When I was a child, I remember most cars having a grounding strip, like the one in the picture below:
But nowadays, I don't see any car having them. What is the reason they have disappeared / become unneeded?
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Sign up to join this communityWhen I was a child, I remember most cars having a grounding strip, like the one in the picture below:
But nowadays, I don't see any car having them. What is the reason they have disappeared / become unneeded?
Primary reason would be that vehicle electrical systems ground to the body, not to earth. They're effectively useless.
Back in the day we would often explain away customers complaints about static shocks as the fault of fiber glass belted tires. They were the cheaper alternative to steel belted tires. Maybe they were the cause or it was an excuse to upsell to steel-belts.
My Espaces (several over the years) all with fibreglass bodies, often gave me a shock presumably from built up static. Food for thought - never on wet days. Never tried a grounding strip, but feel that with one, static would automatically go to earth through one rather than through me.
Stops getting a shock from touching the bodywork especially old fashioned chromed door handles. More importantly reduced the risk of spark between fuel nozzle and metal filling pipe on the car. All aircraft fuelling is done after attachment of earthed crocodile clamp for this reason.....even when handling kerosene used in jet engines despite a much lower flash point than petroleum.
If memory serves me correctly the addition of carbon to the rubber of the tire rendered grounding straps no longer needed to dissapate static. This is due to the fact that carbon is highly conductive and achieves the same effect.
I am old enough to remember getting shocks from vehicles especially when coming out of one. I had one shock that burnt a small hole in my fingernail.