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Goodness, gracious 3bals RV a-fire!

3bals said:
Second, I will be explaining the events as they happened the best I can, later.
Click to expand...

As an aside I know many, myself included, would like to read your full story on this. Esp. as you are a first responder and from that perspective.

Have you decided on a replacement, still looking, or letting the market cool some?

Don't forget the generator also has some value ... unless it got pulled out already.
 
I think I have it all figured out now. I have a local towing company to tow it back to my area for $1500 and I'll be able to get $500 back from AAA. I also have a place to store it for free and a guy to do the work to remove the engine and stuff, then scrap the rest. Fingers crossed!
 
3bals said:
I think I have it all figured out now. I have a local towing company to tow it back to my area for $1500 and I'll be able to get $500 back from AAA. I also have a place to store it for free and a guy to do the work to remove the engine and stuff, then scrap the rest. Fingers crossed!
Click to expand...
Happy to hear You got it all worked out.
Do You have plans for the engine and transmission ?
 
Great to hear that, Jody! Happy Birthday, too! How were those smoked ribs?

Remember, unlike when you did the P400/Road Ripper install, they no longer have to come out from underneath using a pit/lift, since it's all toast anyway (pun intended) just cut the nose apart back to the doghouse opening in the floor, unbolt the motor from tranny, frame mounts, peripherals, roll the boom into the front of it, lift the motor and back out. Tranny would be about the same, maybe some cutting of the floor to get it out, or a big enough hoist pull as a unit.

Hell, borrow a "Jaws of Life" from one of your buddies still in the Department. A few well-placed snips and you'll have cut open the nose, windshields, dash/firewall and a bit of floor and have free access to it all to pull right out. Sell the rims/tires, rear axle, generator and anything else salvageable (RV commode, dual power fridge, range, whatever) and you may make back most of the towing/storage costs, too.
 
WarWagon said:
As an aside I know many, myself included, would like to read your full story on this. Esp. as you are a first responder and from that perspective.

Have you decided on a replacement, still looking, or letting the market cool some?

Don't forget the generator also has some value ... unless it got pulled out already.
Click to expand...


I told you I'd get to it eventually. Although we are still dealing with the insurance company and trying to finish my brother's estate. Here is the story as I told it to the insurance company.

"We left home on 8/2/21 enroute to Colorado for a wedding on 8/7/21. After getting fuel in Des Moines, we were traveling westbound on I80. I had the cruise set at 68 mph (it's the optimum speed for traveling). At the time we were listening to a story that was on a USB storage device plugged into the stereo. A few minutes before we noticed the fire, the story started skipping ahead and back a few chapters. At about 2:30pm as we were trying to figure out what was going on with the story, one of the 2 cats we were traveling with, started meowing frantically. We were looking around to see what she was meowing about, when we saw flames coming through the floor between the driver's and passenger seats. I quickly pulled over to the shoulder of I80 near mile marker 74. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and used some of it on the carpet, but could see that the engine was on fire. I went outside, opened the hood and emptied the rest of the extinguisher on the engine. By that time others were pulling over to help with their extinguishers. Then law enforcement arrived and used their extinguishers before the fire trucks arrived and extinguished the fire."

We were able to get out with the 2 cats safely and retreat to our car that we were towing behind the motorhome, which we disconnected and moved back a ways to be safe. We lost both of our cell phones and my wallet, which made things more difficult, but we got through it.

I don't have any plans for the engine at this time, but my wife thinks I should sell it. The thing is, if I sell it, I would need to cover my cost of retrieving it plus a little for the engine itself.
 
And I'll throw my two cents in as I spent several hours with Jody and his wife helping to salvage what they could from it from the towing yard in Atlantic a day or two later and started this post and posted a few pics I took of the damage.

Please, Jody, feel free to use your expertise and experience as a retired firefighter and jump on in if you think I've made a false assumption or misinterpretation of what I saw/photographed that day in Atlantic.

