Surveyors truck causes fire, and is getting sued

It's the catalytic converter, specifically, that is usually the culprit.

Interesting storyline. The plus is that he called authorities with location, which likely negated further damage. The minus is that he admitted guilt.

In the end, it pays to be right even if you may be wrong. Things like that do tend to wash out.

On the other side, how many of us have taken off road shortcuts to get back to the shop, home, or wherever you're going. My guess is around 99.9% of us. Like you said Nate - be careful.

When they started putting catalytic converts on vehicles, vehicle fires were out of control along most every highway in East Texas.

Also important to note is that most vehicles are not off road ready, especially trucks.

It takes some sturdy under armor and maintenance for safe off road maneuvers.

That little aluminum heat deflector may dissipate heat, it just don't hold up against brush and getting packed with vegetation.

I know many a land owner that has fired survey crews for driving road vehicles across areas with no roads.

I've also seen melted spots in parking lots and on county roads.

> It's the catalytic converter, specifically, that is usually the culprit.

In the 80's when they started putting catalytic converters on trucks, ranchers in Wyoming wouldn't let you on their ranch unless you had a truck that didn't have one or did like they did, take them off. When grass is 1 to 2 feet tall and dry it doesn't take much to get a fire started.

It wasn't just limited to a catalytic converter for getting a fire started. I had a 1973 Chevy Suburban that was prone to getting a build up of sagebrush leaves between the transmission and tranfer case and the rotation of pilot shaft that ran between the two would start the leaves burning. When out on a job one day, I kept smelling burning sagebrush. When we got out and looked under the truck, there wasn't any flames but lots of smoke. Got a lath and poked the pile of leaves and that stoked the fire. Luckily we were about 200 feet from a windmill and tank, so we hurried down there, put water in anything that would hold it, lunch pails, thermos bottles and started tossing water on the flaming leaves while knocking the packed leaves out from under the vehicle. We were lucky that there wasn't any damage done and a range fire started. From then on, when out going across country, the build up of any debris was checked and washed out at the end of the week.

Been there, done that!

Your so right about that Chevy Suburban. I've had this happen twice with a GMC pickup where fires did start after driving through grass and brush. I believe that faulty design allows the rear engine support to act like a scythe and the packing of the cut grass/brush up against the hot exhaust pipe. It doesn't take long and.....

Do you know that it's a crime to start a wildfire, whether or not it was an accident.

This guy could be in even more trouble!

> Been there, done that!
>
> Your so right about that Chevy Suburban. I've had this happen twice with a GMC pickup where fires did start after driving through grass and brush. I believe that faulty design allows the rear engine support to act like a scythe and the packing of the cut grass/brush up against the hot exhaust pipe. It doesn't take long and.....
>
> Do you know that it's a crime to start a wildfire, whether or not it was an accident.
>
> This guy could be in even more trouble!

Never had that happen with any of my other pickups, (69's - Chevy & Fords) or with my 75 & 76 GMC Suburbans or 75 & 78 GMC Pickups, Only the 73 Suburban. One of the reasons I bought my 81 Suburbans and pickups was that they still used regular gas, not the unleaded crap and did not have catalytic converters on them. They did have the smog pumps, etc. The 73 Chevy also had the smog pump. When I got it, it only got 6 miles to the gallon so I took it in and had dual exhaust put on which increased the mileage to 12 mpg and when I took off the smog junk, it ran a lot smoother and the mileage jumped to 16 mpg.

I'm not going to add anything that might be found by a lawyer involved in the suit mentioned. Either way.

I love my Jeeps. But two years ago, in the middle of unprecedented drought, I attempted to burn Byars, Oklahoma to the ground.

The culprit? Design.

This skid pan does protect a lot of expensive parts. But it also houses the catalytic converter. While long stem hay is generally deflected, the seed pods and dried flower tops migrate to the inside of this pan....It wasn't pretty.

The fire was extinguished with no loss of life or property. The Jeep didn't fare so well. I burned up some wiring and the clutch slave cylinder. I drove 40 miles back with no clutch.

We nicknamed her "Sparky" after that. God rest her soul...she's been replaced with a new one.

I have been thinking about ways to make it safer... an extra layer of metal around it, with a large heat sink to boot.

