M923 on fire

[63foxtrot]

My M923 caught on fire yesterday all on its own. foul play? rats? what do you think? truck sat at the same spot for over 3 month. looks like fire originated from the battery compartment, PCB blew up.

 

[jcappeljr]

Sorry to hear that,I hope you had insurance.

 

[GHall]

I'm so sorry! Did it have the 3 lever light switch or the push button? I have read that the push button can cause fire.

 

[juanprado]

That sucks. I hope no one was injured.

 

[ARYankee]

Wow!! Sorry to hear about that. I wonder if the batteries began to off gas and then poof, fire. It makes me want to keep a closer eye on my battery compartment.

 

[63foxtrot]

3 lever light switch, I think it happened in middle of the night.

 

[charlietango]

wow! Very sorry to hear that. Unfortunately anything is possible, and hopefully (sorry to say this) it wasn't the doing of someone. I also hope you find out the cause because if it IS something mechanical it could prevent further damage or injury!
( Hearing stories of people doing this always lessens my faith in humanity. )


Good luck, that really sucks.
Davin

 

[Suprman]

Is there a vent tube on the in-cab battery box?
Will

 

[Artisan]

OH MAN!

That so blows! But I will tell you, I am not surprised.

I have looked at and made a few changes to my wires in the battery
box, mostly insulation from wires wearing away. I can see simple
expansion and contraction causing a hot wire to ground out and
the rest is history.


Man I hate to see that... I guess you will be parting her out now?
That would be a hard long fix.

 

[HASSON1911]

Wow does that suck, I would be pretty sad if this happened to one of my trucks. If i were to guess I'd blame the batteries, but in reality there's a list a mile long of what it could actually have been. What are your plans: trash it, restore it, or get a new one and part this guy?

 

[63foxtrot]

battery box was left open.

 

[Artisan]

Look at the Battery and starter switches.

Indeed were they both in the OFF posistion ?

 

[Artisan]

?

 

[Artisan]

What do you mean by "OPEN"? The seat was in the up posistion?

 

[FUBIJAR]

Thats what I was wondering also, if the seat was open, there would have been plenty of ventilation, if it was closed the seat panel that you see in the picture would almost certainly be burned away before the fire could spread to the rest of the cab.

 

[M35A2-AZ]

That sucks big time for sure!!!

 

[MyothersanM1]

Dave, that blows man! Judging by the photo looks like the truck is parked over by your maintenance shed/garage, correct? If so, being near the center of your yard, It would require a would-be saboteur to have to hoof-it a good distance after breaching your perimeter fence. If somebody was going to torch your trucks they would have done it along the fence line and probably not just one (collateral damage). Are there folks wandering around out there at night? It is sort of remote out there. Personally I don't see sabotage/vandalism. You said it happened at night. Did LACFD respond to put out the fire or did it burn out and you all found still sizzling in the AM? The PCB blew up and spread the fire to the engine compartment? I'd like to call it an electrical anomaly or hungry/curious critters, but one never fully knows.

 

[63foxtrot]

I'm sure is the rats or rabbits.

 

[Adrian A]

I'm sorry to hear that Dave.

 

[bchauvette]

I think I am going to cry. I hope you can figure out what happened to prevent future fires. I'm going out today do do anthing I can to prevent any shorts and insure the battery box is well ventllated. If I where to venture a wild guess it would be a short of some kind. possible rodent gnawing. I it was a rodent I hope he got fried.