| [GMCnet] I can truely speek on FIRES [message #350882] |
Mon, 23 December 2019 12:16  |
BobDunahugh
Messages: 2465
Registered: October 2010
Location: Cedar Rapids, IA
Karma: 11
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Senior Member |
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Agreed value is a big deal. We have State Farm. Paid $235 for standard coverage. No stated value on our last 78 Royale. By the time that all the smoke cleared. ( GRIN ) We ended up with about $40,000. All did come out well at the end. As we then built another 78 Royale to perfectly match all of our needs/wants. We had no budget. So as to the money side. Big loose.
This Royale has fire protection. I bought them at the start of the build. BUT. You need units that stay charged. You MUST check them Often. Mine came from Jim Bounds. One of his units was discharged before I installed it. Just under 2 months. He wanted $75 to recharge it. Another one became discharged at about 7 months. Another $75 down the tube. The next one got to just over 2 years. The bright side is that the last one has remained charged. I now check them every month. I bought them for about $600. Though I'd get good protection. As I didn't buy them. To just buy them again. I need to find another supplier that will stand behind their product. If you got yours from Bounds. You need to go check yours. And in reality. All units need to be monitored.
It's been over 4 years. And the smell of burning wood brings back too many memories to this day. We love the 78 Royale we now have. It's how in one of our warehouses for a few weeks. Having it out of it's own place. Is driving me crazier then I normally am. I need get it back home next week.
Bob Dunahugh
78 Royale
4 COPO Yenkos
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| Re: [GMCnet] I can truely speek on FIRES [message #350885 is a reply to message #350882] |
Mon, 23 December 2019 15:16  |
jimk
Messages: 6734
Registered: July 2006
Location: Belmont, CA
Karma: 9
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Senior Member |
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Bob, I took care of one for sure as we are a distributor for them.
You neglected to mention.
On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 10:17 AM Bob Dunahugh via Gmclist <
gmclist@list.gmcnet.org> wrote:
> Agreed value is a big deal. We have State Farm. Paid $235 for standard
> coverage. No stated value on our last 78 Royale. By the time that all the
> smoke cleared. ( GRIN ) We ended up with about $40,000. All did come out
> well at the end. As we then built another 78 Royale to perfectly match all
> of our needs/wants. We had no budget. So as to the money side. Big loose.
> This Royale has fire protection. I bought them at the start of the
> build. BUT. You need units that stay charged. You MUST check them Often.
> Mine came from Jim Bounds. One of his units was discharged before I
> installed it. Just under 2 months. He wanted $75 to recharge it. Another
> one became discharged at about 7 months. Another $75 down the tube. The
> next one got to just over 2 years. The bright side is that the last one has
> remained charged. I now check them every month. I bought them for about
> $600. Though I'd get good protection. As I didn't buy them. To just buy
> them again. I need to find another supplier that will stand behind their
> product. If you got yours from Bounds. You need to go check yours. And in
> reality. All units need to be monitored.
> It's been over 4 years. And the smell of burning wood brings back too
> many memories to this day. We love the 78 Royale we now have. It's how in
> one of our warehouses for a few weeks. Having it out of it's own place. Is
> driving me crazier then I normally am. I need get it back home next week.
> Bob Dunahugh
> 78 Royale
> 4 COPO Yenkos
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>
--
Jim Kanomata
Applied/GMC, Newark,CA
jimk@appliedairfilters.com
http://www.appliedgmcrvparts.com
1-800-752-7502
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Jim Kanomata
Applied/GMC
jimk@appliedairfilters.com
www.appliedgmc.com
1-800-752-7502
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| Re: [GMCnet] I can truely speek on FIRES [message #350903 is a reply to message #350882] |
Tue, 24 December 2019 01:39 |
Ken Burton
Messages: 10030
Registered: January 2004
Location: Hebron, Indiana
Karma: 10
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Senior Member |
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BOB,
I have made many postings on fighting against and winning against the fire in my coach many years ago.
As a result of that fire experience, we gathered several very knowledgeable and experienced resources together put on an online seminar. Our resources featured a career firefighter and GMC owner, a Fire department Captain, The fire Chief of a large local steel mill, and people from a local fire fighting academy run by a local manufacturer of firefighting equipment. We were not trying to sell anything. We weere looking for the best solution(s).