N

There is absolutely no way that there was $1 million in damages to 278 acres. That's $3600 damages per acre. Looking at the area of the intersection of those three counties on google earth, the image from Feb. 2013 (7 months later) does not show any residual damage and it's too flat to have suffered any erosion. Assuming She is referring to washing, you have to get rain first.

N 36d03'20", W 100d00'02"

I bet she used the issue of crossing the state line as justification to get it in Federal Court. An out-of-town landowner asking for a million dollars would not have stood a chance a local court and rightly so.

I would also bet that if you asked any of the Fire Chiefs involved in the fire what they thought the damage was, none would have said more than $5000.

James

Digging up an old story. I went looking for an update just out of curiosity and the only thing I found was this:

https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/4082487/Steele_v_Jividens_Land_Survey_Company,_Inc

I was hoping someone had the details. I'm not inclined to create an account just to read the final disposition.

James

Bonus Images of instruments we have gotten returned. These fires were caused by shorts in the vehicles strobe lighting.

hahahahaha. have a buddy who a ways back (15 yrs or so) got a gig at a rather, uh, well heeled quasi-governmental utility empire. he was extremely experienced, and no spring chicken, but due to the historical dearth of opportunities (and competition for them) at said entity, he started out as junior again on the crew.

came from a shop run by another acquaintance of mine, one a little more sanford-and-son in terms of trucks and gear and the like. so he's in like his first week on the new gig, they drive clear out in the middle of nowhere in a suburban decked out with 3 of everything brand new, staking windmills or something. he gets the suburban stuck in a field of waist high johnson grass. winches the truck to a nearby tree, commences un-sticking the truck. the winch eats a bunch of johnson grass and lights it up. burns the truck and everything in it to the ground. they had to hike 3 or 4 hours out just to get somewhere a phone would work, then call in the cavalry to get hauled the 8 or 9 hours back to town to get a butt chewing. but, that's all it was: a butt chewing. he's still there, running a crew.

Back around 2000, my cousin (Fire Chief in my hometown) was working for my dad doing a prelim survey for a pipeline and was travelling across the pasture in a '90 something model Z71 Silverado. He ended up stuck in the mud and was really heavy on the pedal trying to get it unstuck. I forget the total number of acres burned but we always get a kick out of the Fire Chief accidentally starting a fire. They did manage to save some of the equipment but the truck was a total loss, of course.

Set lots of them in Nevada in the high desert with a 79 Bronco, I purchased a large water pump fire extinguisher and put it in the back,,,,,,and used it a number of times. And that was "winter" time...

We are very careful now,,,,have shut down a number of jobs because of the fire danger, but truck/4 wheeler combos have made a huge difference.

Prior to model year 2007 diesel emissions requirements mandated by the EPA, diesel exhaust was relatively benign, my exhaust temperature just loafing around at slow speeds is 300-400F (at the exhaust manifold), not really going to start much with that unless you stop and park on tall brush and grass, you learn to check that out ALWAYS!

Post 2007 with the addition of 1-3 additional pieces of hardware in the exhaust stream, you can see 1200F, no longer in the safe category. I think the only known way to mitigate that heat is to rip all the $1000's of stuff off the exhaust system, BUT that causes a need to reprogram the electronic controls and of course a brand new vehicle then will NOT pass muster for EPA standards.

My 2001 Dodge diesel is working just fine...

SHG

Eric Kara, post: 389821, member: 1598 wrote: Bonus Images of instruments we have gotten returned. These fires were caused by shorts in the vehicles strobe lighting.

I guess no one every heard of fusing the accessories?

SHG

[USER=1598]@Eric Kara[/USER]- what was the warranty/ repair policy for the burned-up instruments?
Also, I'd be interested in more pictures of the display case with the burned objects- I've never been to your office, but I'm just curious as to what historical artifacts you have to go along with the burned-up instruments... looks like some slide rules, a Marchant calculator?.

[USER=1865]@NDrummond[/USER] Since the instrument didn't fail i cant Warranty the product, and these instruments are completely totaled. Also my insurance company doesn't allow me to insure instruments that customers rent from me because they are not an employees, the cost of the instrument has to fall on the customer, and there insurance. ouch.

as for our "museum" i can see if i can make a quick walk-through video of what he have laying around. You are correct about the calculators and slide rules.