Lightning and camper trailers

[edz]

This came up in a conversation last night, I recall a few years back on Fraser we had a couple of very close hits early one morning..Never thought much about it since though..
Should we be putting some sort of earth spike from the camper trailer body to ground it ...Yep I know getting hit is a very long shot Buutttt its kinder to late if and when it should happen..
Any one ever taken a strike ??

[MrCruza]

Not something I'd ever worry about myself, but if you wanted to prevent damage then you'd be better off insulating it from the ground not earthing it. Earthing would just make your trailer a big lightning conductor

[Foo]

It be not going to do anything for you if a strike is that close, because it will still give you a tickle up and possibly fry anything close to it. 

I have felt the tingle from a lightning strike and it was a reasonable distance from me. Almost instantaneous flash and bang followed by tingles.

Foo

[GeoffNeal]

Don't you effectively earth it anyway when you put the stabiliser legs on the ground....... It's been a long time since I was taught about faraday cages, but if I remember correctly it works in cars and planes because for all intents and purposes the fuselage or body of a plane or car is essentially a large tube with the occupant sitting inside, well insulated (normally) from the electricity, a camper is far from being a tube especially with tent bows sticking up in the air, in comparison to the distance that power has already travelled, the distance between the camper and the ground is almost inconsequential and would jump that gap easily.......

On a slightly different note........ I was Ice Climbing in the French Alps once when an electrical storm came through, it really is not fun when you start glowing and your Ice axes start kind of humming with all the charge in the air..... Make you feel very very small all of a sudden