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Goodness, gracious 3bals RV a-fire!

Ok, here's an update with pictures, I just got back from Atlantic, IA (about 120 miles east of Lincoln, just off of I-80) at 11pm an hour and a half ago.

Got to Atlantic, IA about 1PM today (8/4) Jody and his wife Connie had already been there a couple of three hours, having left very early in the morning to drive down from the Twin Cities.

It's totalled, there is fire, smoke, chemical extinguisher and water damage to the entire interior. We spent until 5:30 salvaging what we could as far as vehicle parts, on board tools and spare parts and their personal items like pots and pans in the kitchen (the beer in the fridge survived!) and odds and ends in the drawers under the couches and the stuff in the basement side compartments.

Now, Jody's a retired Minneapolis firefighter EMT who also took care of Smoke Jumpers as well as SCUBA trained. As soon as the flames/smoke was detected coming out from around the base of the doghouse, he got the rig pulled over, grabbed the Class ABC 10 pounder and got the front "hood" open and got the fire in the engine compartment knocked down and out. Problem was the fire had got the carpet and front seats going by then and it was all she wrote for the interior. Luckily, Iowa State Patrol was quick on the scene with their extinguishers and Jody said several passers-by stopped and used their extinguishers, too. A funny aside he told me was that while he was dousing down the front compartment/engine with his extinguisher, the heat made the A/C hose at the top of the condenser let go, instantly dumping all of the R134 charge right into his face, making him think for a split second that the engine was blowing up.

Consensus looking at the engine compartment and the frontal area where the A/C, radiator, wiper reservoir air filter/box, several wiring terminal blocks and multiple wiring looms - as big as 1½" in diameter with probably 30+ wires in it as well as several smaller looms with 5-10 wires - is it was an electrical fire that started in there and blew back into the engine compartment/doghouse.

Overall, the P400 looks very salvageable, most of the "damage" to the topside is chemical extinguisher residue and charred doghouse remains. The insulation blankets on the up-pipes and the turbo were intact, NO evidence of any exhaust leakage anywhere, @Will L. , as all up-pipe connections were V-band clamps and the Peninsular S200/300 turbo was a T-3 mount. Turbo to intake hose was intact. Valve covers looked good, no paint charring! What sucked was that was a NEW (not rebuilt) IP on there, PMD came through fine, it was a Heath Stanadyne unit with the plate mounted low behind the bumper.

Behind the P400 is that ultra-heavy duty built Road Ripper 4L80E built by Certified Transmissions with less than 30K miles on it. While I was under the front end taking off the PMD w/sink, other than where green extinguisher chemical and water had ran down from above, everything looked really clean - no burned engine paint, etc.

Here's an idea how hot the fire got in the living compartment. Jody had just bought a new pair of yellow Optima batteries for the engine (not coach 12V) which mount in a slide out tray in a compartment behind the driver's front wheel under the floor where the generator is, with the side mount terminals facing forward. The temperature of the fire got so hot, that the lead of the battery's terminals melted out of the battery! What sucks is that he had just filled up in Des Moines, so there's still 55 gallons of fresh diesel in the tank and the propane-fueled Onan 3.5KW generator had just been serviced.

What bites is that the cost to trailer it back to the Twin Cities is ridiculously expensive, and then Jody would have to hire somebody to drop the engine and transmission out of it, as with the P-30 chassis the motor and tranny go in and out from underneath, requiring the entire front suspension to be dropped as an assembly to drop the motor. Of course, with the fiberglass burned/shot as well as everything forward of the radiator shroud, I suppose one could just cut the offending body/fried front out of the way and just use a cherry picker/forklift to pull the engine and transmission. What else sucks is that Jody had just put new 19.5" tires on the front and a brake job prior to this trip. He and Connie will finish up tomorrow, all's left is to have the towing company pull it forward about 3' because they backed it in tight to the lot's chainlink fence, making it impossible to remove the very expensive tow bar for the Equinox nor to open the rear compartment hatch.20210804_131323.jpg20210804_131326.jpg20210804_131340.jpg20210804_131352.jpg20210804_132403.jpg20210804_132352.jpg20210804_133706.jpg20210804_133747.jpg20210804_131414.jpg20210804_133828.jpg
 
Wow. Being a pro fire killer he knew to have a big extinguisher and knows some of what he is looking at from causes. I live in speculation world of what started things.

