Can I ground my 110 outlet that I'll be using to plug my truck in, to the truck itself with out starting a fire or doing anything bad?

I need to ground the GFCI, but im really worried about grounding it to the truck... wont that 'electrify' the truck?

 

Is this the set up where you are running a extension cord to the truck? If thats it then ground it to the ground on the cord.

I'm not a electrician but I dont think you can ground it to the truck. If you have some way of grounding the truck to the earth, then you might be able to, but I would just go for the ground on the cord.

 

Perhaps carry a 6 foot pole with you, and hammer it down a few feet.. and attach your ground to that if you'll be needing a ground somewhere

 

The groung lug on outlets is connected to the metal mounting tabs.So if you're useing a steel outlet box , the groung is connected to it.
I suspect that you are going to use a short cord with a male plug to connect with the lead cord from the power source. From the short cord , pigtail from the ground to the GFCI ground and another lead to the truck chassis.Be certain the white (neutral ) and the green (ground) leads do not touch together.Although they are connected together in the breaker panel ,The GFCI will not work properly if they are connected together in the truck.

 

This is a very good idea if the truck is going to be plugged in during a thunder storm.It just may keep someone's house from burning down.

 

You are not grounding 120 volts to the truck. That would be a bad idea, lol.

Ground is ground is ground -- if it's ground. If you are connecting the ground from a properly wired power domestic or commercial AC power system to the frame of your truck, it makes your truck grounded.

On the other hand, the body of your truck is NO substitute for a proper ground. AC power systems tie earth ground and the "neutral" line together at some point in order to establish them at the same potential (more or less). GFCI's depend on this to detect shorts.

What a GFCI does is measure the balance of current in the hot and neutral wires. It should be equal. Any imbalance means current is flowing back through the ground somehow rather than the neutral (disregarding polarity here since it's AC) and that indicates "leakage" and potential electrocution. The GFCI trips on detecting leakage.

If you will be working in or around your truck, having it at ground potential helps the GFCI to work properly if you are touching your truck while operating AC power tools.

Otherwise, grounding your truck is unnecessary. In no case does it HURT anything.

 

ok so I have no worries then having my metal outlet box screwed into one of the metal ribs for the body?

 

That is correct

 

You should definately bond the metal chassis of the truck to the 120v ground. It doesn't really matter where but it should definately be done. You will not blow anything up and it would be foolish and dangerous not to do it. It might save your life.

 

what do you mean?

btw, I finished that project up today. At first the gfci didnt work.. so i decided to flip the wires, and viola, works now. the wire im using, is a 10awg 50ft extension cord with 2 male ends on it.

 

quote: a 10awg 50ft extension cord with 2 male ends on it.

Like to live dangerously don't ya ?

You should wire a short (1ft or so ) cord from the GFCI box with a male end.Put a female end on the extension cord.
Why ?
You're jumping in and out of the truck ,not always watching where you put your feet when whoops , you kick the cord apart. The way you have it,you could have exposed live connections lying around .

 

You definately should NOT be using a double-male cord coming from the house. A piece of cord coming off the truck with a male end on it. Plug that into the female end of the extension cord. The way you have it now, someone will inevitably get fried by accident.

 

Ya I was thinking about that myself this morning. I found a male 'socket' looking thing in a drawar last night... I been thinking bout I could put that in, and make it look good. The 1ft extension cord is one way to do it. But the idea here is to make it look as good as possible. Even if it means a bit of extra work. For right now tho, it works. As far as kicking it out, probably not, I only say that, because the lift is on that side and getting off the truck on that side is a bit 'difficult' i guess is the word for it... Ill post up pics of where im at later.