My 1999 F-150 is giving me painful static shocks upon getting out of vehicle and touching the body. How can I eliminate this or at least subdue it? I can hold my finger 1/8" away from body and spark will jump.

 

Make sure you do something quick. I was at a gas station just two weeks ago when a young girl got out of her car and as she put the nozzle to the tank...BOOOM! flames everywhere. Station lost an whole island because of static. So I always touch my truck before even touching the pump.

To answer, I carry a drier sheet in my pocket(anti static). still get a little shock on really dry days...

 

Yea,

They did some study on this. That is why on some of the bedliners there is a warning about this. Because the Truck itself builds up static from the bedliner rubbing.

 

Yes, there was a video on the news that showed a guy at a gas station pumping gas and he exploded. It seemed to be caused by startic electricity. I know everytime I get out of my truck, it shocks me too. Never really thought about the gas pump exploding. Scary

 

Please disregard bogus post! :o

 

OK, gunna show my age here but back in my day ................... folks used to have rubber straps hanging from their rear bumpers to the floor. Anyone else remember something along these lines??

Anyway, their purpose was to discharge static electricity to the ground but I'm not sure if they really did work though. Now that I think about it, these same guys also had curb feelers on their rides to !

How many times have you put the key to the door lock in the evning and watch a fat blue spark jump between the two!

 

Yea, I hate that blue light.... They can make an engine block out of ceramic material and yet we still have metal keys....

BTW, Cell phones will cause static too. So dont use your phone and pump gas...

 

For those of you who are about to say WTF is LE PEW talking about....Yes, such a thing did exist.

I haven't seen such a thing in at least 20 years, but they were black rubber strips (often with a lightning bolt on them) that people attached to their back bumper. They were sold in pairs and hung off the back and trailed on the ground.

My grandfather had them on his Rambler, but the idea of having them was somehow connected with grounding the car which improved gas mileage.

You probably will have the same luck finding them as you would with curb-feelers, but JC Whitney may still carry them.

 

I am old enough to remember the rubber straps and also the chains hanging down. All the gasoline transports had the chains. Well, guess I'll just run around with drier sheets in my pockets. At the gas station, I too, touch the body before pumping gas. Thanks for the replies.

 

Thanks guys... you've given further proof that I timewarped back a ways when I moved here. MANY MANY MANY cars here in Belgium have these rubber "things" hanging down from their bumpers and I was wondering what that was all about! It's bad enough I'm in the middle of "farm-ville", now I'm in the 50's too!!!!!

 

It's not the truck building up static, it's you as you slide out from the seat. All that polyester fabric in the seats (or seatcovers) builds up static like crazy. You can get anti-static spray in computer stores or just hold on to a metal part of the truck as you roll yourself out. I grab the edge of the door and hold it when I get out and it only shocks me when I space out and forget to let go of the plastic armrest.

Fritz