Another Fire

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Chance

Looks like a Winnebago Vista 29VE and 4-door Wrangler.

Must be a popular combination.

By Chance that is my coach short the Jeep

There is Generator on left rear compartment, propane furnace on the rear beneath the window, and propane line for grill to the right in little square box that is gone.

I am a tad confused as to why some are saying it started with the Jeep? I don't think the Jeep was running so what am I missing?

I am gonna make some assumptions, it was too hot to run the furnace. The grill outlet would be low risk to start a fire; so that leaves the generator. Driver may have wanted the ACs on and had generator running which sprung a gas link and fire spread to Jeep while driving?

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

By Chance that is my coach short the Jeep

There is Generator on left rear compartment, propane furnace on the rear beneath the window, and propane line for grill to the right in little square box that is gone.

I am a tad confused as to why some are saying it started with the Jeep? I don't think the Jeep was running so what am I missing?

I am gonna make some assumptions, it was too hot to run the furnace. The grill outlet would be low risk to start a fire; so that leaves the generator. Driver may have wanted the ACs on and had generator running which sprung a gas link and fire spread to Jeep while driving?

I have to go back and check but I believe the temp that morning was in the 40s, too cool for AC. It was a cool March and April in Myrtle this year

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

I am a tad confused as to why some are saying it started with the Jeep? I don't think the Jeep was running so what am I missing?

When you don't tow the jeep with the transfer case in neutral and spin the transmission and engine they heat up well above their operating temperature which can start an engine fire before they blow up.

There is more of the front of the Jeep completely gone than there is the back of the motorhome.

But as pointed out before, we'll probably never know for sure so it's all WAGs.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

When you don't tow the jeep with the transfer case in neutral and spin the transmission and engine they heat up well above their operating temperature which can start an engine fire before they blow up.

There is more of the front of the Jeep completely gone than there is the back of the motorhome.

But as pointed out before, we'll probably never know for sure so it's all WAGs.

I beg to differ. There is no roof on the rear of the motorhome. That backend was burning for quite some time to burn off half the roof.

As to the transfer case not Bering in neutral that is speculation only with no shred of proof. And it was predicated on another post where a person did just that, so with that being presented all RV fires where a Jeep was towed had to be because the owner didn’t put the transfer in neutral.

Horse Hockey.

[Judge]

So I was in the Jeep crowd thinking the Jeep transfer case was not in neutral and the transmission and engine overheated and started the fire.

There was one of these cases that just happened not too long ago to a brand new Class A and Rubicon that were total losses for over $500K. The Rubicon was left in gear anf it was estimated the engine was turning tens of thousands of RPM's at highway speeds until it exploded, caught fire and wiped out everything.

I blew up the picture and looked more closely at it and now I'm starting to change my mind.

It apears the hood is in tact (metal) but all of the plastic components (fenders, grill, etc.) are missing and assumed melted from the heat. Likely same for the front tires. Looking at the interior there does not seem to be any signs of fire in the Jeep.

The bumper doesn't seem to have much fire damage and the aluminum ladder would have likely melted or at least distorted from the heat of an external Jeep induced fire.

The tow bar and the rubber stone shield also don't appear to have a lot of fire damage either. That also would say there was not fire low to the ground.

When I look closer at the coach, the roof is gone in the back and most of the heavy damage seems to be from the middle of the back wall upwards.

I don't think the fire started low. It looks like it started somewhere in the back of the coach.

But as was said..... it's all conjecture and interesting to play detective.

[16ACE27]

Soooooo, maybe someone was smoking in bed as the MBR is right at the rear of the coach and below the new "skylight"?

Is the power center below the bed? Might have started there.

[Judge]

All of the electronics are under the bed in my Magnitude. There is a boat load of wiring under there and we all know they tend not to be the best or cleanest wiring job.

When I was installing my hardwired EMS when the coach was a week old, I took the cover off the transfer switch and found a several 2" long screws rolling around in it. Talk about construction debris!!!! I could easily see where they could have caused a serious short and possible fire if I was driving with the generator running.

I also found the gauge of wiring running from the transfer switch to the power distribution center was lighter than what was listed in the schematics. When I brought it to Thor's attention they claimed the schematic was wrong and the shorter run from the output of the transfer switch was short and the thinner wire was acceptable. Not sure I bought that entirely.

If the electronics bay was under the bed, it would not be out of the question that a fire could have started there if the generator was running and something got hot or shorted. It would certainly seem to jive where the bulk of the damage seems to be.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Is the power center below the bed? Might have started there.

All of the electricals are underneath a dinette table bench in main cabin. Only thing under the bed is large storage space and fresh water tank underneath it.

I noticed the overhead storage cabinets that are over the bed directly under the brand new sky view window, They are all made of wood; so you would think it would have burned more?

The only thing on passenger side of relevance is the Outdoor fridge. It is wired to Inverter. You can see the Fridge hatch opened?

There is 32" TV above the burnt window on rear driver side. It too is wired to Inverter circuit.

But my focus is the generator. Notice how the door and the green Onan genset cover appear to be burnt to a crisp if not vaporized? I don't think a fire that would have started outside the genset compartment would have managed to get inside to burn the generator like that? The compartment next to genset is the electrical bay with ATS etc., but if you look at the door, while it a little toasted not burned; that suggest to me heat from possible generator fire. There is plenty of wood on the inside that once burning would burn easily. There are also two propane lines very close to genset. I can't speak for the line running to furnace, but the line to the grill connection is a simple rubber hose and I can see that getting so hot melting and making the fire worse? It may have been like a torch blowing on the jeep which caused it to ignite.

What I would love to see is the front because it looks like a fire was over the front windshield on driver side?

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Judge

All of the electronics are under the bed in my Magnitude. There is a boat load of wiring under there and we all know they tend not to be the best or cleanest wiring job.

When I was installing my hardwired EMS when the coach was a week old, I took the cover off the transfer switch and found a several 2" long screws rolling around in it. Talk about construction debris!!!! I could easily see where they could have caused a serious short and possible fire if I was driving with the generator running.

I also found the gauge of wiring running from the transfer switch to the power distribution center was lighter than what was listed in the schematics. When I brought it to Thor's attention they claimed the schematic was wrong and the shorter run from the output of the transfer switch was short and the thinner wire was acceptable. Not sure I bought that entirely.

If the electronics bay was under the bed, it would not be out of the question that a fire could have started there if the generator was running and something got hot or shorted. It would certainly seem to jive where the bulk of the damage seems to be.

Here is picture under the bed in MBR. The access panel is to the water tank but the pump for water tank is actually in the wet bay so it is quiet inside bedroom when sleeping

The 2nd picture is a picture of the roof, as you can see; I did not get the panoramic sky light view option