NEWS PARTS JEEP & 4x4 ATV & UTV

LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKE!! PLEASE READ!!

520 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Sycho15, Jun 9, 2001

Discussion Starter · Jun 9, 2001

Hey everyone. No, not another Tiki Bar question, rather a short story for you. Its totally true and just happened.

I live in Daytona Beach, FL, for college. As you may already know, Death is Omnipresent in Florida. We have these hellacious thunderstorms every day. Well, tonight while i was at "work" (UPS), my apartment building was struck by lightning. My roommate's computer, the guy upstairs' computer, and the guy across the hall's computer--all fried. They had surge protection. But the lightning hit the PHONE box on the side of the building. My computer was the only one to have the phone line protected. Thats why i'm still online, and they're upset. SO, make sure your computers are protected...and don't go to wal-mart and be a cheapa$$ just to save a few bucks...How much is your computer and the data on it worth to you, not to mention all the headaches of reloading software, etc. None of the computers were even on, by the way, except mine...and the only thing i had happen was a loss of power and my surge suppressor's circuit breaker popped. my roommate's TV also got fried, but mine is protected, cable and electrically. So, my friends, in conclusion, i ask you, "When was the last time you checked your surge protector?"

By the way, as a rule, everything i own worth more than $20 is protected.

mike

Give me Jeep or Give me Death!!!

(Will trade functioning organs for CJ-7 or flatfender)

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Caver Dave

· #2 · Jun 9, 2001

FYI, here's some cheap protection. HTH (next time!)

From "The Complete PC Upgrade & Maintenance Guide" 8th edition By Mark Minasi (was THE text book when I taught this stuff). From Chapter 9, pages 429-430.
" A cheap lightning protection: overhand knots in the power cord. Believe it or not, some researchers found this one out. It makes the lightning work againest itself, and burn out the power cord, NOT the PC."
He goes on to site 2 examples of stuff getting fried. A TV w/o knots= dead, & a PC with knots on both the AC and phone cords= cords black& crispy, PC/modem still working.
I have used this method since 1996 and haven't lost a modem since. I was sceptical also, but living within 300' of a lake seems to attract every stray bolt there is. Prior to this, I lost 7 modems between '94-'95.

Caver Dave
'68 Jeepster SW
225 & 3spd
Vintage Jeeps(ters) have Character,
new Jeeps just have payments.

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DanStew

· #3 · Jun 9, 2001

Caver Dave,
That is an interesting way of vaoltage protaction. I admit I only have power strip with the cheap surge protector. I am getting another computer this week and I will by the Big protector. I live in Florida and Know all too well, because my old roommate got his stuff fried. I was lucky, because I like to unplug everything when it gets bad.

Dan Stewart 1963 CJ5 "Caloosa Jeepers" member

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034

· #4 · Jun 9, 2001

Anytime you plan to leave the house or don't know what the weather will be, and you don't need your computer equipment or other expensive electronics, always, always, always unplug the phone line, the power cord from the wall, move the phone line away from the computer (if the contacts are near the metal case of the computer the voltage could theoretically jump from the line (millions of volts from a direct lightning hit) to the computer and potentially fry it anyhow.

Think about it, if the lightning can jump up to or farther than 60 miles through the sky it could certainly jump the 1/4" to 1/2" on the surge suppresor where the switch is and any fuses in it is. So the bottom line is unplug it when not in use. /wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

Just my $0.02...

Tim "Sandman"

ORC Land Use columnist:
My May Column

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624

· #5 · Jun 9, 2001

This is even more off topic, but one of my lightening experiences is... late one night we had a severe thunderstorm move through, lightening struck a 100+ tall pine tree near the house. The lightening moved down the tree and through the roots, and formed trenches where the roots were. Imagine the trenches radiating out from the tree 75 feet, some were 1' deep. One root was near where the phone line was buried, about 3' deep. It arced into the phone line, exploded and made a crater. Then it traveled into the house, burnt one phone, and arced into the power line through the answering machine. Luckily, it flipped a breaker. At the same time, an exposed phone jack where we were working caught fire, and we put it out before things were bad. Though the breaker was flipped at the fuse panel, we've had major light bulb problems since. Things have improved, but for a while we might get several days use out of a light bulb before itd pop. On the other hand, after the fire was extinguished and we went out to see the damage, the ground was covered with erthworms, there were millions... I guess it was a good time to fish? Also, the computer was unplugged and survived

Now I'm gonna start tying knots in everything

46cj2a beater and pile 0 parts.
75 cherokee parts pile

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130

· #6 · Jun 9, 2001

Hey! I actually knew that knot-tying trick /wwwthreads_images/icons/laugh.gif I learned that from my sailing hobby. The chainplates (where the wires that hold up the mast attach to the boat) usually have copper cables run from them along the hull to the lead keel in the water or to some other anode to allow electricity to ground through. If you have sharp bends in the cable somewhere the lightening would shoot out of the cable into the water, blowing a big hole in the hull...

The perfect surge protecter is the AOL one you can get from Wal-Mart. It has a surge protecter, phone-cord protector, and 4 USB ports built into one side. Very good design and it has a warranty for up to $100,000 worth of damage if it fails. Costs $60.

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