Hot skin safety test time

[Ralph L. Fullenwider]

Hello everyone:

It has been a warm summer for most of us and the A/C's have been running
leaving the heaters and other things at rest.

I have been doing up grades and some R&R on some of the systems in Ruff
Diamond. And with winter coming up I decided it was time to do a hot skin
test as it is on my PM list every 6 months.

What your checking for is any rise in AC voltage from a ground/ground
source with the negative lead on your meter attached to that and the red
lead to probe several spots around the door frame metal. What you should
see when first hooking up the meter is .0001 plus or minus 0. If you see a
reading of .0201 reading then you have a hot skin with 1/4 volts AC (it can
be as much as 1/2 volt AC), and need to find the source of the voltage.
What will a hot skin do? It will send a tingling through your body if you
touch any metal part of the Coach while standing in a rain puddle or if
your sweaty and hot skin has been known to send enough voltage via amperage
through your hand to ground to knock you off the step and yes, deaths have
occurred. Is it serious, darn right it is.

If you don't have a deviation great, fold it up your done and you and your
Family are safe. If you do have voltage then use a clip lead and connect
the red lead to a point around the door and go to the main breaker box and
starting with one breaker (either leg) switch it off and check the meter
for change, do this on both legs until you find a change and what ever
breaker you switch off the difference is noted then that is the AC
electrical circuit you need to find the problem on.

If, when you first do the check and the meter range is un stable try
pouring a glass of water on the ground rod you drove into the ground for
your ground /ground. If the meter is still ranging up and down then more
than likely you do not have a hot skin but dirty contacts on the change
over switch, automatic or manual it does not matter.

Oh for my ground I use a copper tool I made for doing this. You can take an
18inch length of rebar, sharpen one end and drive it into the ground just
out side the door way so you can attach the black meter lead to it.

The whold think take less and 10 minutes to do and you know if your safe or
that you need to find the problem.

Safe travels,

Ralph and Charolette Fullenwider
84FC35 "Ruff Diamond"
Duncan, Oklahoma