Okay, I wrote about this somewhere else before, but I can't for the life of me remember where. Anyways this happened just the other day again in my area, and I think its a lot more common than it used to be. I've had one crane on fire before, electrical, and I had left it running warming up, and went to the other side of a powerhouse project to look what we were doing, and pulled up in the pickup just in time to put it out with a fire extinguisher. Electrical. I've been in one pickup that caught on fire, but that was due to a careless smoker and boxes in the bed. But lately it seems everywhere I drive I see blackened out pavement/melted blacktop, or big swaths of ditches burned, where trucks have just burned to the ground. I think the regen burn cycles are way too hot, but maybe its just that the trucks are way more plastic and aluminum now, so when they get going they just get so much hotter, and burn to the ground. The older trucks were more steel (ford louiville, mack, etc) and less plastic and aluminum so they didn't burn as hot. Am I crazy, or just turning into a old man about everything being worse than it used to (I hope not). It just seems to me that there are more and more trucks/equipment burning down? First picture is 10 miles down the road from my shop. Second picture is a newer RT that burned down.
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I notice it more too. I think it’s a combo of the regen temps as well as the materials they’re made of today. You get used to the smell and heat associated with the emissions induced exhaust temps and think nothing of it when they’re hot and smelly. By the time you see fire it’s most likely too late. Years ago, when my 2008 KW was nearly new I got snowed in around Amarillo. As the truck idled it went into regen. When it was done a 50’ circle around the truck was bone dry, not just melted but dry. If that’s not excessive heat I don’t know what is.
While I may be one of the few that feel there is a need for pollution controls I do think that some times laws are trying to push technology too fast. I've often wondered if some kind of tax incentive to encourage improvements would be a better option. Would also have to factor in to that the pollution created by those trucks burning to the ground. I can't imagine the nasty stuff they put into the air.
It's not just trucks that is burning.a lot of machinery is as well. I often wonder if the envio narzis calculate the effects of burning equipment. I think not
When ever I went to the aftermath of a fire I always looked for a plastic milk jug mostly burned underneath the machine. Not so many years ago the greenies would carry a couple of one gallon milk jugs into the woods. One would have water in it for drinking while the other would be half full of gas. Slop some around the middle of the machine and then set the jug under the machine and toss matches at it till ignition. Last machine fire I heard of in the woods now days was a feller buncher a couple of years ago.
Just curious on that crane fire- has it ignited the grease on the sections slides and it's burning up through the center of the boom? that is wild!
At least 2 Skidsteers with mulchers on a week are burning up that I know of in the States. Greenies are not doing it though but teir 4 is. In 12 years of mulching the only fire I have experienced was due to teir 4 It's the same story here with harvesters,also trucks
Somebody also pointed out here what with all the weird problems and gremlins with the electronic engines they have not figured out yet, it has been speculated that sometimes when repeated trips to the shop with some lemon are threatening to put a an O/O out of business, they might figure it is more economical to let the insurance company handle it.
Heard some where that the cost, energy, and pollution to manufacture DEF and the plastic jugs it’s sold in was way higher than the benefit of running tier IV engines.
Down here it is common to see roasted equipment. A fellow I know burnt a medium size FA dozer. He discharged two good size dry chemical extinguishers into the engine compartment to no avail.
All of our trucks have sleepers and every truck has a smoke alarm. Truck Shop
That’s so common sense it’s brilliant. I’ve slept thousands of nights in a bunk and never even considered having one. Darwin Award for me! DOH!
As Elvis use to say {Thank you, Thank you very much}. We care about our drivers, we don't want anyone hurt or waking up dead. Truck Shop
It's either the grease, or based on how high the paint is burned off the boom, I'd say the flames have gone down some, and that it got warm enough to get the hyd oil in the tele cylinder to light up, and it may be spraying inside the boom. The boom is acting like a chimney, drawing the heat up. The block and quite a bit of cable is laying on the ground, so I would guess the boom was extended some, and when the boom oil lit up- it burned it out- retracting the telescope cylinder.
The picture above with the boom on fire of that Grove crane is also a direct example of a chimney fire. The grease acted the same as creosote build up in a chimney. I saw a neighbors chimney shoot flames 15 feet above the roof-911 was next. Truck Shop
I passed this one on RM-652 west of Orla, TX last week. It's been sitting there for a month from what I've been told.
Shop down the road does all the truck tows for the PA Turnpike. All I see are brake/ tire fires, and rollovers. Very few, if any, tractor fires that look electrical or exhaust related.
I know of 2 machines, one a feller buncher, and one a log skidder, that both burned in the last 2 years near here. They were owned by loggers I know. Neither was insured for full coverage so I know they were not a insurance job. They both started on fire when a hydraulic line sprung a leak and sprayed on the exhaust manifold. With todays high system pressures, it does not take much to turn warm oil into a highly flammable vapor when a line gets a pin hole in it. Many insurance companies are now requiring master switches on the new big farm tractors. A fair number of them have burned and was found to be caused by chaff and dust that ignited when auto computer controlled stuff occasionally heats up when it draws power at some point while shut down for the night. Most of the daylight fires were easily extinguished when the operator was there.
I was waiting on some hydraulic hoses this afternoon and started poking around in a printed tractor house. I find this 75G for $56k. I think to myself this machine should be $20k more than that. I get home and look up the listing. Engine replaced 7 hours ago and it has a bunch of panels replaced with take-offs. The picture of the valve bank has a coating of what looks like fire extinguisher residue all over it. I can't decide if the last rental job killed the engine or it caught fire. Either way, it was clearly an adventure.
Just went thru a pre-fire on the Pete I drive, overheated and was spraying gear oil out of the vent on front differential, would have been spectacular with the 50K of 10% moisture beans in the trailer. All too many Ignore what is happening to their machines or are just oblivious to the world around them.