Lesson

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rpmhart333

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 24, 2022
Messages
87
Reaction score
72
Location
Willamette Valley
LESSON

This is going to be a long post, so be forewarned; it won't be 'War and Peace', but it might edge toward 'The Great Gatsby' in length. It's the old story: give an old man a keyboard and he'll try to write about a room full of monkeys with typewriters...or whatever that old story is.


My presence on the Forum is not because it reflects my situation but the fact my wife and I took a cross-country van trip some years ago and this was the source of much of my information. Staying here rather than moving to one that's accurate, living in a park model with an old Class C in storage that'll become my Unabomber Cabin if my late-stage ALZ wife passes before me...well, that's because my belief in Voluntary Simplicity deems it the best place to be: if one thinks Simple, Small is the mindset to embrace, and there are few living spaces smaller than a van. Despite the way society seems to be going, actually living IN a shopping cart isn't in my knowledge base...but give it a few years at the rate we're going? There might actually BE a Cart Forum.

(got some ideas for that if the petrol runs out or becomes so expensive that we're all immobilized, but...maybe later for that discussion)

My purpose here is a cautionary tale.

This home is in a stable small-town park--mostly elder residents, a few Viet Vets like me, to give an era to it--and one of my "pals" here is a 50ish fellow that seems rather bi-polar (not my nature to pry)...whose not-terribly old (2015ish) Class A went up in flames and the ferocious explosion of at least one propane tank a couple of nights ago. He kept a nice rig and a nice area around it, but the fire was so ferocious that it totalled out the next-door neighbor, too.

He wasn't there at the time but his beloved cat was. And that's what's hurting him most of all.

Our hope is that since he leaves the door open the cat was able to claw through the fiberglass screen and escape and has been driven into the woods by the destruction of its home...especially because of the explosion(s) involved, but it's a wide area to search and his home is a 2/3-consumed shell down to the chassis, so about all we can do is hope that Booby returns and lifts his spirits.

(no, we don't know how it got that name; she looks neither like a waterfowl nor a mammary. there may be another explanation altogether. perhaps the old term for a Dunce. and 'Bubbie' means Grandmother in Yiddish, for example.)

The Lesson to which was referred to--if you haven't already guessed--is that he let himself become seduced by the stability and security of the park in his four-years-or-so here and let his insurance lapse, so now he's without even clothes or his celphone; his only possession left is his nearly-as-beloved Harley, which he'll now have to sell to keep himself off the street; he has no family we know of, and we're uncertain if he can even work.

He's not catatonic, but is shell-shocked.

So...advice to all of you, most of whom don't need it, but a reinforcement of a wake-up call...PREPARE. The End Times are always near, and Dame (or Damn) Fortune is always there with the cold steel suppository to wake you up.

(that last sentence may be a little overboard. if a re-read leaves it in here, blame it on my creeping senility. or Albino Brain Chiggers.)

Peace upon all your houses, movin' or sittin' still, and all your beloveds.
 
Letting insurance lapse is what I would call “daring the devil”.

I’m sorry for your friend, and hope the Red Cross or other such entity provide him with some help with basic needs until he can get back on his feet.
 
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Great cautionary tale. My greatest fear is not to loose my vehicle/home but to loose my cat. Can't get insurance for that. Because of the cat I am far more careful than I would otherwise have been. Three smoke alarms of different brands all within 5yrs old spread around the truck. Two carbon monoxide detectors of different brands.

All my wire runs are way oversized for the current they carry and have very conservative breakers and fuses. The box area that contains most of the solar components is lined with hardy board in case something does catch fire. None of the wiring is ran inside the walls or ceiling it's all ran in a wire chase. No propane or propane appliances inside the truck.

So sorry to hear about this man's misfortune, I hope he is able to rebuild his life after this.
 
