Husker6.5
135' diagonal 16:9HD, 25KW sound!
Ok, here's an update with pictures, I just got back from Atlantic, IA (about 120 miles east of Lincoln, just off of I-80) at 11pm an hour and a half ago.
Got to Atlantic, IA about 1PM today (8/4) Jody and his wife Connie had already been there a couple of three hours, having left very early in the morning to drive down from the Twin Cities.
It's totalled, there is fire, smoke, chemical extinguisher and water damage to the entire interior. We spent until 5:30 salvaging what we could as far as vehicle parts, on board tools and spare parts and their personal items like pots and pans in the kitchen (the beer in the fridge survived!) and odds and ends in the drawers under the couches and the stuff in the basement side compartments.
Now, Jody's a retired Minneapolis firefighter EMT who also took care of Smoke Jumpers as well as SCUBA trained. As soon as the flames/smoke was detected coming out from around the base of the doghouse, he got the rig pulled over, grabbed the Class ABC 10 pounder and got the front "hood" open and got the fire in the engine compartment knocked down and out. Problem was the fire had got the carpet and front seats going by then and it was all she wrote for the interior. Luckily, Iowa State Patrol was quick on the scene with their extinguishers and Jody said several passers-by stopped and used their extinguishers, too. A funny aside he told me was that while he was dousing down the front compartment/engine with his extinguisher, the heat made the A/C hose at the top of the condenser let go, instantly dumping all of the R134 charge right into his face, making him think for a split second that the engine was blowing up.
Consensus looking at the engine compartment and the frontal area where the A/C, radiator, wiper reservoir air filter/box, several wiring terminal blocks and multiple wiring looms - as big as 1½" in diameter with probably 30+ wires in it as well as several smaller looms with 5-10 wires - is it was an electrical fire that started in there and blew back into the engine compartment/doghouse.
Overall, the P400 looks very salvageable, most of the "damage" to the topside is chemical extinguisher residue and charred doghouse remains. The insulation blankets on the up-pipes and the turbo were intact, NO evidence of any exhaust leakage anywhere, @Will L. , as all up-pipe connections were V-band clamps and the Peninsular S200/300 turbo was a T-3 mount. Turbo to intake hose was intact. Valve covers looked good, no paint charring! What sucked was that was a NEW (not rebuilt) IP on there, PMD came through fine, it was a Heath Stanadyne unit with the plate mounted low behind the bumper.
Behind the P400 is that ultra-heavy duty built Road Ripper 4L80E built by Certified Transmissions with less than 30K miles on it. While I was under the front end taking off the PMD w/sink, other than where green extinguisher chemical and water had ran down from above, everything looked really clean - no burned engine paint, etc.
Here's an idea how hot the fire got in the living compartment. Jody had just bought a new pair of yellow Optima batteries for the engine (not coach 12V) which mount in a slide out tray in a compartment behind the driver's front wheel under the floor where the generator is, with the side mount terminals facing forward. The temperature of the fire got so hot, that the lead of the battery's terminals melted out of the battery! What sucks is that he had just filled up in Des Moines, so there's still 55 gallons of fresh diesel in the tank and the propane-fueled Onan 3.5KW generator had just been serviced.
What bites is that the cost to trailer it back to the Twin Cities is ridiculously expensive, and then Jody would have to hire somebody to drop the engine and transmission out of it, as with the P-30 chassis the motor and tranny go in and out from underneath, requiring the entire front suspension to be dropped as an assembly to drop the motor. Of course, with the fiberglass burned/shot as well as everything forward of the radiator shroud, I suppose one could just cut the offending body/fried front out of the way and just use a cherry picker/forklift to pull the engine and transmission. What else sucks is that Jody had just put new 19.5" tires on the front and a brake job prior to this trip. He and Connie will finish up tomorrow, all's left is to have the towing company pull it forward about 3' because they backed it in tight to the lot's chainlink fence, making it impossible to remove the very expensive tow bar for the Equinox nor to open the rear compartment hatch.
