Talking with a guy today that recently lost a 33' Holiday Rambler. They were just cruising down the highway when a motorist waved them over. They just made it out in time and the RV burned to the ground. A relative had owned the coach for ten years before he bought it 6 months before the fire, and no one has a clue as to why it suddenly incinerated. The investigators proclaimed it either gas or electrical related. Ya Think? Anyhoo, somebody out there might bring to light some preventative measures to keep us from burning our beloved coaches up.

I've seen 3 rigs burn, all of which were propane related, 2 water heater malfunctions, one cause unknown. Like your acquaintance, the cause unknown occurred while underway, & resulted in 2 deaths. One water heater malfunctioned at night, & 2 died. If they had maintained their smoke detector, they probably would have survived. In the third instance, Mama was home alone, & in the shower when a neighbor noticed the flames. She made it out sans clothes, entertaining the neighborhood, and survived, though embarrassed.

I had a water heater malfunction underway in the first trailer we owned. It burned up the ignitor & the thermocouple, but that's all. I was lucky. "Expert" opinion was that, traveling at highway speed, the draft became reversed & blew down the chimney, causing the flame to blow out the bottom, incinerating the controls.

RVs burn fast, even well-built units like Barths, & usually burn to the ground. RV systems get a lot of shaking & rattling. Joints & connections loosen up & cause problems. Job one is keeping your electrical & gas systems up to snuff, & taking what precautions you can.

I turn off the propane at the tank before getting underway, & shut the water heater off at night.
I have camped in weather cold enough to require the furnace at night, but avoid it if I can.

Makes me glad that I have an electric water heater.

Another big cause of fires: Gasoline.

Very volatile, and we (except you diesel runners) carry upwards of 60 gallons of it.

Deteriorating fuel lines leak. especially when people 'cheap out' and use rubber lines from pump to carb.

Interestingly, the last two "BIG" SOB's I saw in scrap yards while looking for an awning were diesel pushers, Both badly burned, both with cummings engines. Very clearly the fires began in the engine compartment. Turbos melted, and aluminum valve covers also.

quote:

I turn off the propane at the tank before getting underway, & shut the water heater off at night.

This brings up the question of running the fridge while under way. I always have said the new fridge systems are safe to run on LP under way. Now I'm not so sure.

Our gas is off when we are driving, sleeping or absent. The fridge is fine with the door closed. We don't need heat to sleep, the cat has a heating pad and we are old tent campers. There are lots of fridge fires. We almost had one.

Ditto on the rubber fuel lines.

As far as engine fires, keeping your engine well cleaned will allow you to detect a small leak before it becomes a big leak that could start a fire. Owners of Chevies are advised to be extra alert for fuel leaking out of the bottom of the float bowl. There is a soft plug there that often leaks. Clean really well under the carb and stick a paper towel down there and run the engine to check for stains. Lots of boaters sniff their engine box before starting up and after shutting down. Any hint of gasoline odor should be investigated.

Avoid worm clamps on fuel lines. When the rubber shrinks and hardens a leak can result. Use the spring clamps that come with new filters. Or Corbin clamps. Or fuel injection clamps. Fuel injection hose is more durable than carb fuel hose.

Chevy owners, inspect the trans cooler and engine oil cooler lines for chafing. They can leak onto hot exhaust.

An overheated transmission can spill hot fluid out the fill tube onto hot exhaust pipes. Fires start this way. I helped put one out.

I know one Barth owner who had low axle lube that caused a bearing to overheat and start a fire.

Before I bought the agency up this way, my then-partner and I insured a lot of watercraft and yachts. My biggest yacht loss was $200K (in 1983) - owner was VERY conscientious, and had the engine serviced in St. Croix. The mechanic didn't put the injector line supports in the prescribed places, resonance set up, and a line cracked.

My coach had an inverter installed that runs the reefer from 12V-120V underway.

Most vehicle (non-RV) fires were related to the electrical system.

bill h offers some very sage advice. For clamps, one should choose those with a spring action, and that do not cut into the rubber. All those he suggested are that kind, but the spring-only, such as the Corbin and fuel line clamps should be inspected periodically, and never reused IMHO. Best are the constant-torque type clamps - they aren't cheap ($4 and up each) but they don't damage the hose, and are reuseable, and rarely - if ever - fail.