Yeah- that r134a that popped had to race the heart! Now think about this folks- what if that refrigerant was one of the flammable ones? He said it blew right into his face. What if he wanted that extra 5° colder air? Or got it because it is a little cheaper than the normal stuff? This whole story would have been changed. He would still be in the burn unit today, or worse. So glad to hear it was a scary story not a horror story. Flammable fuel and oils are bad enough without us adding flammable a/c juice or flammable coolant.

So the primary fire started the interior fire. What started the primary fire? I see all the deeply cooked plywood around the turbo.
Does he think that turbo heat got to it and started the whole mess?

On the side post melting out- i have seen that a few times from a starter hanging up and it overheats the cable- and that tiny bolt is the weak link. My hummer did it, I had been putting off going to top post just from convenience of it working. Obviously that had me finally get it done. But his melted & charred battery sure looks like just sitting in the fire made it a victim not a culprit.

I knew he flange mounted the turbo, but was thinking the figure 8 seal where the center mount gm7 would have went could still fail and cause an oil leak.

Man I hope the insurance covers those 2 Picasso paintings lost in the fire!

Yeah, most rv get scraped not auctioned- that p400 is salvagable without question, and it will probably get the crusher. But our friend Jody rub his face this morning without pain- so forget that hunk of metal!
 
Wonderful news was that no one received any serious injuries. Aaand, that they were able to get their cats out. Usually something out of the ordinary happens and cats go into hide and self defense mode. Get a hold of them and it turns i to all claws. That alone can cause some serious injuries.
Maybe He can find a nice GMT400 to install that engine and transmission into. 🤷‍♂️
 
@Will L. It was an ELECTRICAL fire, NOT a turbo heat fire, that appears to have started in one of the big wiring looms under the "hood", that appears to have made its way up the firewall and in behind the dash, then the flames got the seat upholstery and the headliner fabric, which dripped flaming goo all over the dining/kitchen area. The bed is a queen unit that lowers down from the ceiling just behind the driver's/passenger's seats between the two side couches ahead of the galley area. The underside headliner material was burnt off of it, headliner gone all the way back to the rear bathroom, the exhaust fan/housing in the middle of the kitchen area melted and was hanging by its wires (you can see it in the photos looking aft interior) The exterior engine compartment fire was extinguished rather quickly, it was mainly interior dash/headliner/front seating upholstery fire with lots of smoke damage.

The "hood" on the motorhome is that small opening above the grille, below the blown out windshield glass in the photo Jody sent me two days ago, that I posted that day. It's about a 1' deep space that held the windshield washer reservoir, coolant overflow tank, air box intake and filter box, heater core/blower and duct hoses, and an assload of wiring harnesses/terminal blocks to the dashboard directly above (this is a fiberglass body on a P-30 chassis, the motor/doghouse sits between the two front seats) and out to the body, probably like your old Matco Tools stepvan. What you see in the first photo above is looking through the "hood" opening at the top of the A/C condenser and the top of the radiator/support/braces, a LOT of charred wires/harnesses and on the right the A/C hose that melted/blew.

Photo #2 is zoomed in some more, looking over the top of the radiator into the engine compartment. You can clearly see the front of the virtually undamaged Turbo blanket covering the Borg-Warner S200/300 T-3 mount turbo. Remember, the entire exhaust system - manifolds, up pipes, turbo base flange - were all made from stainless steel plate and tubing with flanges and V-band clamps.

