Our RVs have pretty good electrical systems to support all of the onboard devices. One of the most overlooked parts of these electrical systems happens to be the dedicated ground circuit and various chassis grounds. Cleaning and maintaining these ground connections is easy to do and may someday save your RV or family should something out of your control happen. Case in point ... We are currently in the Tulsa, OK area for a few days visiting with fellow Scouts, Joe and Sharon Gross as well as Randy and Donna St Aubyn and @deletedmember . Weather has been a little unsettled with some rather intense electrical storms from time to time. Friday night, around 12:30pm an extremely loud clap of thunder complete with a shock wave that shook the entire RV disturbed all of us. One of my dogs was sleeping against the wall of the RV. He jumped up and moved to the center of the bed. My bride was touching the wall and felt "tingling" "like something electrical". A quick check of things within the RV showed no adverse effects. Everthing was functioning normally. The wind was gusting from a diection that was working our recently replaced slide toppers pretty hard, so I retracted the slides. Once daylight came, I extended the slides and performed a walk around outside. At first glance, all appeared normal, until I arrived at the rear passenger side of the extended dining room slide. The bulb seal had melted and the butyl sealant under the slide topper mounting plates on both ends of the slide been heated and was drooping 1/4" to 1/2" down. The grounding on our RV worked exactly as designed ! I encourage everyone to include their electrical grounds on your chassis and your electrical connections as part of your maintenance routine.

Posted by Bob Clayton at 2023-05-14 16:23:48 UTC