Got to Atlantic, IA about 1PM today (8/4) Jody and his wife Connie had already been there a couple of three hours, having left very early in the morning to drive down from the Twin Cities.
It's totalled, there is fire, smoke, chemical extinguisher and water damage to the entire interior. We spent until 5:30 salvaging what we could as far as vehicle parts, on board tools and spare parts and their personal items like pots and pans in the kitchen (the beer in the fridge survived!) and odds and ends in the drawers under the couches and the stuff in the basement side compartments.
Now, Jody's a retired Minneapolis firefighter EMT who also took care of Smoke Jumpers as well as SCUBA trained. As soon as the flames/smoke was detected coming out from around the base of the doghouse, he got the rig pulled over, grabbed the Class ABC 10 pounder and got the front "hood" open and got the fire in the engine compartment knocked down and out. Problem was the fire had got the carpet and front seats going by then and it was all she wrote for the interior. Luckily, Iowa State Patrol was quick on the scene with their extinguishers and Jody said several passers-by stopped and used their extinguishers, too. A funny aside he told me was that while he was dousing down the front compartment/engine with his extinguisher, the heat made the A/C hose at the top of the condenser let go, instantly dumping all of the R134 charge right into his face, making him think for a split second that the engine was blowing up.
Consensus looking at the engine compartment and the frontal area where the A/C, radiator, wiper reservoir air filter/box, several wiring terminal blocks and multiple wiring looms - as big as 1½" in diameter with probably 30+ wires in it as well as several smaller looms with 5-10 wires - is it was an electrical fire that started in there and blew back into the engine compartment/doghouse.
Overall, the P400 looks very salvageable, most of the "damage" to the topside is chemical extinguisher residue and charred doghouse remains. The insulation blankets on the up-pipes and the turbo were intact, NO evidence of any exhaust leakage anywhere, @Will L. , as all up-pipe connections were V-band clamps and the Peninsular S200/300 turbo was a T-3 mount. Turbo to intake hose was intact. Valve covers looked good, no paint charring! What sucked was that was a NEW (not rebuilt) IP on there, PMD came through fine, it was a Heath Stanadyne unit with the plate mounted low behind the bumper.
Behind the P400 is that ultra-heavy duty built Road Ripper 4L80E built by Certified Transmissions with less than 30K miles on it. While I was under the front end taking off the PMD w/sink, other than where green extinguisher chemical and water had ran down from above, everything looked really clean - no burned engine paint, etc.
Here's an idea how hot the fire got in the living compartment. Jody had just bought a new pair of yellow Optima batteries for the engine (not coach 12V) which mount in a slide out tray in a compartment behind the driver's front wheel under the floor where the generator is, with the side mount terminals facing forward. The temperature of the fire got so hot, that the lead of the battery's terminals melted out of the battery! What sucks is that he had just filled up in Des Moines, so there's still 55 gallons of fresh diesel in the tank and the propane-fueled Onan 3.5KW generator had just been serviced.
What bites is that the cost to trailer it back to the Twin Cities is ridiculously expensive, and then Jody would have to hire somebody to drop the engine and transmission out of it, as with the P-30 chassis the motor and tranny go in and out from underneath, requiring the entire front suspension to be dropped as an assembly to drop the motor. Of course, with the fiberglass burned/shot as well as everything forward of the radiator shroud, I suppose one could just cut the offending body/fried front out of the way and just use a cherry picker/forklift to pull the engine and transmission. What else sucks is that Jody had just put new 19.5" tires on the front and a brake job prior to this trip. He and Connie will finish up tomorrow, all's left is to have the towing company pull it forward about 3' because they backed it in tight to the lot's chainlink fence, making it impossible to remove the very expensive tow bar for the Equinox nor to open the rear compartment hatch.
... Will keep you all in prayer..