Skid steer fire.

[4570Man]

Glad you made it out ok.

How much time did you have to get out of your milk crate of death?

I never liked the fact that the only alternative exits are under the load, over the load, or out the back window over the engine.

At least the main door opens up instead of swinging out.

It went up pretty fast. It stalled out and he got and realized it was on fire. I was running the excavator probably 300 ft away. When I saw the skid steer probably a minute later flames were already rolling out the side vents. I knew it was totaled then but I started dumping dirt on it just to help save parts which largely worked. I never wanted a skid steer with one of those swing out doors. I definitely don’t want one now.

 

[JCoastie]

glad you're OK, it it's not extremely rare (not common either) for those Kubota skid steers to go up in flames. My forestry mulcher guy had the same happen, and told me of a few others who had the same issue. Like you, his was insured and it was quickly replaced. It's crazy to think it happens as often as it does, it's rare by the numbers, but happens more often than it should, and I only seem to hear about it with Kubota skid steers though I'm sure all are susceptible. Maybe it's a numbers/quantity thing.

This is the one that burned up similarly to yours.

 

[4570Man]

That is scary. The 75-3 is a really nice machine. Let us know when you find out what caused it.

We think it was an electrical fire involving the injection circuit. We’ll probably never know anything different because of the severity of the fire but I’ll let you know if we do.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I think it’s also very good that he got a picture of the error code. That should help determine what happened.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

glad you're OK, it it's not extremely rare (not common either) for those Kubota skid steers to go up in flames. My forestry mulcher guy had the same happen, and told me of a few others who had the same issue. Like you, his was insured and it was quickly replaced. It's crazy to think it happens as often as it does, it's rare by the numbers, but happens more often than it should, and I only seem to hear about it with Kubota skid steers though I'm sure all are susceptible. Maybe it's a numbers/quantity thing.

This is the one that burned up similarly to yours.

View attachment 884732

Caterpillars and John Deere skids burn to the dirt at the same rate as the Kubota's but it usually is due to a machine that hasn't been kept clean and by that I mean dropping the belly pans , raising the cabs and removing all woody debris, sounds like that wasn't the case with 4570's but it seems to be on most, there is a guy on You tube that goes by the name The Tree Shop here in Florida who posted a video on YT this morning of his Cat 299 burning to the dirt this past week.

 

[paulsharvey]

I've seen several burnt skid steers at auction for salvage recently, of all brands, so I don't think is is Kubota vs Bobcast or whatever.

We have had track hoes burn down at work on 3 occasions, but each time, it was either feeding a burn pile, or leaves/pine needles/trash in engine compartment. One was saved by a fast thinking guy on the loader that dumped dirt on the engine bay, one was totaled and sat for months waiting on salvage, and the 3rd, I don't know the end result.

 

[paulsharvey]

You will probably never know the 100% cause, but if I had to guess, I would assume an emissions burn, linked with badly times minor fluid leak?

 

[paulsharvey]

With the quantity of fluids involved (fuel, hydro, oil) you would have to notice the flare up within Seconds for a portable fire extinguisher to save the day. With track hoes and skid steers, with the engine being out of site, it's normally too late for the operator to notice, and it's already engulfed

 

[2manyrocks]

Having a regen system in a confined engine area doesn't seem like the best thing for equipment owners over the life expectancy of these kind of expensive machines. I don't know, but perhaps they should come with fire suppression systems built into them from the factory?

 

[paulsharvey]

Whole situation sucks; even with insurance. You figure depreciation, deductible, and inflation, the settlement is probably gonna be $15k short of replacement.

 

[2manyrocks]

If he had paid cash and it wasn't insured, this would really, really suck.

 

[workinonit]

I've often wondered why the ag industry doesn't use fire resistant fluids. We've been using Fyrquel in the power business for as long as I've been in it. It's used in the EHC systems for turbine valve operation. I've seen tons of fires and never seen that stuff burn.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

A guy here had a new Kubota tractor do the same last year with only a few hours. Damn glad your dad is OK.

 

[4570Man]

I've often wondered why the ag industry doesn't use fire resistant fluids. We've been using Fyrquel in the power business for as long as I've been in it. It's used in the EHC systems for turbine valve operation. I've seen tons of fires and never seen that stuff burn.

The fuel tank is in the door which was swung outward and it didn’t melt through until it was already engulfed. The hydraulic tank is steel and I don’t think it ruptured. I think this fire was mostly fueled by rubber and plastic components in the engine bay.

 

[4570Man]

Whole situation sucks; even with insurance. You figure depreciation, deductible, and inflation, the settlement is probably gonna be $15k short of replacement.

I just bought this machine in December so I think the replacement cost is basically the same that it was then. I’ve made $10,020 of payments since then and I’ll have to make another one before the insurance gets sorted out. I believe the deductible is only $1000. I’m going to be pretty sour if they try shorting me 15k.

 

[JCoastie]

the Kuboda insurance is evidently pretty darn good. The guy I use who I posted about above got his burned down skid steer replaced for almost nothing, and it was a few years old coming up on the end of his warranty period. He was a big advocate for their insurance. The replacement happened rather quick too.

 

[paulsharvey]

You know, it could have been Bad, don't remember what style door the Kubota has, but if you have the bucket at wrong location, with a swing out door, and had to get out quickly...

 

[Lineman North Florida]

You know, it could have been Bad, don't remember what style door the Kubota has, but if you have the bucket at wrong location, with a swing out door, and had to get out quickly...

Both Kubota and Takeuchi have overhead roll up doors instead of conventional out swing.

 

[paulsharvey]

I'm not normally to worried about safety, but the idea of a outswing door, and being trapped in the cab of a burning machine is something I'd prefer to never see or even hear about.

 

[2manyrocks]

I don't know if you guys want to talk about fire extinguishers for heavy equipment in this thread or maybe start one on that topic? With these enclosed cabs, I start to wonder if it would make sense to install something like the ones a race car driver can operate from his seat. Looks like they install hard lines to the areas where fires can start and the driver can trigger the fire extinguishers from the driver's seat. I don't know anything about them myself.