Buying My SKOOLIE Soon - Need Help On Wiring!

[roach711]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Woe that I am to get intio this ----Yup, that's right. Just keep the 12v s---- SEPARATE from the 120v stuff always! It ain't rocket science!

This is the problem. There are two schools of thought (always ground & never ground) and both have run that way forever and neither have died from the choice. What I haven't seen is something from the National Electrical Code that makes this issue clear.

I'm just thankful that the fiberglass body on my rig makes the question moot.

[chev49]

the issue isn't keeping the 12v separate from the 110v, its whether or not the bus chassis/ie the skin which can carry voltage should be grounded with the ground, not neutral wire on the 110v side. as mentioned by roach, you can find s/s rv's that have this 2nd ground attached to the panel as well as the chassis. I have found them both put on plywood, and attached as mentioned in rv's that i have scrapped. The panels mounted on plywood are the really old rv's that didnt even have gf circuits.
for example, a bus just parked, with like no 12v battery or even engine maybe, is no different than one of the metal siding old mobile homes when it is sitting out in the elements. The only difference i can see is that the ground on a mobile will have a ground rod, and the ground for a bus is the neutral and ground wires going back trough the plug in.

[roach711]

I think that grounding the bus chassis through the AC power panel is a reasonable thing to do. If a house was built from steel studs then any metal electrical boxes that were attached to those studs and were grounded to the main panel would also ground the entire steel stud structure. From a safety standpoint, this would actually improve the grounding protection. If I was only installing AC power in my bus there would be no question - I would ground the chassis to the bus panel, and through the extension cord, back to the shore power panel. This is a proven, safe system.

My only concern here was that the AC and DC systems might not play well together, but since there are many who have their AC panels grounded to the chassis it appears that this isn't a problem.

Looks like I just joined the "ground AC panels to the chassis" camp.

My apologies to the OP for helping to hijack this thread. We promise to play nicely in the future.

[crazycal]

Allllrightyyy! So we have a consensus....what is it? Ground or don't ground?

[roach711]

I'm satisfied that grounding the AC panel is the proper thing to do.

1) Use a sub panel for your bus AC breaker box. These are also called main lug panels and will have seperate bus bars for neutral (white) wires and ground (green) wires. I could find no disagreement on this point. My Progressive Dynamics PD4045 power panel is set up this way.

2) As Chev49 said, the neutral wires are not bonded (grounded) to the box at this point. I could find no disagreement on this point either.

3) Ground the AC power panel to the bus chassis. (This was where the disagreement came in.) I believe this is the proper way to go.