are you safe

[skipperted]

ive camped in many wild places over the years, some great some not so, but last night was really wild!
A huge thunderstorm, lightning, was i safe? Would the nearby strikes disable my modern computer controled van etc etc.
I was ok, so was my van, but could it have been a problem starting up in the morning , ruined electronics etc , or worse.
i seem to remember that a car is some form of faraday cage thereby giving its occupents some protection, but what if your van has a fiberglass roof?
Anyone know some answers?

 

[noody]

I suppose it depends on all-sorts of things about your van producing a good negative as against the ground around you.

Have you ever been on a beach as a thunderstorm passes-over, even the hairs in your ears stand-up, it's happened to me a number of times and I always flatten myself. The body is a good conductor though I'm not so sure about a van.

First of all you have rubber on the ground and even though the rubber contains carbon I doubt it contains enough to become a decent conductor. The outer body-panels of my Burstner are aluminium-alloy bonded to foam-core but the roof is GRP and so are all the skirting panels and wheel arches.

I suppose if the area surrounding you was a very good negative then at those sort of voltages a strike would track down the out panel and blast its way through a tyre to get to the ground.

I have some past experience working with almost 4000 volts DC and had a failure on a 12mm thick composite-resin board between some components because I had left a pencil mark across the board as part of the original marking-out procedure. 3600 volts followed the carbon in the pencil line then proceeded to cut its way through as it made its own carbon.

The voltage in a lightening strike is many-millions so on the basis of my experience I would get-the-hell-out of my van because I'm sure at those voltages a bit of plastic and rubber won't stop the flow.

 

[PaulC]

I would get-the-hell-out of my van because I'm sure at those voltages a bit of plastic and rubber won't stop the flow.

I heard on radio 5 with Dr Karl, a scientist, advise someone that been on a bicycle, that the rubber would not have been and insulator! Anyhow would the static from the lightening not knock out the sensitive gear?

 

[Deleted member 207]

Just sleep with an apple in your mouth, eat plenty of rosemary and thyme before the storm starts and at least you'll look and smell like roast pork when the lightning strikes.

 

[noody]

(Huge-smile)

So-funny I'm snorting my morning coffee, seriously though, the beach experiences I refer to are frightening. Your whole body tingles and all your body-hairs go verticle, you have become negative-charge and that positive charge up in the clouds is looking for you so get on the ground flat and stay flat until the risk passes-over.

 

[knollgardener1]

ive camped in many wild places over the years, some great some not so, but last night was really wild!
A huge thunderstorm, lightning, was i safe? Would the nearby strikes disable my modern computer controled van etc etc.
I was ok, so was my van, but could it have been a problem starting up in the morning , ruined electronics etc , or worse.
i seem to remember that a car is some form of faraday cage thereby giving its occupents some protection, but what if your van has a fiberglass roof?
Anyone know some answers?

makes me wonder what would happen in case of a thunderstorm and I`m sitting in my little nissan vanette camper (she`s like a little bean can), with metal shell all round?

 

[nichodia]

You would be ok as long as you didn't touch anything...the car would act like a faraday cage dispersing the charge around the outside of the car.