Motorhome catches fire (1 Viewer)

[sinbad1]

Yet another motorhome catches fire

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Check your smoke alarm

Regards

 

[wasp]

I wonder was it hooked up, and, did they leave the gas on??

 

[scotjimland]

I wonder was it hooked up, and, did they leave the gas on??

according to the report it was an electrical fault and the fire started under the bonnet..

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[New Rover]

They HAD a smoke alarm fitted but in their case it didn't do them ANY good at all.

BTW, my new van came with smoke alarm fitted but I had to buy a Carbon Monoxide alarm myself.

 

[sinbad1]

Can't begin to imagine how these people felt, although i have both CO monitor and a smoke alarm, must admit i did remove the battery in the smoke alarm ! being in a confined area it would constantly go off when cooking etc, guess i'll have to rethink that one.

Thinking about the electrical fault got me thinking about my experience when i was on site, it was cold and we had a small fan heater running on a 1KW setting, the 240v lighting started to flash and could hear a sort of crackling noise. The supply trips a couple of times and had to bre reset.

The cracking came from the power contol unit, so for the rest of the stay i made up a separate lead bypassing the control unit.

On our return i had a closer inspection of the power unit, The source of the problem was the flat plastic connector plug that feeds the unit, one of the pins was burnt and this was the problem. The thing is that this plug wasn't loose it was a tight fit, i contacted autotrail who said they have had one or two units where this has happened and that i could have a repair done for £70 + postage.

In my opinion the flat plastic plug wasn't up to it, I have since made that safe ;but when i think about it i could have been in the same position

Auto-trail check your units
Regards

 

[Losos]

In my opinion the flat plastic plug wasn't up to it, I have since made that safe ;but when i think about it i could have been in the same position

When you say 'flat plastic plug' do you mean the ones that look like a figure 8 when viewed from the end (and are sometimes refered to as that)

They were often used for cassette recorders many years ago and they are cheap and nasty connectors in any application and I've know several where the poor connections have caused sparking. When designing eletrical circuits I would never specify this type of connector.

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[sinbad1]

When you say 'flat plastic plug' do you mean the ones that look like a figure 8 when viewed from the end (and are sometimes refered to as that)

They were often used for cassette recorders many years ago and they are cheap and nasty connectors in any application and I've know several where the poor connections have caused sparking. When designing eletrical circuits I would never specify this type of connector.

The type of connector looks like this flat with 3 pins simular to that you find in a computer , perhaps a little longer ;but not much.
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Thing is you can't see these plugs and connections as all the wires and connections are somewhat hidden, the unit sits on a shelf thats cut out for the wiring underneath.

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As i said this weak link no longer exists .

Regards