Smoking Dodge

[rholbrook]

My BIL makes his living guiding hunts. Some of you here may know him. He was out in the west desert driving when he noticed his alternator gauge showing negative. He was looking for a spot to pull over to take a look when he heard a pop and then smoke coming from under his hood. He hit his brakes, nothing, he then began looking for a spot where he could bail off the dirt road without starting the area around on fire. It took 200 yards before he could stop and even then he had to slam it into park because he had no brakes. It jammed into park and skidded to a stop (20 mph). He hurried and pulled all the guns off of the back seat and then hurried to get his ATV out of the back of the truck and barely in time.

What he couldn't get out was all the ammunition out of the back seat. He had to get back because when the fire got to the shells, he said it sounded like the 4th of July.

The DWR came to his rescue. They had enough room for his gear but not the ATV so he ended up riding his ATV 70 miles to the 12th Street trestle to get picked up. He said that was a really long ATV ride along the train tracks. The good news is its all replaceable, the bad is obvious.

 

[Coreshot]

Dang! So he was northwest of the lake?

 

[Greg]

Now that's what I call Rollin' Coal!!

That really sucks... wonder what went wrong. Crazy about the ammo, glad he wasn't hurt and still saved the guns and ATV!

 

[jeeper]

Wow! glad he made it out alright.. That could have gone a LOT worse.

 

[TRD270]

Must have plugged in that wire that was hanging out of his steering column

All joking aside, glad he made it out safe

 

[sLcREX]

That's crazy! Glad he could salvage most of his items before it all went up in flames. This makes the second Dodge I've seen catch on fire.

The first one though wasnt really a defect, I was at the salt lake over by the tagged train cart and some guy came with his wife to do a photo shoot for a dance company and the guy decided to go mess around in the sand with his truck, he got stuck and his catalytic set the dry weeds on fire beneath him. Since he was stuck, the flames engulfed his truck beneath him and went up in flames also. Looked very similar to the pictures you posted.

 

[ChestonScout]

Should have left the guns and saved the most valuable items......the ammo

 

[STAG]

Must be a pretty good park-pawl to lock the tires at 20mph. The one time I saw a trans thrown in park while moving the pawl ratcheted until about 3-5 mph.

 

[J Kimmel]

wow!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Ouch.

Is the insurance company going to get the truck out of there or does he need a hand getting it cleaned up?

 

[Coco]

Damn....

What Kurt said! I am willing to help!

 

[brian r]

Does anybody find it odd that he went back after unloading the atv and closed the tail gate..seams odd to me..

 

[TJDukit]

Does anybody find it odd that he went back after unloading the atv and closed the tail gate..seams odd to me..

Probably just muscle memory really...you get done in the bed and you close the gate just habit.

Glad he is ok and was able to save some stuff.

 

[Tee]

Probably just muscle memory really...you get done in the bed and you close the gate just habit.

I would agree with this, I catch myself shutting the tailgate after pulling something out when I actually wanted to leave it open because said item was going right back in after use.

 

[rholbrook]

Ouch.

Is the insurance company going to get the truck out of there or does he need a hand getting it cleaned up?

He already went and got it. The insurance company now has it.

Thats funny about the tail gate, I am going to have to ask him about it.

The aluminum rims melted into a puddle by the time it was done burning. He had an extinguisher but by the time he got stopped, the flames were coming our of the grill so he couldnt open it so he he preceeded to get out what he could. He is bummed because that truck was given to him new as a tip for a hunt he guided several years ago. He loved it and he has driven the hell out of it and other that front end parts, it has run great for him.

 

[jentzschman]

Wow, glad everything is ok. Talk about a wild time.

 

[pELYgroso]

So what caused the fire? Did he have an emergency brake? That's the first place that I would go before slamming it into park.

 

[rholbrook]

So what caused the fire? Did he have an emergency brake? That's the first place that I would go before slamming it into park.

Not yet. Emergency brake is a good idea. I never thought of that and in the heat of the moment, apparently he didnt either.

 

[Toad]

A truck for a tip? Awesome.

 

[jeeper]

A truck for a tip? Awesome.

I know a couple guys that guide. Big fat tips like that are not uncommon.