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Hello boys and girls.

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Ian.M:
Great.   It is possible to bodge it safely for no more than the cost of a GFCI (+ whatever the ground stake ends up costing). 

On the subject of electrolytic corrosion - the best bet is going to be to prevent snow buildup under the van in the first place.  Rigging up a skirt round the body made of cheap poly-tarp with the bottom edge dug in or heavily sandbagged is probably the best option, and it will make the van a lot warmer if you have mostly still air under the floor.  Take care you don't block any vents, and maybe leave a small gap by the fuel tank filler and to under the engine so fumes dont build up.  Dig out any drifts till the skirt is at least 50% exposed and wind flexing it will keep it clear of possibly conductive iceing.

The March Hare:
Lol, had forgotten until this morning that it had slipped my mind .. I parked the rig on an outcropping of exposed granite so she wouldn't sink into the thawing muskeg in the spring.

Best try today was only four inches of stake (galvanized steel angle) penetration until shield, and conspicuously loose in the ground.

Understand this is not by any means a permanent, or even overly useful setup.

I've just been out of things for awhile and I'm dying to solder something .. anything. Even though it's minus 20 today.

The bench "mistress" requirements (until my awesome real shop is completed next summer) is a soldering station and light. No heat, no scope or plug in test gear. Ah, and probably a wall wart powering whatever I'm working on.

A hot to body fault is less likely than me slipping on the van step and breaking a hip. My concern is ESD toasting antique kit.

Don't take this as moron too dense to understand your advice.

Put a new end on the cord today with a ground lug. so the 4 outlet strip on the plywood bench has "some" panel earth reference at the bench. the interconnects between cords I've strung through a concrete block on end covered with a plastic pail .. ghetto as can be. Gave the male ends a quick scotchbrite. Probably useful for 600 at best of the 1875W available at the outlet.

I doubt I'll ever draw 150.
 
Chinese GFI's are cheap here .. so I'll pop one in next week - as well as better ends on the cord and a permanent weatherproof bond between cords (Though the bigger issue at the moment is no proper feed through the wall and squishing the cord under the door), but consider the setup akin to not much more than running a soldering iron on a few hundred feet of extension rather than a laboratory setup.


Ian.M:
If you've got a ground in the long extension cord, a GFCI to save your ass when the ground resistance is too high for a fault to ground to trip the breaker, and you bond the van body/chassis to ground you should be fine both for electrical safety and on the ESD side of things, except for the possibly very low humidity once winter really gets going, which means you'll need to be extremely careful to take full ESD precautions when handling stuff that's even *slightly* ESD sensitive.

It still wouldn't be a bad thing to have a local  ground stake.  Maybe you can find a spot at the edge of the outcrop, or a pocket where there's more soil?

Its going to be pretty miserable in the van without heat, so unless it has a properly installed diesel heater (and you can run a battery charger to keep up with its 12V load), you'll probably need to run a mains heater.

spec:

--- Quote from: The March Hare on November 20, 2018, 03:50:44 pm ---...a place now defunct where the wallpaper was green...

--- End quote ---

Welcome TMH

What is this place :-//

Ice-Tea:
A once popular electronics forum, Dutchforce.

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