I don't like working with electricity

[gus]

There have been posts here that GFIs should not be used on bus systems?

I don't remember the reasons but some of our elect experts surely will chime in.

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Matt, bright flash of light, followed by loud noise, power in the foothills goes out..... then when you hear the sirens you can come check on me!

[boogiethecat]

I have no issues working with anything electrical, being it's been my life for the last 60+ years.  Gotten zapped many a time and have some great stories of screwdrivers melting in my hand as I ... well that's for a different time....

What I've been doing for the last many years, if I'm working on a circuit and I bother to turn the power off at all, is to first turn off the supposedly correct breaker, then stick a big fat piece of #10 insulated wire straight across whatever it is I'm gonna work with, deliberately shorting it out just to make damned sure there is no power across it.  If there is power, I get a spark for sure, but without a doubt the correct breaker goes "click" and is now off.  Being that the wire I use is insulated, it won't shock me, and the fireworks are more-or-less expected instead of a surprise, so it's easy to make sure my face isn't in the wrong place at the wrong time.
You'd be amazed how many times the circuit that was supposed to be off was actually still quite live, just as Ed found out the hard way- for as many reasons as you can think of... turned off wrong breaker; wire that ya thought was the one you were working with was actually another circuit; live wires you didn't know connected to the supposedly off circuit, etc.
 This way sounds a bit crazy, but it is as fail safe as I can figure, doesn't require fancy testers, and using it as a backup I've never had a surprise zap ever again.

Have fun.....

[Len Silva]

That's what is known in the trade as Dynamic Circuit Identification.  I usually use a slow-blow phillips screwdriver.

[Oonrahnjay]

There have been posts here that GFIs should not be used on bus systems?

I don't remember the reasons but some of our elect experts surely will chime in.  

      Not an elect expert (by ANY means) but you may be thinking of the fact that a GFI will often not work as a shore plug socket. Has to do with the switched grounds etc. on a bus with an automatic transfer switch, I think.  I know that my bus trips a 20 Amp GFI but I think that my 15 Amp adaptor (which goes to a 30 Amp adaptor which goes to the 50 Amp plug) only supplies power to one leg of my 50 Amp service anyway.  One of those "it works pretty much right and I'll take care of important things that don't work and then get around to finding out WITH is wrong with it" things, I guess.

      As long as I'm not tripping a GFI in the garage wall, the GFI next to the bathroom sink in the bus seems to work just fine.

BH  NC   USA

[Miss Scarlett]

I have a GFI in the bathroom and so far it has worked fine. I too am running on a 20 amp circuit from my garage while I work on the bus and have run saws, sanders, lights etc plugged into the GFI.

[Jerry32]

If testing you should always check all wires against ground oir chassis. I do hear sirens in west Yuma all the time. Have three busses in the park I am in.