From what I saw, the fire did NOT start due to heat from the turbo, exhaust or the engine itself. Other than the chemicals from the extinguishers all over everywhere and a couple of burned insulation wires stretched across the the engine compartment and the wiring harness to the IP, the engine compartment damage was pretty much confined to the front 2/3 of the ~1" of carpet around the engine floor opening and to the corresponding area of the underside of the doghouse cover. When I went underneath and looked up, both sides and the bottom of the motor showed absolutely no heat/fire/burn damage and was as clean as a running 6.5TD could be.

What I did see was quite a bit of fire/heat damage under the "hood" area that is in front and above the radiator, with two big wiring harness bundles with multiple gauges of wires from what looked to be about 4 ga down to 14 ga - ALL with all the insulation burned off of them from the hood area that led up/came down from the passageway that goes up between the front nose panel and firewall to the back of the dash. What I also saw was smoke/burn marks going back from that area, over top of the radiator and to the fringe of the floor carpeting around the opening that was near those bundles going up to behind the dash area and the burn marks going over to the carpet on the driver side the motor the doghouse bottom seals down to that had burned about halfway around that opening and over to the passenger side - and was most likely the cause of the flames/smoke the cat and humans reacted to/saw. This makes perfect sense as the air coming in through the grill and "hood" area while driving would have greatly fanned any hot melting plastic insulation into flames and then blown the flaming, dripping plastic insulation back into the engine compartment and onto the carpet fringe.

Interior-wise you could see where there was definitely a hot fire from behind/inside the dash that got hot enough to melt part of the dash, char/shatter the the windshields and got high enough to get the fabric headliner on the underside of the front loft bed that lowers from the ceiling and burned back the headliner back to the galley/dining area.

When I took pictures of the melted out (+) terminal of the inboard Optima Yellow Top in the battery compartment, I thought it was due to heat/flames from the motor compartment fire. Then I started looking closer at my photos and realized that the battery compartment is completely separated from the engine compartment with steel panels, and is down low behind the right front tire and there was NO evidence of flames anywhere near the wheel well/battery box.

CONCLUSION: There was a short in one of the main harnesses - either internally to a ground wire or from rubbing against a frame/chassis part - pre-fuseblock, (possibly that one big cable that could very well have been the main Positive feed to the fuse block on the side of the dash) that not only got hot enough to melt, then catch on fire, the insulation but pulled enough current to melt out the lead Optima side terminal leaving the steel bolt and copper side lug intact. The wiring heat/fire just amplified behind the dash and the voltage surges/heat could very well be the reason why the USB/Stereo was acting funky just before the cat discovered the fire and all sh*t hit the fan, so to speak.

Well Jody @3bals, what do you think of my observations, reason for the fire?
 
Husker6.5 said:
And I'll throw my two cents in as I spent several hours with Jody and his wife helping to salvage what they could from it from the towing yard in Atlantic a day or two later and started this post and posted a few pics I took of the damage.

Please, Jody, feel free to use your expertise and experience as a retired firefighter and jump on in if you think I've made a false assumption or misinterpretation of what I saw/photographed that day in Atlantic.

From what I saw, the fire did NOT start due to heat from the turbo, exhaust or the engine itself. Other than the chemicals from the extinguishers all over everywhere and a couple of burned insulation wires stretched across the the engine compartment and the wiring harness to the IP, the engine compartment damage was pretty much confined to the front 2/3 of the ~1" of carpet around the engine floor opening and to the corresponding area of the underside of the doghouse cover. When I went underneath and looked up, both sides and the bottom of the motor showed absolutely no heat/fire/burn damage and was as clean as a running 6.5TD could be.

What I did see was quite a bit of fire/heat damage under the "hood" area that is in front and above the radiator, with two big wiring harness bundles with multiple gauges of wires from what looked to be about 4 ga down to 14 ga - ALL with all the insulation burned off of them from the hood area that led up/came down from the passageway that goes up between the front nose panel and firewall to the back of the dash. What I also saw was smoke/burn marks going back from that area, over top of the radiator and to the fringe of the floor carpeting around the opening that was near those bundles going up to behind the dash area and the burn marks going over to the carpet on the driver side the motor the doghouse bottom seals down to that had burned about halfway around that opening and over to the passenger side - and was most likely the cause of the flames/smoke the cat and humans reacted to/saw. This makes perfect sense as the air coming in through the grill and "hood" area while driving would have greatly fanned any hot melting plastic insulation into flames and then blown the flaming, dripping plastic insulation back into the engine compartment and onto the carpet fringe.

