Can power lines give you a "hot skin" condition?

We were driving 41 N in WI south of Oshkosh. Need to make a pit stop but no rest areas. Nice wide shoulder so pulled over. Went to open the door and got a tingle. Not 120 Volts something less......but no doubt A/C current.

Touched it again and got same response....so did Linda.

Went back to the truck and turned it off. Same a/c tingle.

Unplugged the trailer cord. Same a/c tingle.

Turned the battery off. Same a/c tingle.

Told Linda we were leaving....no telling what would happen inside doing what we stopped for! Rehooked everything back up and pulled out.

That is when I noticed the power lines almost over our heads. I mean we were only 30 feet.....maybe 40 at most. 3 lines with about 15 insulators bulges holding each line.

Two exits down there was a commuter parking area....so we stopped. No more A/C tingle. The power lines had left the roadway and where not in sight.

So I am curious if those power lines could have induced an A/C current into our aluminum framed trailer? I mean that's how transformers work....

Thanks,

I know that high voltage can create a lot of static. That's what I was told by a guy that worked on high voltage lines.
I was headed south on I-41 and saw you headed north.

Peace
Dave

I would just guess more likely there was electrical current traveling through the ground you were standing on. I wonder if you jumped up on the hitch and then touched the trailer if different.


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They recently put up a massive wind farm near where I grew up in the Oklahoma Panhandle and the company doing the work told all of the local ranchers that they could not use electric fences under the main transition lines because there was a possibility, under the right conditions, that electricity could be transferred to the fence. The result would be a charge high enough to be dangerous to cattle. My point is that if what they told the ranchers is accurate then it is possible that the power lines were the reason for what you felt.

Take care,
Ron

I know exactly what you are describing.
I spent 25 years at the Saint Clair Power Plant of DTE Energy South of Saint Clair, Michigan.
We had 6 High Voltage Hi Lines that left the plant to go across Country.
We had 4 of them that were 120,000 volts & 2 were 345,000 volts.
They crossed over areas of the plant grounds were we had equipment we had to work on.
In damp weather you could hear them hum and sizzle.
When we parked under the 345K lines we would receive a shock when you touched the truck.
You could actually draw an arc from your finger to the truck.
One time to see what voltage we were getting from the truck to ground, we used a Volt-Ohm-Meter (VOM) to find out.
We were really surprised to see a reading of 480 Volts on the meter, from the truck to ground.
So there is voltage there, but no Amps, just a surface reading.
Interesting world of Electricity.

Hockster

I would think yes it definitely could. I work for a pipeline utility and we've had safety classes on I believe they call it voltage transients. We have some pipelines that have high voltage power lines that parallel them so equipment like dozers, excavators, things like that are susceptible to voltage transients.

The best news here is I am not crazy! Sure scared me, though. I appreciate the answers!

Cookie....sorry I missed you......I saw several rigs but don't remember another Bighorn. Maybe you meant you saw me parked....sorry.....I was busy.

Thanks everybody....I think before I pull off the road again like that.... besides checking everything else....I'll look up!

This pickup of electricity from overhead power lines is an example of "inductive coupling". This is what transformers use to couple electrical power from one isolated coil to another. In your instance with the trailer, you were probably parked facing the same directions as the power lines, as opposed to at right angles to the power lines. This is the direction of maximum electrical coupling between wires. Your trailer chassis was acting as the 2nd coupling wire under the transmission lines. I have heard the crackling of electricity on transmission lines on pylons in the local Home Depot lot in Sacramento. You somehow feel different when you walk under these crackling lines.

Many years ago I read that the USSR was not permitting its people to live directly under high voltage transmission lines due to the induced voltlages on their bodies and the suspected negative health effects. Just to show how freaky this radiated power can be, I was told a story by one of the instructors in one of my Navy Electronics schools of a UHF transmitter site that had flourescent lights in the transmitter room that were NOT wired to AC power. They lit themselves from the leakage radiated electrical energy from the transmitters.

If you MUST have the rig parked in such a place, good grounding through the shore power plug (and maybe a redundant ground to the legs or chassis) should eliminate any voltage potential between the rig and the ground that would cause "hot skin" shocks.

Thanks Bill!

reminded me of my two tours in Viet Nam on a cruiser. You could go on deck with a flourecent tube and it would light up.....more of a glow but it was being powered.