Even if he had insurance with today’s prices he would be lucky to replace it with an insurance settlement alone. We have not insured our old motorhome for many years as it is permanently parked but before we did that we made sure we had a big enough emergency fund to replace it, it wouldn’t be worth much anyway. As we live simply the goal is being able to survive with just a simple back pack and a few bags, if the motorhome did burn we hopefully would be able to grab the fire extinguisher and go bag that stays ready at the foot of the bed and be on our way to storage to get our plan “B” living arrangement. Should our go bag be lost we would be on our way to our safe deposit box as well to make additional copies of important documents at least the ones not stored in our phone and tap our emergency fund. Our motorhome is simply a place to shelter. We actually shelter in several places over the course of a year. Lots of seasonal workers move from job to job that supply housing and simply camp between jobs. Even at 71 years old with a worn out body I manage to find simple seasonal jobs with some form of housing. My wife at 65 years old is in worse physical shape but still working. If we couldn’t then we could still volunteer for a place to stay. That doesn’t mean we haven’t been saving and planning for the day we get to a point we need a different amount of assistance. Just because you gain the benefits of living cheaply in an RV doesn’t allow you to stop trying to better your situation. It just allows you the flexibility to go find better things and make the most of them. There are lots of opportunities out there. If all you have is a back pack and a bike you are still a lot better off than many. Personally I would get on the bike and go find them rather than sell it and wait for the bills to come due. Hope your neighbor snaps out of remorse of his loss and finds his way forward. Best wishes to him. Homes On Wheels Alliance may be able to help as well. Everyone needs to be thinking of what if and doing the best they can with what resources they have.
 
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There is no propane in my rig to explode. Not in the least inconvenienced living without it. There are plenty of reliable alternatives for refrigeration, heat and cooking.
 
Only a couple years ago I was on a call for a burning Semi. Started with an axle, then tires... I grabbed the engine/ pumper truck and headed expecting the tender ( truck with water) to be close behind. Well, it didn’t start... and mutual aid wasn’t called quick enough so my measly 500 gallons of water as careful as I was would eventually run out. When I initially arrived, the cab was already engulfed. That fire spread fast. The fuel tanks blowing was then the biggest concern. I wasn’t to far away when they did. It was a nightmare to say the least.
We can speculate causes and whatever... No matter what we heat, cook or otherwise with there are issues. We all do our best to avoid the worst nightmare of loosing our homes. I pray this man can get back on his feet. Get back into a decent home. It is definitely an experience that will always be in the back of his mind.
As I travel I come upon spots much like left from the burning truck I experienced. I can’t describe how that morning effected me. The helpless feeling of a truck burning so hot that by the time we did have water it only made it worse. All we could do is protect the woods from lighting up and keeping the road shut down. Fire safety is huge... especially with the colder weather and our need to heat our homes on wheels. Good post sir... I hope this veteran is treated kindly and well. And this post open our eyes some of the possibilities of what could happen in an instant.
 
So sorry for this situation! Terrible.

But like bullfrog said it isn't just having insurance it is making sure what ya got fits the situation. One has to keep that in mind also. As much as one hates ins., when ya need it ya need it. Good lesson, don't lapse insurances! I know I would never take that path.
 
Really late to this party yet I wanted to say that there's more news coverage in the last couple years of fires in rv's then I remember. Dometic fridg recalls have been going on for years and years yet there's still things like fridg fires. My brother lost his TT (which was parked right beside his house) in a propane fridg fire several years ago.

Here's an article called "Is a 12V refridgerator right for you? Dated August 12, 2022 from RV Travel magazine.

Short excerpt: "...A quick online search for facts about RV fire statistics revealed the following: “One of the most comprehensive studies about RV fire was conducted by the U.S. Fire Administration. Their study involved looking at RV fires between the years of 2016 and 2018. During these two years, there were around 3,700 RV fires in the United States. The study put out by the USFA tells us about overall statistics relating to RV fires.”