I and other GMCers learned a lot from fighting my fire and putting this seminar together. This online seminar included what to do and what not to do when fighting or preventing a coach fire.
We found there are many solutions that vary in effectiveness. While a fire could start anywhere in the coach, there are 3 main areas to cover initially and I believe six total areas to consider.
Here the list in my order of importance
1. Engine / trans.
2. Onan (generator)
3. Refrigerator
4. Furnace
5. Cooking stove and oven.
6. Fuel storage (gas and Propane tanks and lines)
Each of the above items operate in a different environment and may need a different approach to fire suppression and prevention. One of the things we did not consider at the time was the possibility of a battery explosion caused fire that it appears happened to John Richardson a year and a half ago.
Whatever you choose to do, there will be a trade off between effectiveness, cost, ease of use, ease of installation and required maintenance.
In my gasoline fed fire I used almost every type of extinguisher except Purple K trying to put it out. I used Halon, dry chem, C02, AFFF foam, and even water to wash away the burning gas on the ground. Except for the water, I listed them above in order of effectiveness on a fire in a parked GMC coach.
I do not have a recommended vendor. Whatever you install needs to be reliable, meaning work when needed and not leak down, age out or clog. It also needs to survive the winter months below freezing and summer or coach generated heat. In some cases it needs to be able to operate at 60 or 70 mph going down the road.
To extinguish or prevent a fire you need to remove one or more of these three things. Air(oxygen), fuel, or heat(including ignition source).
Many vendors make / sell niche products for some of these areas but no vendor has put them all together to expressly address coach fires. So it is up to the user to educate themselves and decide on their own which products they should use or demand for use in each of the above areas.
One last problem is evaluating any product is we never see where any of them actually was used and worked on a fire in real life. While I never want to see anyone have a fire, I would love to see where any of the solutions were really used effectively in a real fire.
I currently have automatic deploy systems in my refrigerator and Onan areas plus a manual deploy system in the engine and drive train areas. The reason for the difference is the extinguishing agents used. I also have changed or added items to reduce the possibility of having a fire in the first place or add access to fire areas once a fire has started.
Lots of things will burn once a fire has started and most vendors and users never consider them. Oil, trans fluid, and antifreeze leaks left accumulated on the engine, trans, and final drive will burn if ignited by other sources during a fire. Improper insulation types will also fuel a fire.
So in my opinion what is needed is a whole coach system approach to onboard fire prevention and suppression.
Enough of that. Very few people listen until AFTER they have had a fire.
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
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| Re: [GMCnet] I can truely speek on FIRES [message #350906 is a reply to message #350882] |
Tue, 24 December 2019 06:48 |
6cuda6
Messages: 975
Registered: June 2019
Karma: -6
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Senior Member |
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We use fire suppression systems in the vehicles we build and they do work quite well but its like Ken has mentioned.....they do great job at putting out the fire but usually not the cause. As an example, you have a fuel line fire because the line came off....the FS puts out the main fire but not the flame thrower at the end of the fuel line so it starts it up again.
I think one can do a good job if the fire is of regular type but if its a flame source fire (like fuel line or propane line) your in trouble.
Preventative maintenance goes a long way in fire prevention, a couple fire extinquishers are a must and if one can afford a fire suppression system make it happen....cheap insurance in my books.
Rich Mondor,
Brockville, ON
77 Hughes 2600
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| Re: [GMCnet] I can truely speek on FIRES [message #350908 is a reply to message #350882] |
Tue, 24 December 2019 08:28 |
JohnL455
Messages: 4447
Registered: October 2006
Location: Woodstock, IL
Karma: 12
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Senior Member |
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Bob, good seeing you at MCACN! Which State Farm coverage do you have? They told me they can't do agreed value on a GMC. This forced me to dump State Farm on all my vehicles/ property. They could only do stated value, which is not what I wanted.
John Lebetski
Woodstock, IL
77 Eleganza II
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| Re: [GMCnet] I can truely speek on FIRES [message #350915 is a reply to message #350908] |
Tue, 24 December 2019 13:30 |
Ken Burton
Messages: 10030
Registered: January 2004
Location: Hebron, Indiana
Karma: 10
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Senior Member |
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I had State Farm at the time of my fire. They paid a little over $10,000 to fix my coach and they allowed me to do all of the work. I just sent them invoices for parts and labor and they paid them. There was never any mention of totaling out the coach. I still have State Farm on it.
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
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