Skid steer fire.

[rszimm]

In case anyone's thinking about attempting to repair a skid steer that's been in a fire....don't. I once bought one that had been in a fire thinking it couldn't be much more than a few hoses and maybe some wiring. Boy was I wrong. Literally the whole thing needs to be taken apart. Every single rubber gasket, O-ring, oil seal, sealed bearing, etc need to be checked and replaced. Some of those things are meant to live the "life" of the machine, so they're not easily replaced. Not to mention that all that plastic/rubber melted into areas that don't make it easy to remove. That's before even considering the later models that have all the electronics, etc.

 

[alexpops]

Not a track loader (I do have a SVL75-2) but insurance - I was moving out of country and needed to sell my SUV. While in process of moving, my wife drove me to the airport one evening to catch my flight to Europe. Next afternoon, taxi driver dropped me off at my new office just as everyone was leaving work. My secretary saw me, told me to see my boss, the CEO, my wife called, there was a fire at home. It turned out that when she walked through the door into the garage that morning, she saw the SUV had a blackened windshield. Opened the door, melted plastic hanging, driver side seat burned, controls for windows burned, melted, hanging from door, and worse. She called 911, fire department came, cut the battery cables, pushed it out of garage. Fire started in vehicle but apparently died due to lack of oxygen. Thank goodness, wife and daughter were in house. Insurance ponied up and paid without question - $3,000 more than I had on the For Sale sticker in the window. Six months later on a return trip, my daughter gave me the mail that had come while I was gone. One was a recall from the SUV maker alerting me they were having a problem with shorting in a power window switch, do not park indoors, take to dealer immediately. I sent that to the insurance company who told me I would get my deductible returned if they could get money from the maker but alas, no luck. Not a big deal, family was safe, that's the big thing. But proof that many manufacturers will not stand behind their product in a case even when they have issued a recall for the fault. If something had happened to my family, I would have had to sue. So don't count on Kubota, count on your insurance. My two cents worth.

I think that the "risk managers" at manufacturers' work a lot like the risk managers at health insurers. Basically the calculation is "How many are actually going to sue, and of those, how many will be able to afford a lawyer good enough to beat our lawyers? vs How much does it cost to do the right thing for everyone?" then go with the cheaper option. Aren't most recalls done either from government forcing the issue with fines or after a big loss in a lawsuit?

 

[sansbury]

Aviation foam suppressant is 'safe' I think. It doesn't (or didn't used to) require anything special to clean, no enivro concerns, and I've seen it tested, and they just washed it down into retention ponds after test.

If you’re thinking AFFF, that’s a whole other ballgame, dispensed by a fire truck with special mixing equipment and a $#@!load of water. Never heard of getting it in an extinguisher.

Also, IIRC the foaming agent is basically 100% PFAS aka "forever chemicals" so its use is either banned or severely limited now.

 

[Sid Post]

They may intentional not do a system like that, because aren't most/all ABC extinguishers corrosive? Where a small fire or more likely, an accidently discharge, leads to engine investing a corrosive powder.

If the air filters won't stop the fire extinguisher output, they aren't going to stop the dust either. If you have a fire, how hard is it to do Preventative Maintenance and install new air filters?

 

[paulsharvey]

If you’re thinking AFFF, that’s a whole other ballgame, dispensed by a fire truck with special mixing equipment and a $#@!load of water. Never heard of getting it in an extinguisher.

Also, IIRC the foaming agent is basically 100% PFAS aka "forever chemicals" so its use is either banned or severely limited now.

That is exactly how it was used, didn't know how it was mixed; but we were building a hangar facility and the airport did a test with one of their full sized fire trucks, must have been 30 ft tall mountain of foam on a taxi way, that was then washed into a storm water pond

 

[paulsharvey]

So, I'm sure in mining industry there is probably fire suppression of some sort in their equipment. They take underground fires Very seriously

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Aircraft engines and cargo compartments use halon. Not safe in an area with humans.

 

[4570Man]

It’s pretty common for large machines in general to have automatic fire suppression. I’m not sure why all machines don’t come that way from the factory.

 

[gtbensley]

Sorry to see that! Glad your dad made it out okay though. Hopefully the replacement process is easy as it can be.

 

[tradosaurus]

Glad it wasn't an electric skid steer. It could have been really bad.