Further research on RV fire causes shows that of the thousands of RV fires each year, RV refrigerators are the number two cause of fires. The study also lists the primary causes of RV refrigerator fires which are wiring problems, chewing critters, lack of maintenance, rodent and insect nests and off-level operation, which are all preventable.
"
(End of quote)

The rv industry is shifting away from propane to 12v refrigerators. Not the 15-55 qt van style compressor fridgs, I mean big 10 cu foot ones. Go on some of the rv YT sites and you'll see lots of vids and there's also lots of rv forum discussions on the subject.

Really changes the energy usage picture though. A last quote from the same article says:
"Here is RVtravel.com’s Tony Barthel’s experience with a 12-volt compressor refrigerator: “My current personal experience is limited to the GE 12-volt fridge. They are much more power-hungry than I had anticipated, particularly in hot weather. On a very warm day, I can easily blow through all the reserves equivalent of a single 100 amp-hour lithium battery with this fridge. On cooler days, the fridge consumes less power. But this is more than I had assumed the fridge would take.”

Guess you can't have it both ways.
 
Really late to this party yet I wanted to say that there's more news coverage in the last couple years of fires in rv's then I remember. Dometic fridg recalls have been going on for years and years yet there's still things like fridg fires. My brother lost his TT (which was parked right beside his house) in a propane fridg fire several years ago.

Here's an article called "Is a 12V refridgerator right for you? Dated August 12, 2022 from RV Travel magazine.

Short excerpt: "...A quick online search for facts about RV fire statistics revealed the following: “One of the most comprehensive studies about RV fire was conducted by the U.S. Fire Administration. Their study involved looking at RV fires between the years of 2016 and 2018. During these two years, there were around 3,700 RV fires in the United States. The study put out by the USFA tells us about overall statistics relating to RV fires.”

Further research on RV fire causes shows that of the thousands of RV fires each year, RV refrigerators are the number two cause of fires. The study also lists the primary causes of RV refrigerator fires which are wiring problems, chewing critters, lack of maintenance, rodent and insect nests and off-level operation, which are all preventable.
"
(End of quote)

The rv industry is shifting away from propane to 12v refrigerators. Not the 15-55 qt van style compressor fridgs, I mean big 10 cu foot ones. Go on some of the rv YT sites and you'll see lots of vids and there's also lots of rv forum discussions on the subject.

Really changes the energy usage picture though. A last quote from the same article says:
"Here is RVtravel.com’s Tony Barthel’s experience with a 12-volt compressor refrigerator: “My current personal experience is limited to the GE 12-volt fridge. They are much more power-hungry than I had anticipated, particularly in hot weather. On a very warm day, I can easily blow through all the reserves equivalent of a single 100 amp-hour lithium battery with this fridge. On cooler days, the fridge consumes less power. But this is more than I had assumed the fridge would take.”

Guess you can't have it both ways.
Interest information.

For years now I have been using a small Alpicool refrigerator with very few problems. My current 200W solar panels and battery system seems to keep up fine with my needs. I wonder what the statistics would show if we separated your typical factory build RV and other types of RV such as van and cargo conversions? I've owned a few of the factory built models and was never impressed with their quality (and therefore safety.) I looked but was unable to find anything. Maybe the fires have more to do with workmanship on specific RV brands or refrigerator mfgs and we shouldn't be lumping them all into the same catagory.
 
Unsure. Most of the fires that are associated with fridgs are hard to diagnose due to, well, fire damage. :rolleyes:

Not too many people will pay for forensic disassembly.

Theres a “Fridg defender” aftermarket rv product that is supposed to help deter those types of fires.
Here’s a partial quote from the rv online magazine RV Travel.com, June 2020: “…So how does Fridge Defend work for RVers? Fridge Defend protects RV refrigerators by controlling the boiler temperature. If the boiler overheats, the Fridge Defend turns off the heat. But who wants a refrigerator full of warming food? The system monitors the situation, then restarts the fridge after the boiler cools to a safe level. “This,” says the company, “is the key to protecting your fridge from failures that can lead to fires.” (End of partial quote)

While I don't really understand the whole refrigeration process (nor do I really understand how a 100,000 ton ship can float, ahem :unsure:), it seems that there is technology to reduce the issues. You still have the problem of needing to be close to level for the propane fridg to work though.
 
