Electrical Fire Destroys JD 4300

[JasonMac]

My friend who does landscaping / Property Care, just lost his JD 4300 to an Electrical Fire.

He had his machine parked at the jobsite and it hadn't been used in about 4 days. The owner of the property had to call the Fire Dept because he came home and saw flames coming out of the tip of the Dashboard. By the time the Firemen got their the whole machine was in a 30 foot ball of fire.

It totally melted everything on the machine. The firemen said sparks were still flying out of the dash after they knocked out the fire.

I will post some pictures. Thank god this didn't happen inside of a garage, or near a building.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening before?

 

[dubba]

nasty, nasty chipmunks /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Glad to hear everybody is alright, hopefully he's insured

 

[jdbower]

I've been tempted to get one of these for my seldom-used truck to prevent battery drain. Maybe I'll get two just in case...

 

[slaveToHorses]

One of those battery shutoff units saved my touring car.
I had just parked it in the shop to do some work on the brakes and I saw flames come out of the louvers on the engine hood after I had shut off the engine. I ran to the other side and opened the shutoff switch and the flames went out.
Turns out the cable to the starter had shorted out and the main connector to the engine harness went up in flames. I have them on all my older or seldom used vehicles.

 

[smokedtires]

Would home owners insurance cover that if it was used privately on your own property? Do people add tractor insurance to their home policies?

 

[rmonio]

I don't have tractor insurance - but I think it's covered in my homeowners policy. Does anyone else have a comment on this?

(never thought about it until I saw this posting)

-Bob

 

[jdbower]

I took advantage of JD's 0% financing for 36 months and I've been charged $173 for "Physical Damage Insurance". I'm not sure what this means or if proof of homeowner's insurance would cover it, but the charge was trivial enough that I didn't argue. I'd call your homeowner's company to figure out what's covered, I doubt a typical policy will cover that original Picasso I have in the basement unless I declare it first... While homeowner's would probably cover damage to the house, replacing a 5-figure tractor in addition to the house may be asking a bit much.

 

[rmonio]

I'm going to check on it - my JD4600 is paid off and I didn't have to pay for any coverage originally in my JDCredit contract.....

-Bob

 

[gunmaker]

My homeowners policy covers my tractors-JD was satisfied with that coverage with the 0%/36mo, when they delivered the 2520.

 

[755inNY]

I was told by my agent that if I use the tractor to maintain my property, it is covered by my home owner's insurance. But...only when it is on my property. Take it off the property and no coverage.

Jeff