Shock mystery

[BeenThere DoneThat]

To start with, I have not been able to reproduce this problem, but I have not tried real hard either. I was driving in GA and stopped at a Home Depot as I noticed problem that needed to be corrected on my TT. When I knelt down and touched the frame, I got a nasty shock. Twice more I touched the frame and got a nasty shock. It reminded me of my Dad's electric fence when I was a kid.
Here is the deal. NO generator. No 110 shore power. (I was still in the Home Depot parking lot.) The van was NOT running. I disconnected the 7-way plug and the problem went away. I DO have a relay in the 12v feed from the Van to the TT so 12v only gets to the TT when the van ignition switch is on, but since the van key was off, the only 12v at the TT should have been the TT house battery.
The only thing I have come up with that might have caused this is that fact that the 500 watt inverter I have in the van had it's 'on' switch in the 'on' position. But, it gets it's 12v input only when the van ignition is on. Maybe it was discharging back into the van ground, but the shock was where my knee was on the ground so where would the reverse path be?
I am stumpted.

[BeenThere DoneThat]

To start with, I have not been able to reproduce this problem, but I have not tried real hard either. I was driving in GA and stopped at a Home Depot as I noticed problem that needed to be corrected on my TT. When I knelt down and touched the frame, I got a nasty shock. Twice more I touched the frame and got a nasty shock. It reminded me of my Dad's electric fence when I was a kid.
Here is the deal. NO generator. No 110 shore power. (I was still in the Home Depot parking lot.) The van was NOT running. I disconnected the 7-way plug and the problem went away. I DO have a relay in the 12v feed from the Van to the TT so 12v only gets to the TT when the van ignition switch is on, but since the van key was off, the only 12v at the TT should have been the TT house battery.
The only thing I have come up with that might have caused this is that fact that the 500 watt inverter I have in the van had it's 'on' switch in the 'on' position. But, it gets it's 12v input only when the van ignition is on. Maybe it was discharging back into the van ground, but the shock was where my knee was on the ground so where would the reverse path be?
I am stumpted.

[charliez]

It may have simply been a static charge.

[BeenThere DoneThat]

If it was a static charge, why multiple zaps? Also, it was not a 'instantainous' (sp?) zap. Seemed to last longer that a static discharge would. But, I would not rule it out.

[Frank P.]

I had the same problem with a suspended ceiling in our family room 30 years ago. It took a long time and a lot of circuit testing to locate the hot wire with pinched insulation in one of our light fixtures.

Good luck.

Frank

[Randy the sly old fox]

Were there any high tension power lines nearby? We have an RV dealer here that is right next to a major distribution line - they sometimes have problems with shocks due to induced voltages.

The chassis was hot so when your knee touched the ground the circuit was completed.

You could also have a back feed problem from you batery charger.

[Greenie]

It might be the invertor. I had a Portawatz 1000 running a freezer that would give a nasty shock if one hand was on the freezer and the other on metal. To be sure, disconnect the invertor and try it again.