Said I would share this story about a crispy T880 that I was recently involved with. Part 1 It was purchased as a dealer stock unit from Pape’ Kenworth. Then, it was upfitted by a number of entities, including myself, to pull tankers on the North Slope. Including the ability to perform metered pump-offs at rig sights. So, the tractor was parked inside a sister companies shop (big blue) in Anchorage. Literally, it was just finished. My colleague had placed the last strip of conspicuity reflective tape to the cab guard and I was on the phone trying to find a driver to shuttle it to Deadhorse. Billy ( not his real name ) was walking past the T880, still in the shop) and smelled something burning. Opened the passenger side door, saw flames and smoke billowed out of the cab. Billy instantly grabbed a 20lbs ABC and let er’ rip. His next move was to switch the battery switch off. But, the switch was already off. Remember that part.
Part 2 T-555 was a helluva rig, but She had a short life. We probably put a total of 100 miles on her while it was in our fleet. Already gave her the nickname, Triple-Nickel. Here is a picture getting ready to head to Deadhorse.
T-555 Part 3 After the excitement of the fire, I called the Service Manager at Pape’ to come visit before the truck was moved or touched. Great guy, BTW. After he looked at it, we moved it to the yard and I locked up the cab. Called my fav tow company to haul it to Pape’ the next day. Kenworth in Renton was notified. The concern was, Who was responsible for the fire? There was a lot of upfitting done including a Wabasto heater with wiring in the vicinity of where the fire started. It was agreed that I would watch the senior Tech at Pape’ disassemble the dash to determine where the fire started. The job was stinky and the cab was destroyed by the smoke and ABC chemical. Within a short time, it was apparent the fire started at the heater motor. The Kenworth factory engineer, on the phone, told us to stop and lock it up. Kenworth would send a team to Anchorage to further investigate.
Heater motor and point of ignition.
This is going to get interesting.
Part 4 Meanwhile, The T-555 saga continues. The President, Fuel Manager, Risk Management folks and even Big Blue are shook up. Big new fuel contract with a major is on the line, without a rig to deliver with. Witness statements are being prepared, pictures taken, e-mails, meetings and panic. It was documented that the battery disconnect switch was in the off-position. Later, I heard it was not the only T880 to have this occur. Can you imagine doing your 10 hour in the sleeper and waking up to that? Kenworth and Pape’ handled the situation with the upmost in care and responsibility. Let me tell you what they did. Pape’ immediately gave us a new tractor. One digit difference on the VIN. A sister tractor on the lot. Then, they transferred the upfitting to the replacement truck. It only slowed us down about two weeks. Papa’ ate the labor and probably received a portion of their expenses back from KW. The damaged tractor sat at Pape’ for 8 months or so before it disappeared. I have no idea what happened to it. It probably needed a entire cab. IDK if the stink could have ever been removed.
A different shot.
Reflecting back, choosing a T880 for arctic oil field service, delivering to remote rig pads was a bad decision. The president was in a huge rush to put new equipment in service. If you guys remember, in 19, the PACCAR order board was like 9 months out. This T880 was sitting on the lot. They sit too low to the ground. The saddle tanks get hung up or ripped off going over the spill Berms at the drill sites. The plastic bungie hood toggles, don’t toggle when it’s -50F . Yada-yada.
Pray it does not go up in flames like its Kin Those low saddle tanks would be worrisome to me.
You and everything catching fire lol!!! I have figured out today those rubber hood latches don't work when driving 100 miles on rock road that is water boarded, also I need to fiberglass my hood again a new crack started on the other side of last years. Lastly the battery box rubber latches don't work either on the fiberglass top, lost it twice so far down this road or was it three times...
My 990 had a heater motor issue also. And thankful it did not end up like that.
Thanks for sharing the story. It is the type that would be hushed up as soon as possible, probably the reason for the quick response by the dealer and the factory. The potential pool of buyers would likely never hear a word of this but for your post. How long ago did this happen? Hearing of another unit with a heater issue would be troublesome to a service manager. What pops up from the factory when they start to happen is a "fix as fail" notice. The factory doesn't know of the problem to start with but once they start showing up, the alarm bells start to ring. This would be a safety issue so once the root cause is known, the factory campaign notices will start to flow out to all the dealers.
Four years ago Kenworth had a recall for major frame wiring harness. Freightliner has had several recalls for brake issues. Bendix had a voluntary recall for the SR-5 spring brake valve 2014 through 2016. This has become standard operating procedure. Many recalls are out there and are voluntary-you have to dig to find information.
John, That fire occurred 9/10/19. You are correct, PACCAR recalls and TSB’s are not easy to find. They don’t even show up in customer E-CAT, far as I can see. Maybe, you might get something in the mail for recalls.
My experience is that you don't get any warning until you have a loss.
The company is notified of recalls from Freightliner. Whether some like it or not most of it depends on how much a owner spends with a certain manufacture when it comes to those types of recalls. I get a fair amount from dealer service mgrs. or through reliable grapevine. I spend some time looking up parts online for oem parts comparing prices to dealer oem. Every time I see a technical bulletin pfd I click on it because I find voluntary recalls that ARE posted quietly. Even dealer parts mgrs. didn't know about the one below. Because they don't list recall in the address online. But what do I know I'm just a problem to most. https://www.bendix.com/media/documents/recallcenter/sr_5/TCH-003-054_US_001.pdf
Huh, that used to be our sister company. We worked in the same building. Don't exist anymore, got bought out summer 2022. I run a 2021 T880, it replaced a T800. Has worked fine other than some electrical issues. Have about 1600hrs on it (parked indoors)
The NOSI story is pretty wild. One tragedy after another. Wait, what? Do we work together?
I work alone in Prudhoe. We're a 1 man band here. Service all the shops in town and a some on the lease.
Excellent. We’ll probably run into each other, if not already. I left Saltchuk in January 2020 and started my own thing. I occasionally work in Deadhorse and that will likely increase in 24. Oddly enough, my wife has been working at the new clinic at the DAC.
Update on T-555. She has come full circle. The burnt carcass ended up at a local shop. The cab was gutted, and rebuilt with the parts of a similar T-880 that was taken out by a moose. It was painted Carlile Blue and is coming together, nice. The circle of life continues. I’ll try and get some pictures.
Maybe rename it the Burning Moose . . .