Bus Electrical (house) problems

[mung]

"It is ok to, in fact necessary to ground both the DC and AC power to ground, as in the bus steel frame"
Not even close to OK, against code, and potentially very, very dangerous.  All 120v grounds should be taken back to the shore power ground not through the chassis. 

[digesterman]

I guess I won't tell the electrician that did ours and countless others that


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[Stormcloud]

...and THIS , gentlemen, is how accidents happen.   

[Lee Bradley]

Not sure where is conversation is going; all of my 120/240 vac equipment is grounded to the bus chassis.  The ac neutral is bonded to the ground at the power source.  This bond should be at the power pole when the bus is plugged in to shore power, at the generator when on generator power or at the inverter when on inverter power and only one bond should be in place at a time. Do not confuse ac neutral and safety ground.   

[bevans6]

"It is ok to, in fact necessary to ground both the DC and AC power to ground, as in the bus steel frame"
Not even close to OK, against code, and potentially very, very dangerous.  All 120v grounds should be taken back to the shore power ground not through the chassis. 

Completely wrong.   The bus frame should be grounded to the incoming ground from the pole, it should be bonded to the ground in the fuse panel and it absolutely must be the DC ground, unless you don't want your engine to run.  All of the bus DC wiring uses the chassis as ground.  Now, what you should never do is use the bus chassis as the grounding conductor (grounding conductor is what you would normally see as a bare copper or green insulated wire in a cable) for any part of an AC circuit.  You always use a grounding conductor in a cable for any AC power feed.  I It's completely permissible and extremely common to use the chassis as the grounding conductor in a DC circuit, obviously.

Brian

[yvan]

This ground question is intriguing so I went and checked out my Winnibago(1973 Indain) that has a factory installed Onan generator. There is no continuity from the chassis to the ground wire of the shore power cord. The ground of teh generator though is connected to the chassis.

[eagle19952]

...

[digesterman]

Which will tie all grounds to the chassis


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[mung]

So, if you pull up to a camp site and the pole isn't grounded like it should be, then the wife plugs something in that has a neutral fault, where is the current going to go folks?  Also keep in mind that a bus is all metal vs most RVs which are not.

[eagle19952]

So, if you pull up to a camp site and the pole isn't grounded like it should be, then the wife plugs something in that has a neutral fault, where is the current going to go folks?  Also keep in mind that a bus is all metal vs most RVs which are not.

it will run back to the source...if the coach is wired correctly and you previously checked the pedestal for proper wiring....open between neutral and ground.

in other words it will do the same thing it would do at your house.


http://www.rvtravel.com/?q=category/electrical


http://www.noshockzone.org/category/rv-safety/


http://www.noshockzone.org/generator-ground-neutral-bonding/

[akroyaleagle]

Great sources Don!

I saved them in my files. I learn a lot from things like that. Plus I can always go back and reference it. If I can find it in my files.

[digesterman]

In August I was on a government site that by contract supplied power to my coach. Before They turned the power on they inspected the connections and did a ground test between my panels and frame, that was one of the tests. My coach passed, don't think they would have hooked up yours,,,,,just saying.


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[mung]

If the 120v has the neutral bonded to the ground that is a very bad thing on a coach, it isn't supposed to be that way.  If it isn't bonded, well what good does the ground actually do? 

[oltrunt]

If you haven't read the No shock zone articles eagle 19952 references you need to---if only to stay alive!

[eagle19952]

If you haven't read the No shock zone articles eagle 19952 references you need to---if only to stay alive!

If the 120v has the neutral bonded to the ground that is a very bad thing on a coach, it isn't supposed to be that way.  If it isn't bonded, well what good does the ground actually do?

you say a bonded neutral to the ground (which it is not attached to the chassis) is a bad thing.

then you turn around and say in the following sentence "If it isn't bonded, well what good does the ground actually do."

please explain.

the neutral bond that you speak of, you need to put in words your definition....where does it show that they are connected. neutral does not attach in any fashion to the chassis.