Christmas Parade Lights Safety

Have my tractor all ready for the Christmas parade, have the rear carrier mounted and the display built, and all the lights rigged up. I have a Wally-World 12V - 120V converter wired in, and last night I stood there admiring it... beautiful, lights, 120V, 120V... 120V??? Got to thinking it only takes a few 5 to 6 ma at 120V going thru your heart to kill you. And there I am sitting on a huge cast iron frame. Just how safe it this 120V tractor converter stuff? Anybody have opinions / advice / warnings?

Safer than about 50% of the wiring ideas people ask about here! and they all seem to be alive still!

Paul

From being around a lot of dicey electrical situations, working with live power because the "machine can't stop just so you can work on it", listening to advise from those who have gone before me... I have learned to think about the path the current will follow when and if it happens...

What you don't want to happen is the path of least resistance to be directed through your heart, as in from one hand to the other. Keep one hand free, as in not touching anything conductive. As you said, sitting on the (metal) seat, you reach over and adjust some wiring, and it gets you, chances are the power will go through your arm, ground through your butt. Not much chance for damage there. But if you had one hand on the throttle and touched the wiring, could be a different story!

But 120v is for the most part safe. Think how many people, kids, babies, pets, come in contact every day. Very rarely is there any damage.

I was reading an old electricians hand book, from the very early years of electrifying houses and factories. Evidently volt meters were too expensive for the average person to afford, so the book gave some "practical" tips for checking for voltage. It said... If you know the expected voltage is 24 volts or less, stick it to your tongue, 120v or less, just touch it, won't hurt you, 220v slap it but be careful! LOL

I knew an old man that owned a motor rewind shop. He must have been in his 80's, could stand there and hold 120v and show no effect! Said in his younger days he could do it with 220, but his dr. told him he might want to stop since he had had a couple heart attacks! That was one crusty old man!

Just my thought's here, but would it make any sense to have a short chain hanging from your drawbar dragging a couple links on the ground?....it might make a little noise but you would at least have a path for it to ground to. I remember seeing guys that did that on their combines to reduce the build up of static electricity from all the belt friction and whatever else it was caused by,...maybe that was an old wives tale?,... but I've seen a fair amount of guys doing it.

If you are worried about it just use a GFCI, there are numerous types available that you just plug inline, plug it into your inverter.

I forgot to mention in my prior post,...take some pictures and post for us to see!

I knew a high resistance family. This guy stuck his finger in a light socket to see if it was live. I jumped out of my skin. He said 120 just tingles, 220 he can really feel. Said his dad would lick his finger before checking for 120 and got a little tingle out of 220. Said his granddad couldn't feel 120 and licked his fingers to check for 220. He was a good friend and not led to exaggerations. Unlike some of us When we worked on electricity he was a great bolt meter, just stick his hand in the box and feel everything to be sure it was live, very quick and accurate. And I've known folks that claim 12v will shock them. I can't feel it except on my tongue, same as 9v.

With the inverter the neutral is floating, you have NO reference to ground so unless one of the wires shorts to the frame you would have to get across both wires to get a shock from this.

couple pics of my hay wagon that we do hay rides with at the local campground
its run off a 12v-120 converter running 250 ft of rope lights and a house stereo
never had a problem with it now over 6 yrs

I had an uncle that would stop a lawn mower motor by holding the spark plug wire to ground it out. He only got me to try that once! But that is the way he checked to see if a plug wire was good on cars also. I went to electronics school with a guy that would check the picture tube high voltage with his finger. He had a callous on the end of his finger. It would hurt me just to watch him. Sid

your danger is no different that the Christmas tree lights in your house that your children play with on the Christmas tree.

But becareful the wires are not chaffed, cut or weathered.

Your much more liable/at risk..... for putting anyone on that trailer or driving in a parade with a tractor. The new led lights with the tiny fuse that will blow quickly, well its the lest of your worries...

Some kid will accidentally fall out why horsing around, or a child will run up and get runned over, or your tractor brakes will fail, or lightning will strike during a rain storm, or an old person will slip while getting in or out on the steps, or someone will get a spider bite from the hay, or get whiplash from when you take off, have the trailer break loose and run away, have a hive of killer bees attack your riders, catch hay fever, hoof and mouth, become impregnated, have heat stoke, miscarry, become infertile, become fertile, have vision problem, headace, headcold, get halitosi, etc, etc, eplurium, corpus dilectie, dewey cheatum and howe.



I hope you have really super good insurance on the tractor and trailer.

Pretty safe. The converter has no ground (isolation from the electrical grid, the tractor, and the frame of the trailer. (as pointed out by Blue Jay) Sticking a finger in an open bulb socket would shock a person, but touching a bare wire would not. LED rope lights are a option that prevents access to the electricity unless cut. Jim