Interior-wise you could see where there was definitely a hot fire from behind/inside the dash that got hot enough to melt part of the dash, char/shatter the the windshields and got high enough to get the fabric headliner on the underside of the front loft bed that lowers from the ceiling and burned back the headliner back to the galley/dining area.

When I took pictures of the melted out (+) terminal of the inboard Optima Yellow Top in the battery compartment, I thought it was due to heat/flames from the motor compartment fire. Then I started looking closer at my photos and realized that the battery compartment is completely separated from the engine compartment with steel panels, and is down low behind the right front tire and there was NO evidence of flames anywhere near the wheel well/battery box.

CONCLUSION: There was a short in one of the main harnesses - either internally to a ground wire or from rubbing against a frame/chassis part - pre-fuseblock, (possibly that one big cable that could very well have been the main Positive feed to the fuse block on the side of the dash) that not only got hot enough to melt, then catch on fire, the insulation but pulled enough current to melt out the lead Optima side terminal leaving the steel bolt and copper side lug intact. The wiring heat/fire just amplified behind the dash and the voltage surges/heat could very well be the reason why the USB/Stereo was acting funky just before the cat discovered the fire and all sh*t hit the fan, so to speak.

Well Jody @3bals, what do you think of my observations, reason for the fire?
Click to expand...
The windshield was broken out by the firefighters to get the wet stuff on the red stuff.
 
3bals said:
Ok, here's the deal. I still have access to the P-400 powered motorhome. It is sitting in the insurance yard in Des Moines, IA. They want it gone. I tried to find someplace in the area to remove the engine/tranny and such. No luck! Either they didn't respond to my request or the wanted too much $$. So now I'm looking for some place local to do the work if I have it towed here. Or If somebody on here would like it, you can have someplace to tow and do the work, let me know. I'll need to know by Monday 12/20/21, so I can let the insurance company know.
Click to expand...

So... How did this turn out? Anyone get the engine or did the insurance co have to dispose of the RV, engine and all?
 
I finally got around to reading this. So sorry for your loss on so many levels!

Keep us posted on the outcome, I might be able to find a farmer who can help via a farm forum in case other plans fall through.

Keep your chin up, sounds like that thing is begging for a clean texas pickup that is in need of a engine.
 
WarWagon said:
So... How did this turn out? Anyone get the engine or did the insurance co have to dispose of the RV, engine and all?
Click to expand...
I still own it and finally got the insurance check last Sat for the vehicle itself. Still waiting for the check for all my personal property that was lost.

I've had a couple of people that wanted the engine, but nobody can come up with a plan on how to get it. I have contacted a local towing company to get it back to me, but they are having staffing issues and haven't got it yet. I have a place here to store it for a while and a guy to remove what I want before we scrap the remains.

So yes, it is still available.

Jody
 
Glad the deadline was extended esp. giving the staffing, supply, sick people, etc. issues going on. I wondered if that was a reasonable exception. Hopefully the insurance Co is being halfway reasonable to work with: and no you likely can't comment on that till it's all done.
 
I would love to buy the engine from Jody. but my issue would be not having the means to travel out there much less pulling it or helping remove parts he wanted from his rv for him. I would have to have it or another engine crated and shipped
 
The nice thing is that to pull the engine/transmission, the RV will no longer have to be put on a lift/over a pit and then lowered out from below from the P30 chassis. Since the windshields are trash, as is the dash/front interior, you could just cut out and remove the front sheet metal and floor pan in front of the doghouse opening, roll an engine hoist/forklift in, and pull them either as a unit or separately.
 
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