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

[Solfive]

Just don’t get Lightning Blue and you’ll be fine.

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[71to21-2DR]

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.

Just make sure your steel belts aren’t showing!! Ha!

 

[71to21-2DR]

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.

Just make sure your steel belts aren’t showing!! Ha!

 

[LostInArizona]

sometimes it does not

Where did all those people come from? And why are they all wearing black?

 

[Bronck]

You probably should be more concerned about a meteor strike with your plastic roof

 

[LSTLAF]

Personally, I'd be more concerned about some 420 'medicated' pothead, or Strip casino drunk blowing through a stoplight and T-boning my driver door. It's probably more statistically likely as well.

 

[Offroadrob]

Is this just as much of a concern while in motion/driving or is it worse when parked

maybe if you’re going faster than 270,000 mph

 

[indio22]

Install some Hurst Lightning Shifters and harness the power, lol. Only thing is, each gear has an individual shifter, so you'd need 10 shifters for the Bronco auto trans!

 

[Toastedtostito]

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.

Lightning jumps to find the fastest way to the ground. It'll see those rubber tires and laugh as it jumps from the struck cab to the ground beneath

 

[HoosierDaddy]

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.

A lightning bolt that traveled through MILES of non-conductive air is not going to be held back by 1/2" of steel belt impregnated rubber.

The Faraday cage effect is probably a MUCH larger factor.

Actually, the watery meat sack doesn't usually recieve the full force of the strike.... if it did, it would explode like what happens to trees fairly often.
Because the body isn't that great of a conductor, the lightning mostly goes around it.

I recall one of our State Troopers had one strike his car. Fried all the electronics, blew all four tires, shortened one of his antenna whips by a foot. He was ok, but STUNNED like a mofo. Lol!

 

[Julz670]

Other than not playing golf during a lightning storm (swinging a metal rod at Zeus doesn't seem smart), I've never actively worried about, or tried to lessen my risk of being hit by lightning.

The wait for our Broncos has definitely gone on too long if this is what we are discussing here...

 

[BearWithMe]

As so many others have pointed out, the tires on your vehicle are insulators...but so what -- lightning has enough voltage potential to jump miles of open air, so about 12 inches of rubber tire is going to provide exactly no obstacle.

I parked next to a Defender 110 a couple days ago with a metal roof. Really has me wishing the Bronco offered a non-removable metal roof as an option. I have zero desire to take the top off, ever.

 

[indio22]

Other than not playing golf during a lightning storm (swinging a metal rod at Zeus doesn't seem smart), I've never actively worried about, or tried to lessen my risk of being hit by lightning.

The wait for our Broncos has definitely gone on too long if this is what we are discussing here...

Some people on the Jeep JL forum last year, were concerned about driving top down ... in case they got COVID infection from a passing car. I told them the odds of that occurring was incredibly low, probably similar or less than getting struck by lightning, but some were still worried. Human threat perception is an interesting thing.

I was once in Rocky Mountain National Park on a high rock outcropping with metal geographic marker, when a storm blew in, and I felt my hair start to raise up a bit like there was an electrical charge in the air. I got down off there quick just in case. Otherwise a vehicle occupant lighting strike is ultra low on my concern list. If I get hit in that situation then my time was up.

 

[wjfawb0 [hacked account]]

I would worry more about ice missiles from buildings and overpasses in a soft top.

My friend's honda civic was totaled when lightning struck it in a gravel parking lot one day. The lightning went into the roof making a hole in it, fried many electrical things in the car, and jumped to ground. I also once witnessed a tin roofed tobacco barn being struck by lightning. Just as predicted, the lightning ran down the gutter downspouts and made the last foot jump into ground through rocks that were being used as erosion guards under the downspouts. Rocks shattered form the heating.

 

[noahr]

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?

the tires DO help save you and objectively you still have the roll cage, also jeeps and every other convertible have been like this for years and also many cars now have glass or composite roofs as it is. You will be fine this is 100 percent not an issue and that isnt even considering the statistical probabilities that you could get struck

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