Fire extinguishers........

[weeds]

Nearly needed to use one twice on this trip.......

Day 1, Three burner stove on fire due to buggered O-Ring

Day 5, managed to ignite both hubs/brakes......flames and smoke.

Came close to dragging out the extinguisher from the car but managed without......need to fit one to the camper.

Didn't think I would ever be that close to needing one.

[KingBilly]

Tell us more about day 5

KB

[cmkc051002]

Crikey
That's bloody bad luck
Did you leave the handbrake on the trailer?


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[weeds]

Tell us more about day 5

KB

Parked the trailer up, ordered new hubs seals, bearings, stubs, lock nuts, dust caps, disc brake pads........went on a four day walk, national parks delivered the parcels.

As suspected the calipers seals were buggered so that's a job for when we get home so removed calipers and disconnected brake controller.

Fitted new bearings (didn't need to but it was easier than trying to clean them) seals and dust caps.

I didn't release the valve for the handbrake....electric over hydraulic....totally my fault however when the kids were loading the MTN Bikes they did step on the handbrake button and I suspect might have partially  released some pressure......still surprised I didn't feel the brakes dragging the 20km drive from one campsite to the next was hilly and on a dirt road pulled up to smoke and flames. Just we were all caught up in the excitement of starting the hike.

I wasn't a happy chappy at the time especially when i released the valve and went to move the car and trailer which pumped brake fluid onto the the discs starting another fire.........i measured the temps of the hubs 1/2hr after we pulled up and they were still at 180degrees

Kudos to the NSW national parks guys for picking up my parcels and delivering them......saved me a 180km round trip.

Need to order calipers seals, discs, make a brake line, and 1 x BFG MT 235/85/16...when I get back to Brisbane.

[KingBilly]

Wow, damn bad luck.  Good luck with the repairs.

KB

[noel_w]

Bad luck for sure, hope the rest of your trip isn't quite so hot. Safe travels mate.

[tedota]

This happened to me about 2 months ago at a place called Balladgie Rock near Bullfinch,WA. Had everything packed up, double checked and ready to go. As the camper was on a bit of a slope i forgot one thing!!!
About 5 ks down the dirt things felt a little sluggish with the auto so i thought i'd stop and just check. Lucky i did as both drums were red hot with a bit of smoke coming out. They say that where there's smoke, yep, there's fire. Just enough to hit the panic button. Luckily the fire extinguisher that i mounted near the back seat, which had been in all different places in the car as they're a bit of a PITA, came to the rescue.
After numerous stops to make sure nothing had reignited i slowly made my way home thinking what if???
For 30-50 bucks it's a good investment.

[bully]

Your a legend Weeds. Yes I have never had to use them but have one in the car and in the camper. Hopefully will never need to use them but I think for the sake of $20 it's cheap insurance. Don't believe they are a necessity but I have seen how a small fire can turn big in a split second.

[Big Red]

I agree with most of these comments - after over a 25 year career with the Tasmania Fire Service (admin) I would not think of not having a fire extinguisher in all my vehicles, camper and boat. I have a 1 kg in the Ranger and a 2.5 kg in the camper. I also carry 2 x jerrys of water in addition to the 70 ltr camper tank. A fire can move incredibly quickly and if "outback" there are few options other than your own survival instinct.

[weeds]

Well.......apparently you need brakes for a 1.2T camper

Fitted new secondhand calipers, new pads and ran new brake lines.....everything back to normal for our XMAS trip

[cruiser 91]

I agree with most of these comments - after over a 25 year career with the Tasmania Fire Service (admin) I would not think of not having a fire extinguisher in all my vehicles, camper and boat. I have a 1 kg in the Ranger and a 2.5 kg in the camper. I also carry 2 x jerrys of water in addition to the 70 ltr camper tank. A fire can move incredibly quickly and if "outback" there are few options other than your own survival instinct.

Hmmmmmmm, Fire Service 25 years........well there you go

[weeds]

Spose I should replace the extinguisher in the LUX after its accidental discharge last weekend......and work out where to mount one in the trailer.

