" Finally you should be completely safe if you purchase something like this http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/mains-socket-tester-wd53h
The test button on the rcd is sufficient to test the unit without having to create a short but an rcd tester is even better but really its a sparkys toy. That said if anyone wants to test theirs i can bring one to techenders. Plug in mains testers are great for ensuring the polarity is correct and that you have an earth. Totes agree with that one. And they arent expensive either! For clarity your hook up does rely on the supply earth for its safe operation however the resistance of the earth can and will vary from site to site. The critical bit of kit for me is the rcd in the van which will, in most cases would still operate if the supply earth is disconnected, however.... it will only operate unfortunately when you create the earth path whereas with a properly earthed van then the leakage is detected when the fault actually occurs. In simple terms an rcd monitors the current coming in and the current returning back to the supply. An imbalance between the two of the magnitude of the rating of the device will cause it to trip (that is a simplified explanation so dont get technical in disproving it). So.... if your van becomes live and its connected to the supply earth then it trips within a specified time which is built into the rcd. If your van isnt earthed to the supply cable earth then it wouldnt trip the rcd would it! What then happens is that you become the earth path when you touch it. Given that the earth path is then through the general mass of earth and not the supply cable it is an unknown value and varies based on all sorts of factors which will limit the amount of current that flows and this may, or may not be ata a level which trips your device quickly enough to limit the shock you recieve. In the first scenario.... no shock experienced as the leakage to earth of the van is detected and supply automatically disconnected In the second scenario the leakage isnt detected until you recieve a shock and ground conditions will be a factor in the magnitude of the shock you recieve So.... whats critical! 1. That you have an appropriately rated rcd 2. That you test it by the test button (you can have this tested by a leccy) 3. That your supply earth is in tact in your mains cable and plugs/inlet and that the metalwork of your van is properly connected to it (plug in tester will indicate this) We havent got onto the circuit breaker side of the hook up as yet, or indeed the actual wiring of the circuits!
@Dicky , excellent advice etc. This is vital information and really alt to be published in the camper mags Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
