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Absolutely Gutted In Morocco

I can't stop thinking about what happened and why did it happen...and what could I've done more to kill the fire.....:( The answer is I needed a big axe! I have two 2kg. fire extinguishers an they were more than sufficient to kill the fire even when it seemed to get spreaded under the hood. I needed an AXE or a big crowbar. Thats all was needed at that moment:(
I took the time to prepare myself for such a scenario before the 2015 Morocco trip
1)I have fussible links on the batteries. All of them are fused
2) I have kill switches...one under the hood and one inside the truck
3) Two 2kg fire extinguishers that are a second away from me. I use them as an arm rest.(Some of you have seen them)...
4)emergency bag behind the drivers seat

....Unfortunately...no axe or a crowbar....

I DID NOT HAVE AN AXE!:( Huge mistake!

No matter how long we'll speculate on what, when, why ect. Reality is different! You have only about a minute or two to realise what is happenenig and about a minute ot two to react! After that is out of your control....unfortunately!:(
 
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I have to say I really like the idea of carrying a crowbar. I had a look at the release mechanism on my 105 and it seems (I may be wrong) that the pull leave in the cab doesn't actually unlock anything, it nearly rotates a sprung clip allowing the bonnet to lift high enough to get to the secondary release lever. Therefore, in an emergency such as Byron's a crow bar would fairly easily get the hood into position for the secondary lever, which can't fail.

Also, if mounted outside (i'm going to stick one on the roof rack above the drivers side door) then in the case of people being stuck in the car for some reason (crash etc) then it could be used by a rescuer to open the door.

Plus its there for self defence if needed..... the list goes on.

I'm also thinking of mounting a 10mm spanner somewhere accessible in the engine bay so that there is one to hand very quickly should the battery need to be disconnected.
 
Nick, you may want to reconsider attaching something like a crow bar (I prefer the gorilla bars) that could easily be removed and used against you and your truck. Also having it to hand may be construed as an offensive weapon by the boys in blue.
Just a thought.
 
Yeah I thought of that, but I think if someone is really keen to get into the vehicle having a crowbar on the roof or not isn't going to make a difference. There are other security measures so they'll need more than a crowbar to actually steel the vehicle.

Also, I was going to hide it so it wouldn't be visible unless you were actually on the roof.

Interesting thought re. the boys in blue. I guess it could go inside the vehicle but stay easily accessible
 
Would a crowbar have helped ? i imagine the catch and the bonnet to be far sturdier than anything you can pivot against . Same with the axe you would crush the lock rather than cut it , and how far advanced would a fire need to be before you were willing to attack your pride and joy with callous violence ?
 
Would a crowbar have helped ? i imagine the catch and the bonnet to be far sturdier than anything you can pivot against . Same with the axe you would crush the lock rather than cut it , and how far advanced would a fire need to be before you were willing to attack your pride and joy with callous violence ?


+1.
I can just see this approach jamming the lock completely and then you've blown any chance you had of saving the vehicle. If the inability to lift the bonnet worries you that much then rig up a 2nd catch release somewhere or replace it with an alternative locking method.
 
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We need somebody to find a burnt out car and see if the catch still works , i'm betting it does so all that is needed is a hole drilled in the lever that the cable pulls upon to add a second cable .
 
Oh we tried crow bar and breaker bar combination. Even Mike smashing a hole with a hammer didn't get us much further.

Looking a some discussion on firefighting forums they seem to either good the bonnet back from the corners or cut through the metal hoop with various gadgets.
 
A hi-lift jack could be used as a big lever to prise open a bonnet may be ?
 
@ Shayne and Towpack
That comes to everyones mind...it did to me as well that day. If I knew what is about to happen in just a few minutes after my gentle aproach I would have been alot more violent. No doubt! What is a smashed bonnet or a broken headlight compare to the result?....nothing!
The crowbar we had was a foot long and no whear near to the one we needed. The hammer also was one of those heavy as a feather.
 
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My opinion is that the main bonnet catch is firm, it's hefty steel and I wouldn't be surprised if could lift the front wheels off the ground with it. A brute-force approach is not on IMO, far better to discard it for retaining pins, or engineer a secondary cable/release lever, it can't be that technical given the available innovative engineering brains on this forum. :lol:

It depends where you are when an emergency hits, but force at mid-day in a desert especially with the heat of a small fire taking hold, would probably exhaust most people in a matter of minutes, and there's an awful lot of work left to do after opening, manhandling extinguishers, seeing to the kids, grabbing the water supply, the grab bag, emptying what you can from the truck etc.

A well constructed alternative catch would be no more than a click, and the same goes for spannering the batteries, a kill button would be a millisecond job with no effort whatsoever, you could do it even with burned hands.

Just thinking aloud, as we all are at the moment, I'm sure something good, sensible and workable will come out of this discussion, sooner or later, if not already...
 
You never ever want to open a bonnet on a vehicle fire as you add alot of oxygen to the fire which will then shoot towards your face as you stand there.

What the fire brigade do is either pop the bonnet to the first catch and spray the fire extinguisher in or they take a axe and create a hole in the bonnet to spray into.
 
Maybe so Stu but I was really glad I opened mine as the fire was above the starter. I would say you are absolutely right in the circumstance of a major fire but I would think a small fire should be fine with caution and understanding of the risks. Opening the bonnet paid off in my circumstances.
 
There's so much airflow from underneath an 80 lifting the bonnet probably wouldn't make much difference. Plus we had a good 20+mph wind that day.

As has been posted, the initial fire was fairly small and probably could have been completely extinguished if we could have got the bonnet open.
 

This just happened to pop up in my feed, see how fast the bonnet pins release when needed
 
Yep, and I'm guessing the in-car isolators were electrics and fuel pump/supply lines.

A simple pull/twist action, quick and effortless, even in a near-panic situation.

Bonnet pins would be good on an overland vehicle, the only downside would be locking them, but en-route you could remove the locks to save fumbling for keys in an emergency.

Once fitted, It would become routine like checking fluids and tyre pressures.
 
Yep, and I'm guessing the in-car isolators were electrics and fuel pump/supply lines.

A simple pull/twist action, quick and effortless, even in a near-panic situation.

Bonnet pins would be good on an overland vehicle, the only downside would be locking them, but en-route you could remove the locks to save fumbling for keys in an emergency.

Once fitted, It would become routine like checking fluids and tyre pressures.
There's these bonnet catches from Demon Tweeks, but they're not cheap and you still have to find a key in an emergency. There may be other types a padlock could be fitted to and removed on route.
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/bonnet-pins-fasteners/aerocatch-panel-fasteners
 
There are various locking versions available which eliminate the security issue but will need unlocking in an emergency. If I went for locking the key would be with the ignition key so easy to access when needed
 
Rich, I've just loctited those 3 screws on my starter before I went to Ireland !

Petrol is another factor in fire. It's far more dangerous than diesel. Fire from just the fumes can explode and kill you. My friend had a large ride on mower which ran out of petrol. He pushed it to his double garage and filled it with petrol and locked up for the night. Little did he know that the carb float had stuck in the bottom (often happens) and the gravity feed from the tank slowly filled the garage with fumes until they reached the heating boiler then the garage blew up like a balloon bursting. On running out of the house all his stuff in the garage was on fire. I then fitted a petrol tap on my mower. A bloke in our lane will not go near petrol. He even has a diesel mower.

Braided petrol pipes are not really the answer unless the whole car is designed to these as conducting electricity could melt them.
 
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