Photos #3&4 are looking in through the front passenger side window opening. On the left is the front edge of the remains of the passenger seat foam - fabric upholstery gone - and you're looking across the front half of the opening in the floor under the doghouse. That long, diagonal tube is the transmission dipstick. Notice the unburnt wiring in the upper right, the intact FFM, you can see the alternator and engine fan to the right. All that grayish shit isn't melted down engine stuff, it's 10 pounds of dry extinguisher chemical (there's also some greenish-yellow chemical from the Troopers' and passerbys' extinguishers in/on the compartment/interior of the motorhome) that had been shot in over the top of the radiator through the "hood" opening.

Photos #5&6 Are of the front driver's side open-bottom (for airflow/ventilation for the generator) belly compartment which housed the engine batteries and Onan generator. The batteries mounted side by side with terminals forward on a slide out frame tray in front of the Onan. Photo #5 is the inboard Optima, lifted out of the extended rack, turned and sitting on the ground to get a picture of the melted out side posts. Photo #6 is the inboard battery Positive cable remains laying across the battery tray frame in front of the outboard lower corner of the Onan. You can see the back corner of the extended battery tray above the two battery cables that ran to the Onan's starter. The front of the battery/generator compartment is the wheel well.

Photo #7 is standing straight over the doghouse opening looking straight down. Note the following carefully, the engine topside and the wiring is mainly intact! A/C hoses and drive belt is toastYou can still see the colors of the wiring insulation, FFM is virtually intact (some in/out rubber hoses are toasted) the turbo and up pipe blankets are fine. Those indistinguishable "blobs" that look like meltdown are chunks of water/extinguisher chemical logged insulation off the underside of the doghouse. Note, too, that the floor had been cut away more than sufficiently to clear the turbo's turbine and compressor housings. You can see where the carpet burned right up to the edge of the inside of the dog house from the flames being blown back around the inside edge of the dog house from the "hood" electrical fire that caught the front edge of the carpet on fire (the floor carpet acted as a sound/air gasket between the dog house cover and the interior), but virtually no damage to the rear of the motor!

Photo #8 is standing in front of the refrigerator looking aft towards the galley/dining nook and the rear bathroom. Other than the burnt away missing headliner, the dangling, melted exhaust fan, and the smoke and water damage - the oak cabinetry, sink, stove/oven dinette and shades came through fine, you could almost sit in the chairs and grab a bite to eat at the dinette, if it wasn't for the light black carbon coating on everything. Note the dog house cover, underside up, leaning up against the counter in front of the sink, front to the top. Note the smoke/burn mark is only on the front, from the "hood" fire blowing back. Look closely next to the coffee maker next to the stovetop and overhead microwave, the roll of paper towels is hanging there unscathed and ready to use!

Photo #9 is taken from a little further back, standing just behind the driver and passenger's seats. To the right is the edge of the refrigerator, smoke damaged but operable (remember, two days after the fire the canned beers inside were still cool to the touch and sweating!) and part of the sofa is visible, with melted headliner and upholstery damage. There is burn damage to the oak veneer on the wall of the entrance stairway, and you can see where melted headliner dripped down it.

Photo #10 is standing at the top of the entrance steps looking forward. To the right is the love seat, to the left the sofa (with a speaker grill laying on it). Above them is the bed that lowers from the ceiling, headliner burned away and some fire damage/melting of the foam mattress, but I didn't get a shot of that. You can't see it too clearly, but the dash/instrument cluster in front of the driver's seat, as well the dash extension across the front, is toast. The cluster melted out of the dash and the front part of the steering wheel melted away.
 
Wonderful news was that no one received any serious injuries. Aaand, that they were able to get their cats out. Usually something out of the ordinary happens and cats go into hide and self defense mode. Get a hold of them and it turns i to all claws. That alone can cause some serious injuries.
Maybe He can find a nice GMT400 to install that engine and transmission into. 🤷‍♂️
Actually, it was one of the cats that alerted Connie that something was amiss, she looked down to see smoke coming out from under the dash above the dog house cover. Then they really began to see/smell it.

