AC line from inverter grounded to vehicle chassis
simulate this circuit &ndash; Schematic created using CircuitLab

Figure 1. (a) Floating output. (b) Neutralised output.

If the inverter is fully isolated then grounding either L1 or L2 does not cause affect the battery circuit. Shorting L1 and L2 to each other directly or through the chassis should trip the inverter output protection.

If the output is neutralised by connecting one of the secondaries to chassis then a ground fault on L1 should trip the protective device. Again this should not affect the battery circuit.



From the comments:


  Hmm so if one of the AC leads from the inverter is tied to the vehicle chassis, that means that if the other line somehow ends up tied to the chassis of an AC device (for example, by way of faulty/damaged wiring), touching the metal skin of that device would likely cause AC current to flow through the body?








simulate this circuit

Figure 2. Correct earthing of appliances protects against live chassis.

If your appliances are earthed properly then the situation is exactly the same as domestic or office electrical supply. The earthed case prevents the user being exposed to high voltages and will cause the protective device to trip.

If you omit the earth then you risk electric shock.