LESSON

This is going to be a long post, so be forewarned; it won't be 'War and Peace', but it might edge toward 'The Great Gatsby' in length. It's the old story: give an old man a keyboard and he'll try to write about a room full of monkeys with typewriters...or whatever that old story is.


My presence on the Forum is not because it reflects my situation but the fact my wife and I took a cross-country van trip some years ago and this was the source of much of my information. Staying here rather than moving to one that's accurate, living in a park model with an old Class C in storage that'll become my Unabomber Cabin if my late-stage ALZ wife passes before me...well, that's because my belief in Voluntary Simplicity deems it the best place to be: if one thinks Simple, Small is the mindset to embrace, and there are few living spaces smaller than a van. Despite the way society seems to be going, actually living IN a shopping cart isn't in my knowledge base...but give it a few years at the rate we're going? There might actually BE a Cart Forum.

(got some ideas for that if the petrol runs out or becomes so expensive that we're all immobilized, but...maybe later for that discussion)

My purpose here is a cautionary tale.

This home is in a stable small-town park--mostly elder residents, a few Viet Vets like me, to give an era to it--and one of my "pals" here is a 50ish fellow that seems rather bi-polar (not my nature to pry)...whose not-terribly old (2015ish) Class A went up in flames and the ferocious explosion of at least one propane tank a couple of nights ago. He kept a nice rig and a nice area around it, but the fire was so ferocious that it totalled out the next-door neighbor, too.

He wasn't there at the time but his beloved cat was. And that's what's hurting him most of all.

Our hope is that since he leaves the door open the cat was able to claw through the fiberglass screen and escape and has been driven into the woods by the destruction of its home...especially because of the explosion(s) involved, but it's a wide area to search and his home is a 2/3-consumed shell down to the chassis, so about all we can do is hope that Booby returns and lifts his spirits.

(no, we don't know how it got that name; she looks neither like a waterfowl nor a mammary. there may be another explanation altogether. perhaps the old term for a Dunce. and 'Bubbie' means Grandmother in Yiddish, for example.)

The Lesson to which was referred to--if you haven't already guessed--is that he let himself become seduced by the stability and security of the park in his four-years-or-so here and let his insurance lapse, so now he's without even clothes or his celphone; his only possession left is his nearly-as-beloved Harley, which he'll now have to sell to keep himself off the street; he has no family we know of, and we're uncertain if he can even work.

He's not catatonic, but is shell-shocked.

So...advice to all of you, most of whom don't need it, but a reinforcement of a wake-up call...PREPARE. The End Times are always near, and Dame (or Damn) Fortune is always there with the cold steel suppository to wake you up.

(that last sentence may be a little overboard. if a re-read leaves it in here, blame it on my creeping senility. or Albino Brain Chiggers.)

Peace upon all your houses, movin' or sittin' still, and all your beloveds.
Great post! So glad you shared Best of life to you.
 
LESSON

This is going to be a long post, so be forewarned; it won't be 'War and Peace', but it might edge toward 'The Great Gatsby' in length. It's the old story: give an old man a keyboard and he'll try to write about a room full of monkeys with typewriters...or whatever that old story is.


My presence on the Forum is not because it reflects my situation but the fact my wife and I took a cross-country van trip some years ago and this was the source of much of my information. Staying here rather than moving to one that's accurate, living in a park model with an old Class C in storage that'll become my Unabomber Cabin if my late-stage ALZ wife passes before me...well, that's because my belief in Voluntary Simplicity deems it the best place to be: if one thinks Simple, Small is the mindset to embrace, and there are few living spaces smaller than a van. Despite the way society seems to be going, actually living IN a shopping cart isn't in my knowledge base...but give it a few years at the rate we're going? There might actually BE a Cart Forum.

(got some ideas for that if the petrol runs out or becomes so expensive that we're all immobilized, but...maybe later for that discussion)

My purpose here is a cautionary tale.

