Jeez Larry, I didn't say anything about grounding anything to a plastic
hull. I also did not say that the AC ground should not be grounded at the
shore side. I said that everything I have read says it should also be
grounded at the boat end. Just like that grounding rod outside my wood
house.


"Larry" wrote in message
...
"johnhh" wrote in
:

So you're saying not to ground the AC ground at the boat, but to rely
on the shore ground? Everything I've read says you must ground it at
the boat as a safety precaution against faulty grounding at the dock.
Did I misunderstand something?



The boat is made of PLASTIC. You cannot ground the fiberglass. If you
have a steel hull, I still wouldn't connect the green wire to it. It is
already "grounded" through the seawater. You'd just add to your galvanic
action problem. You may not be able to isolate it as the grounded
equipment is hooked to the hull in lots of places, anyways. Fiberglass
boats are being discussed.
All AC grounds are to be connected to shore power "ground". This insures
you get knocked on your ass if you touch AC hot and the grounded fridge
case. But, that's the way they want it. Buy a plastic cased fridge,
problem solved. The battery charger should have its DC circuit isolated
from its AC circuit. If it's not, I wouldn't buy it. The + and -
charging terminals should be totally isolated from the power-line-
grounded case.

If you tie the "faulty ground" at the dock, let's say it's open from
corrosion or the wire is busted, connected or not to DC ground in the
boat...it's still open. If the plug is wired wrong, the AC box is still
grounded to ground. You'll get knocked on your ass plugging your
grounded plug in if it doesn't explode in your hand before the breaker
trips. Grounding the hot AC line through the faulty hot-connected-to-
green-wire-to-the-boat absurd scenario in the DC to AC interconnected
ground scenario only results in a big flash as the AC current has a
direct path to ground through the engine block/propshaft, tripping the
breaker I hope unless some other absurd scenario has it bypassed....

I'll be absurd, too. Every boater should have a ground detector built
right into the AC breaker panel!