Lightning safety in non-metal-roof vehicles like Bronco?

[BearWithMe]

I go camping in my aluminum truck topper in the summer, and I don't worry about the (sometimes violent) thunderstorms we get up here in the mountains. In theory, the metal shell of the car body and truck topper should act like a Faraday cage if it was struck by lightning.

How is that going to work with a Bronco with a plastic MIC top or fiberglass MOD top?

I'm concerned you'll lose the Faraday effect and then your watery meatsack is fair game as a ground path for the lightning. Thoughts? Has anyone else seriously thought about this?

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[mootruck98]

It isn't the roof providing you protection, but the 4 rubber tires insulating the vehicle and yourself from being grounded.

Lightning is looking for the easiest path to ground. The insulation of the tires is the biggest factor. Less conductive material such as a mic roof actually helps as well.

 

[hellahella]

It isn't the roof providing you protection, but the 4 rubber tires insulating the vehicle and yourself from being grounded.

Lightning is looking for the easiest path to ground. The insulation of the tires is the biggest factor. Less conductive material such as a mic roof actually helps as well.

Sooo.. I should probably SAS

 

[RimrockPaul]

I go camping in my aluminum truck topper in the summer, and I don't worry about the (sometimes violent) thunderstorms we get up here in the mountains.

In theory, the metal shell of the car body and truck topper should act like a Faraday cage if it was struck by lightning. How is that going to work with a Bronco with a plastic MIC top or fiberglass MOD top?

I'm concerned you'll lose the Faraday effect and then your watery meatsack is fair game as a ground path for the lightning. Thoughts? Has anyone else seriously thought about this?

I've slept in a fabric tent with metal poles in thunderstorms and never worried about it.
Unless you are a diminutive person I don't know how you'd really stretch out in a new Bronco.

 

[mootruck98]

Sooo.. I should probably SAS

Bigger tire ==> more sidewall ==> greater lightning protection

Safety first!

 

[Zeke013]

your watery meatsack

Leave me body out of this, good sir!

I challenge thee to a duel!

 

[Daktari]

interesting question, I don't plan on finding out the answer though. But lightning in the mountains is something to keep in mind when finding a camp spot or even when hiking. As a kid hiking in Austria we had lightning strike our trail a couple hundred feet in front of us, quite a jarring event. An other time near the top of a mountain it struck the next mountainside over, we were quickly hiding in a cow barn until it passed. And once I took a shower during a lightning storm at my parents house in Germany, lightning struck somewhere near by and I got a light shock. Don't shower during lightning....

I think we would be safe, but with a plastic roof it certainly is no faraday cage. I've experienced some crazy storm in the Tahoe area in summer, so it's certainly something to be aware of.

 

[Offroadrob]

It isn't the roof providing you protection, but the 4 rubber tires insulating the vehicle and yourself from being grounded.

Lightning is looking for the easiest path to ground. The insulation of the tires is the biggest factor. Less conductive material such as a mic roof actually helps as well.

Nope, the lightning just went 2 miles or more through open air, it isn’t going to be stopped by the short gap between the car and the ground.

it’s the metal. The metal provides an easier path than you do, and that should be true of the metal frame.

 

[PSUTE]

 

[dwbronco]

Doesn't the MIC sit on the metal roll cage? It seems to me you are surround by steel, even with no top and no doors. I'm not sure I see the problem.

 

[Techun]

The tiny sheet metal of a car roof makes no difference to lightning.

 

[Corsair]

Do you worry about your meat sack being in danger while you’re inside a house during a lightning storm?

 

[beachman101]

The tiny sheet metal of a car roof makes no difference to lightning.

sometimes it does


sometimes it does not

 

[beachman101]

Just set up a lightning rod if it bothers you.

You are more likely to get killed by a bear or a crackhead

and if you are in dry country the lightning will start a fire before it strikes your car

 

[GiveItaTri]

It isn't the roof providing you protection, but the 4 rubber tires insulating the vehicle and yourself from being grounded.

Lightning is looking for the easiest path to ground. The insulation of the tires is the biggest factor. Less conductive material such as a mic roof actually helps as well.

The tires offer no protection from lightning. That is a myth. As stated above, the metal frame of the vehicle provides the protection. My parent's camper was struck by lightning while parked in their yard. You could see the spot on the rim where the lightning jumped right over the tire and into the ground. The lightning went through the metal frame and into the ground.

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