Water Heater Issue

[wayner]

Last summer on one of our trips I was trying to light the pilot for the hot water heater on our 2003 Coleman Bayside.  the weird thing was that I found that if I touched the edges of the assembly I would get slight shocks.  I only noticed it the one time.   Is this normal if it is slightly wet out?.. which it was.  Being male I was too proud to ask anyone around at the time.  But I figure I should find out.  Thanks.

[wavery]

Last summer on one of our trips I was trying to light the pilot for the hot water heater on our 2003 Coleman Bayside.  the weird thing was that I found that if I touched the edges of the assembly I would get slight shocks.  I only noticed it the one time.   Is this normal if it is slightly wet out?.. which it was.  Being male I was too proud to ask anyone around at the time.  But I figure I should find out.  Thanks.

If you were plugged into the CG power, you were probably attracting some stray electrical. It may be a good idea to check the ground circuit in your camper. It is important to be sure that you have a good solid ground. However, you were probably getting zapped because you were not in contact with the camper and the stray current was finding it's way to ground through your body to the wet ground that you were standing on.

[wayner]

so can you explain to an electrical dummy how to check the grounding to be sure it's right.  I don't mind the odd shock but would prefer my kids didn't happen upon one...  Thanks for the help!

[austinado16]

Be careful with this, and definately get it sorted out.  What can happen is; as you're standing there touching the camper what starts out as a tingle becomes a full blown shock as the electrical current say, "Oh wait, here's a much better path to ground.....everybody, let's go this way.....WHAM!"

Take a look at the power cable you're using to connect your camper to the 110v plug-in at the campsite.  It'll be a 3 wire extention cord.  Where it comes into the camper and hooks to the power convertor, make sure that the white wire (nuetral) and the green wire (ground) are tightly connected to their individual locations. There may also be a ground wire coming from the convertor and going to the trailer frame. Inspect that and make sure the connections for it are tight.

Or, take it to the RV repair shop of your choice and get it looked at.

[wayner]

Cool Beans, Thanks.   I will give that a look once some snow melts and I can collect it from my friends yard.  

My bro-in-law is an elevator mechanic and thus is pretty slick around wires and circuits and electic/electronic stuff...

Thanks for the advice... I don't mind doing stupid stuff.. but shocking myself to death isn't high on my list of ways to go out of this world...