Critical hoses should be replaced every few years even if there's no sign of deterioration.

Any critical lines such as flexible fuel lines from the fuel pump on should be double-clamped.

Also as bill h mentioned, keep the engine clean - top to bottom. Not only will this make leaks more visible, but with experience, one can smell certain types of leak - ATF, fuel, motor oil, and coolant all have a distinctive odor.

I had a sign in my office when I was IG; "You get what you INspect, not what you EXpect!"

Even the non-mechanically inclined can check the fluid lines and electrical wiring as bill h mentioned, for leaks, chafing, or signs of deterioration. An hour or so every several months crawling around underneath the coach and peering into the engine compartment just might discover something vitally wrong.

I have seen 2-3 year old Monaco's burned to the ground but we don't have 2-3 year old coaches we have 10-20-30 year old coaches. Get good smoke detectors, get those stove blankets and a good fire extinguishers. Think about how your are going to jump out that window if you are in the back.

When we bought our coach the salesman said to always lock your door while in transit or some evil doer may jump in at a stoplight. And then I thought about how fast we would have to exit if there was a fire. I keep it unlock now unless we are driving through the southside of Chicago...and we never have.

This may sound odd, but most of the motorhome fires reported on industry rags (back when I was an insurance peddler) were relatively new motorhomes, usually the large (38'+) upscale diesel pushers. One of my friends, Tom, had a 38' Tradewinds LTC burn while underway, and he's scrupulous about maintenance, and knows what he's doing. But his still flashed.

I can speculate about why this would be:

1. The engine compartment is a long way from the driver, and Things Going Wrong may not be evident.

2. Access to the engine compartment (for inspection) is chopped up. On my Breakaway, the bed lifts up, and everything is at hand, and I make inspections every time before getting underway. On the luxury coaches, access to the engine and accessories is through as many as five smallish hatches, usually one or two of which are buried in a closet and hard to get to. Frankly, they're not designed for service and inspection, which is, IMHO, absurd.

3. Incompetent design and/or inept QC.

4. Unconcerned owners. Inspection and maintenance is necessary regardless of the make and age of the coach, and it takes effort or $$$ (and if the latter, competent technicians to do the inspections.

The one advantage (and I surely considered it) of the front-entrance design is quick egress while underway. I do lock the door while on the road, but only because I don't want the dogs to hit the handle and open it. Otherwise, I'd leave it unlocked, because I can get to my Ruger S&W.40 auto before a nasty could climb over the step cover...

BTW, that's why Tom stays with a front-entry - (Now a 40' Beaver Monterrey) it probably saved him and his wife - those plastic coaches go up in a hurry.

CO and smoke detectors are essential - but they need to be tested and have fresh batteries periodically.

It's sad that Halon has been banned - I always had automatic, overcapacity, Halon engine compartment extinguishers on my boats. Just in case...

I will probably get around to putting overtemp sensors in the engine, genset and fridge compartments.

Halon is great in boat engine boxes and enclosed areas on airliners, but it is heavier than air, so just falls out of an RV engine bay. Pity.

Dave mentions stove blankets......Harbor Freight has pretty good prices on welding blankets which can be used to smother a fire.

If you think you have an engine fire on a puller, resist all temptation to lift the doghouse. Stop and fight the fire from outside. Opening the doghouse can cause a horrible flare up. I saw a video of a guy who did that in a boat. He was immediately engulfed in flames. Since it was a boat, he leaped overboard and lived. At the minimum, lift it just a tiny bit to stick the hose of your extinguisher in there. Remember that an engine fire on a V8 is likely to involve pooled fuel on the intake manifold, so aim under the air cleaner.

If your engine ever backfires, find and cure the cause before it sets fire to your Barth. Sadly, there is one fewer Barth extant due to exactly that.

Carry several foam fire extinguishers. We have a several small ones stashed about, a medium one in the bedroom, and a 2 1/2 gallon AFFF by the door.

If you MUST carry dry chemical extinguishers, shake or bop them before every trip and listen to be sure you have powder and not a solid cake.

The foam extinguisher is a great idea. Note that like the dry chemical, foam, while not harmful to the burning material, is nasty stuff, and if you have to use it, it should be flushed off as soon as possible. Dry chemical shouldn't be inhaled.