@MrMarty51, unfortunately, as explained above, you can't just "pull" the motor and tranny from a P-30 chassis like you can with a pickup/burb. It has to be up on a lift or over a pit on stands, pull the front cross members and suspension and drop it from below. It is financially non-feasible to Jody to salvage the engine/tranny, even if he wanted to, due to the logistics involved of location of the motorhome, lack of facilities in that town of 5,000 to do it, lack of technician knowing what he's doing, etc. Bringing it all the way back to the Twin Cities (300+ miles) is a financial no-go. Yes, with the original Peninsular P-400 engine build, transmission build and drivetrain swap I guessing, but I'm sure Jody had well over $20K in it in parts and labor when he did the project. We briefly discussed pulling the drivetrain yesterday, but the cost of flat-bedding the motorhome back to the RV/Semi Truck shop that did the original install would be outrageously expensive in its own right. Then another $3-4000 labor to pull it? Not worth it. It sucks that we couldn't pull the Onan, or any of the inverter/regulator equipment.

Yesterday/today's mission was to salvage all personal belongings possible from inside and in the storage bays (like clothing/personal items, the tools/tool cabinet, spare parts like PMD/cooler N.I.B., new Alternator, spare IP and injector set, spare GPs, camping gear like Colman lantern, propane grill, the various ship to shore electrical cords and various adapters, extension cords, fresh water hose, the two new Optimas, all the new exterior replacement LED marker/turn/stop bulbs Jody had installed, etc. Today's mission was to have the towing company pull the motorhome forward about 3' from the fence they had backed it up against, so Jody could get the expensive, custom flat tow bar for the Equinox out of the receiver hitch and get the rear storage compartment door above the rear bumper open and unload the stuff in there. Then take the small utility trailer stuffed full of these items (and the back of the Equinox, too) and head back home to the Twin Cities, a four-plus hour drive.
 
Thanks for all the well wishes. I will post more photos when I get time. It's been a busy week so far. I'll go into more details later. Last night while in Iowa, I was notified that my brother had passed due to his cancer and I have to deal with that first.
 
Yeah, I failed to mention that he and Connie received notice of Jody's brother passing while we were having dinner last night, I figured that was something he should address, if at all, in this thread.

When it rains, it pours. This whole saga with the motorhome occured because they were headed to Denver for a wedding, then a short vacation afterwards on the way back to the Twin Cities.
 
Our deepest condolences.. I think everyone here can relate and know what you are going through..☹️... Will keep you all in prayer..
 
Just a side note...the r.v. tragedy could have been even worse... thankful he and his wife knew to have a extinguisher in the rig... They can make a huge difference in a situation keeping bad from turning worse.. I advise any and all to make sure they have a APPROPRIATE extinguisher in the trucks/ vehicles...and make sure it's where you can grab it quick on your way out the vehicle if possible... I keep 2 in the cab and a 10lb in the tool box... And (this isn't nesacery ) but I have stickers on both sides of the truck that say "extinguisher inside"... helpful in case a fellow motorist is in trouble..they can see your equipt to help... actually had a state trooper grab mine out of the truck in a parking lot one time..(another car in lot was on fire and he'd already emptied his on it..).
 
I just wanted to send a quick message to you guys.

First, thanks for your well wishes and thoughts.

Second, I will be explaining the events as they happened the best I can, later. Not only have we been busy with my brother's estate, but also gathering documentation for the insurance company for the loses because of the fire. And, our internet has been down for a couple weeks, making things a little slower and more difficult.

Third, I wanted to let you know that the motorhome is in Iowa somewhere at the insurance yard and will be available for buyback. I will post more info when I get it. I just thought I'd let you know sooner than later, so if anyone is interested and in the region?

I hate typing this all on my phone and it takes me forever.
 
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