Grounding a welding machine or generator on a vehicle

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jrainwater1

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Should a portable welding machine which is diesel operated and mounted on a truck be grounded to prevent electric shock in case of a failure and someone comes in contact with the vehicle? I have been told to refer to 250.34 and 250.54 but it does not specifically state anything about a welding machine which generates a voltage and current. Our concern is if a fault occurs within the welding machine a possible voltage and/or current could harm someone would touches the vehicle where this is mounted.
 
Ground a vehicle with a generator or welder mounted on it.

Ground a vehicle with a generator or welder mounted on it.

ActionDave said:
A connection to the Earth is not going to make any difference in regards to the shock hazzard of a portable welder.
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Dear ActionDave: If the ground is connected from the vehicle to earth this won't make a difference??? Please help me understand or perhaps I was not clear. We want any vehicle that generates voltage/current from a generator or welder mounted on a vehicle to have a ground from the vehicle to earth to make sure we mitigate a possible shock hazard. We would like to back this up with an article from the code. Thank you.
 
Draw the complete circuit. Show how a fault inside the welder can complete a circuit to the ground a person is standing on who then touches the truck to complete the circuit. If it cannot be shown, then there is no safety issue.

That is what Dave is talking about. Just running a wire from the truck chassis to a ground rod (of who knows how many ohms resistance to ground, no one ever would check this on a portable rig situation i.e. does the driver of the truck have a ground resistance testing meter?) gives no extra safety. A wire from truck chassis to a ground rod can help with a static electricity situation, like in airplane fueling, but unless the truck was flying through the air to charge up....:lol:

The ground clamp of the welders I tested had NO connection to the ground pin of the welder's power cord. So the output of the welder has no ground reference even if you connect the welder's power source to ground.
 
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