[Hewy54]

Only needed to use them twice. One quite amusing.
A long time ago when I was playing football got a knee to the back. Drove home and my good wife ran the bath for me. When I got out, hobbled to the lounge just as she put the gas heater on. It caught alight. We kept an extinguisher in the sideboard, but locked it to keep the kids out, but the kids had also been playing with the key so it had been put away. The scene was me hoping around naked looking for the key to open the door to get the extinguisher. Finally found it, opened the door got the extinguisher and a 2 second burst was enough to put the fire out with no damage.
Glad the curtains were closed.

[Snapman007]

.
Glad the curtains were closed.

Daylight savings?😬

[markg66]

As a young fella apprentice living in the single persons quarters in Weipa (the good old days) I had an XA falcon ute with a 351 Cleavland in it. It was sitting parked out the back in the middle of all the other cars at the dongers and i just fitted a new set of extractors onto it with 4 foot hotdogs connected directly that sat under the cill on each side (yeah the cops loved that).

Anyway the XA has a hydraulic clutch with a section of flexible tube in the middle of the pipe from the master to the slave cylinder, I didn't really take much notice of it until when i had been idling the ute and was ready to take it for a blatt and depressed the clutch only to squirt brake fluid all over the hot extractors as the hose was melted off, the dry powder fire extinguisher has a surprising amount of powder in it, it's hot in Weipa and everyone left their car windows down, it took weeks for everyone to clean out the dozen or so cars that were parked either side of mine. Was very glad I had the extinguisher behind the seat. 

[edz]

Be aware of those dry powder type 1kg / 2kg extinguishers .. A mate had to use one early one morning on an engine bay fuel fire .. Grabbed the extinguisher pionted it up under the partily lifted bonnet fired away , couple of big puffs of propellent / bugger all dry chemical and one discharged extinguisher.
His neighbour saved the day with a CO2 type extinguisher, the powder type one had vibrated and packed down all the powder into a solid block inside the extinguisher during his travels..
Might pay to roll them around an give them a few light taps to loosen up the powder every now and then . Can any firies tell us if the powder formular may have been changed to help avoid this from happening ?

[Rodt]

We get extinguishers checked every three months at work and the key aspect to the check for the dry powders are to take them off the hook and shake the crap out of them upside down to keep the powder 'loose'.

Rod

[stabicraft]

I have seen cans of coke or bottles of coke used as effectively as a fire extinguisher.........and a lot cheaper

[Hewy54]

I have seen cans of coke or bottles of coke used as effectively as a fire extinguisher.........and a lot cheaper

But what are you going to mix with the scotch to celebrate when the fire is out.

[two up]

Be aware of those dry powder type 1kg / 2kg extinguishers .. A mate had to use one early one morning on an engine bay fuel fire .. Grabbed the extinguisher pionted it up under the partily lifted bonnet fired away , couple of big puffs of propellent / bugger all dry chemical and one discharged extinguisher.
His neighbour saved the day with a CO2 type extinguisher, the powder type one had vibrated and packed down all the powder into a solid block inside the extinguisher during his travels..
Might pay to roll them around an give them a few light taps to loosen up the powder every now and then . Can any firies tell us if the powder formular may have been changed to help avoid this from happening ?

You need a lot more CO2 to do the job of a dcp extinguisher. DCP extinguishers will pack down over time in a vehicle. You can slow this down by mounting them horizontally rather than vertically but it will still occur regardless. You should remove them and give them a good shake from time to time to ensure the powder is still loose. Best advice would be to replace them when you feel that the powder is not as "liquid" as when new. 2 words of advice though when you buy your extinguishers make sure they are ABE type extinguishers not BE type, and if you use them in an area with lots of electronics thoroughly remove as much of the powder as possible by vacuuming or washing because that stuff is pretty corrosive.

[Hewy54]

Another necessary and valuable piece of insurance.
We have an extinguisher and fire blanket in the kitchen at home, a fire blanket and extinguisher in the Vista, an extinguisher in the truck and an extinguisher in the shed.