Friday night the barth took a lighting hit will be stuck at a campground till fixed. WE lost the surge protector -inverter -refrigerator all 110v switch box till that gets fixed. need to know what to look fore. insurance wants to take pics but nothing to see it's all internal. Had rv doctor out to look said I was lucky.THE OTHER TWO melted ANYTHING that was electric . The coach next to me was a mess never saw it was to fixated on the barth. need advise on parts and what to try to get. rusty will see this i hope.
lenny

I infer that it cannot be driven, since you say you are stuck in campground. Otherwise, it should be taken to qualified, reputable shop where all electrical devices can be checked and a computerized repair order can be prepared for your insurance company. I was a claim rep for decades. While it is your responsibility to present your claim, a claim rep should scrutinize what you submit. It may be beneficially fortuitous whereas you should be covered for new components to replace those ruined, some of which may have been very old.

Ps
Be sure to check everything that works with RF, even if not plugged in. Lightning creates a huge radio frequency burst in addition to thousands of volts of electricity. So, things like garage door opener (receiver)boards are often fried. You probably don't have much in the way of an RF receiver board. My coach has an after-market TPMS with an RF antenna.

So sorry about your misfortune, Lenny and Judy. That goodness the two of you weren't hurt. You can fix the Barth
Jim

Glad you're OK! Now we can recall another reason for owning a Barth: Being all metal, it protects its occupants from lightning far better than a Plastic Pig.

You can probably drive the coach to a repair shop safely after checking the batteries.

The 120 VAC cutover relay should be checked along with the microwave, TVs, TV antenna, HW heater (if equipped with a 120 VAC element - usually being immersed in water prevents damage to these), the roof airs (if they were running). I assume by "inverter" you meant the 120 VAC-12 VDC "converter", and that should be replaced.

As Mogan David mentioned, all other electronics should be checked as well. While the coach protects from the strike itself, aluminum doesn't protect well at all from the magnetic pulse erupting from a strike.

Like Mogan David, I spent 30 years in the property insurance racket, er, "profession" in the Lightning Capitol of the US. Among the hundreds of claims, I never has one where the wiring was damaged except locally at a component that had overheated.

So all outlet covers should be pulled and the outlets examined for heat (melting or severe discoloration).

Examine the fuses on the converter - if they haven't blown there is likely no damage to the 12 VDC system (which is why I mentioned above the coach is probably safe to drive to a repair shop - but I don't know where you are...probably west of Tallahassee if you got the lightning Friday).

If it were I and in the panhandle or west, I'd go back the BillyTs. If you're in the Eastern Time Zone (east of the Appalachacola), there's a very good RV place about 10 miles off I-75 exit 399.

Being anywhere near a lightning strike is very weird and can do strange things. Find a good tech and check EVERYTHING with wires, esp. ground circuits.
In 1971 I was working inside a 38 ft wooden boat, preparing for removal of the blown GM 371 diesel engine. We had all the floor boards up and it was raining hard. BOOM! Outside witnesses saw a bolt hit the boat directly, with St. Elmo's fire all over the outside. Inside was LOUD. I was fortunately not touching anything metal, because it was all lit up by corona. The flash left me almost blinded, with a vivid after image of all the metal, wires, shaft, fuel tanks! (glad it wasn't gasoline)
The static made my hair stand up and the ozone was overpowering. I instinctively went for the fire extinguisher. The outside witnesses ran over to look and we found no signs of the strike!
Weeks later, when the new engine went in we had weird charging problems. After some lengthy troubleshooting we found hidden damage. It had two separate 12v systems and one of the interconnecting ground cables had fused without any damage to the outside insulation! This was in the day of HF radios which required a large (2' x 3') copper ground plate. Evidently the lightning went there via the 00 guage (big) ground cable. Look carefully! good luck!

IT did feel funny thought it was over I have a atrial fibrillation. Any way am going to the clinic tomorrow for coumadin check I will have them check that while I am there still walkin.The other three did not fair so well.at least the surge guard did its job.My Imac is ok can't touch anything till get the OK
lenny

The symptoms Lenny described in the original post are common with induced current caused by a ground strike where underground conductors are present.

The cause is that the lightning produces current, and a changing current (rising and collapsing in the case of a lightning bolt) produces a similarly rising and collapsing magnetic field. If there are conductors in this varying magnet field, a current is induced in them.

Rusty, wouldn't a Barth or AirStream act like a giant Faraday Cage to protect the occupants? I can see how all electronics would be toast, but all that stuff can be replaced. People can't.

One more item to check (based on personal experience): if you have a sleep Number Bed the control box/pump under the bed has a voltage protection diode that blows if input voltage exceeds the rating. Being cheap and not covered by insurance at the time I found a new diode and soldered it back in and fixed it. Sleep Number told me I would need a new pump/control and it would be over $500. I also lost the electronic thermostats on both roof airs, even though they were off.

quote:

Originally posted by DougZ:
Rusty, wouldn't a Barth or AirStream act like a giant Faraday Cage to protect the occupants? I can see how all electronics would be toast, but all that stuff can be replaced. People can't.

Yes, a Barth is like (an imperfect) Faraday cage. Faraday cages are excellent for containing electrical impulses, but not magnetic (they're not designed to). To attenuate magnetic pulses, the cage has to be of a magnetic material.

quote:

Yes, a Barth is like (an imperfect) Faraday cage. Faraday cages are excellent for containing electrical impulses, but not magnetic (they're not designed to). To attenuate magnetic pulses, the cage has to be of a magnetic material.

Yup, that's exactly why I traded to a steel Wanderlodge.

Truth is, neither will act like a Faraday cage if you have the power cord plugged in as Lenny did. It creates an unprotected pathway directly into the sensitive electronics. A surge protector will help a little, depending on the amount of energy in the strike and lesser resistant pathways for the power to bleed off.

GOOD morning we are now up to $4300,00 that means to me that if the frig works that will be a start. Am getting a Hart 2000 inverter to replace the one that is gone. the power switch box that was made by Todd Engineering which is out of that side of their products will Replace with something that will do the job.the igniter board on the frig may not be the problem,but that is the first of a few thing s I have to look at . The hub cap was 6 feet away from the coach so bearings will have be looked at . no 110 so every socket will be inspected.both airs, tv microwave,.we were watching a dvd at the time and saw that slowly dim out not just go blank. now hotel while working on the coach , car to get around , food ..... Am I missing anything?
lenny

To learn a lesson from this - when camping should we disconnect the electric feed and coil it back up inside the camper if lightening is in the area?

quote:

the power switch box that was made by Todd Engineering which is out of that side of their products will Replace with something that will do the job. ..... Am I missing anything?

Lenny,

Todd Engineering is no longer. Here is a posting I put together on replacing my Todd Eng ATS with a TRC unit that has surge protection built in.

Replacing the ATS in MB Express