This home is in a stable small-town park--mostly elder residents, a few Viet Vets like me, to give an era to it--and one of my "pals" here is a 50ish fellow that seems rather bi-polar (not my nature to pry)...whose not-terribly old (2015ish) Class A went up in flames and the ferocious explosion of at least one propane tank a couple of nights ago. He kept a nice rig and a nice area around it, but the fire was so ferocious that it totalled out the next-door neighbor, too.

He wasn't there at the time but his beloved cat was. And that's what's hurting him most of all.

Our hope is that since he leaves the door open the cat was able to claw through the fiberglass screen and escape and has been driven into the woods by the destruction of its home...especially because of the explosion(s) involved, but it's a wide area to search and his home is a 2/3-consumed shell down to the chassis, so about all we can do is hope that Booby returns and lifts his spirits.

(no, we don't know how it got that name; she looks neither like a waterfowl nor a mammary. there may be another explanation altogether. perhaps the old term for a Dunce. and 'Bubbie' means Grandmother in Yiddish, for example.)

The Lesson to which was referred to--if you haven't already guessed--is that he let himself become seduced by the stability and security of the park in his four-years-or-so here and let his insurance lapse, so now he's without even clothes or his celphone; his only possession left is his nearly-as-beloved Harley, which he'll now have to sell to keep himself off the street; he has no family we know of, and we're uncertain if he can even work.

He's not catatonic, but is shell-shocked.

So...advice to all of you, most of whom don't need it, but a reinforcement of a wake-up call...PREPARE. The End Times are always near, and Dame (or Damn) Fortune is always there with the cold steel suppository to wake you up.

(that last sentence may be a little overboard. if a re-read leaves it in here, blame it on my creeping senility. or Albino Brain Chiggers.)

Peace upon all your houses, movin' or sittin' still, and all your beloveds.
LOVE your post and sense of humor. Thank you so much for sharing. Is there a Go Fund Me page to help your friend?
 
LOVE your post and sense of humor. Thank you so much for sharing. Is there a Go Fund Me page to help your friend?
Dear Quilting:
I rather doubt there's such a page; the one thing he had left after his conflagration was his beloved (and IMHO overpolished to the point of worship) Harley. Which he got onto and departed after a few days of moping around railing against the world (which hadn't been responsible for torching his trailer). We've neither seen nor heard from his personage since, not even in passing traffic. So for all we know, he could be in Toledo or he could be in Timbuktu. Maybe we'll know someday, maybe not. Until then, it's like Grampa philosophized: "Ye cain't do nothin' 'bout some foke. They is whut they is."
And a mild correction to your post...I have no sense of humor. I'm just straight out crazier than an amateur Pentecostal minister who takes a nap in the neighbor's hammock and wakes up with a hornets' nest in his Hanes.
Travel safe, and thanks for the good-heartedness.
 
a)
re -- Class A fridge fire
.
One of my hobbies is walking wrecking-yards aka 'dismantlers'.
I also enjoy cruising the insurance salvage pool... 'Copart'.
.
At Copart, we saw a lovely -- and by 'lovely', we mean 'nice! decals!' -- Class A motorhome.
As we entered the rig -- equivalent to climbing Mount Everest -- we immediately noticed the lack of destruction.
Pretty much everything was intact, except for a small fire indication in the galley.
.
As our feet touched the floor, we were on a trampoline.
The floor was the equivalent of stiff Jello™.
.
This verified our suspicions about the integrity of factory RecreateVehicles:
* the majority of the structural integrity comes from the box enclosing the quarters.
The frame is merely a way to connect the front axle to the rear axle.
.
In that salvage motorhome, a very small fire on one wall reduced the structural integrity to pretty much nothing.
And apparently, the insurance adjuster agreed.
.
Darn shame.
We liked the decals!.
.
.
b)
Life-long motorcyclist here.
If I build another Harley Davidson motorcycle, I would probably get rid of everything and ride away forever.
.
Sounds as though your neighbor went through the 'get rid' business, went directly to the forever part.
 
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