Almost burned my Rover & Home down

[bmohan55]

Doubt if anyone here is this stupid but thought I'd share this. Last winter I stuffed a shop rag in around my tattered parking brake boot to prevent the cold air from coming in. It also was a handy place to keep a rag to wipe down the inside of my windscreen, I thought it was a great idea. Last night while driving home from work it fell out onto my exhust pipe, I didn't notice it when I parked the truck in my garage. I went into my home and changed clothes then went to the garage to get a beer. The garage was hazy and smoke was coming out of my truck!!! I had NO idea why and prayed that it would start, it did so I backed it out on to the driveway...barely missing t-boning my wifes Disco I was so shook up. After a few panicky moments I found the rag...on top of the exhust and right along side my leakey overdrive, smoldering away!

Lessons learned:
Don't half-ass any repairs...do it right.
Keep your beer and your rover close, they will take care of each other.

[scott]

glad nothing was lost. even happier to hear of yet another wonderful use for beer...fire insurance. or should i say let this be a lesson to all you youngsters...when arriving home never go and "change" before the beer. pull into the garage, get out of our series pull up a comfy chair grab a beer or two and enjoy them while eyeing that nice ride that just got ya home. oh yea if it's still smoking 10 minutes after shutting down, investigate

[Wander]

Pshew! Disaster averted.

I'm glad it wasn't a oil and gas soaked rag that seem to multiply when a series is present. The shock must have caused you to need another beer!

Glad it ended well and that you don't take longer to change.

[daveb]

handbrake boot

make sure the boot is installed correclty. lots of people install them so the boot is protruding forward from the seatbox. this is wrong and cause them to split. flip it around so that most of the boot is behind the seatbox.

[bear7343]

make sure the boot is installed correclty. lots of people install them so the boot is protruding forward from the seatbox. this is wrong and cause them to split. flip it around so that most of the boot is behind the seatbox.

I just got done installing mine backwards last week... looks like I'll be flipping it around tonight... good call Dave... More importantly, hooray for BEER

[4flattires]

There's a boot SUPPOSED to be there?

Ahhh...I thought it was another vent.

[jgkmmoore]

Beer

Scott- Thanks.
This weekend, per your advice, I installed a mini-fridge and a semirespectable chair in the garage. Tested the combo today without driving the truck....seemed right proper. Sooo... went to a garage sale and found a 12" TV and a porta potty. All I need now are the hot dogs.
Drove the truck to the garage sale, and retested the setup on return. It still works.
Jeff

[LaneRover]

Doubt if anyone here is this stupid but thought I'd share this. Last winter I stuffed a shop rag in around my tattered parking brake boot to prevent the cold air from coming in. It also was a handy place to keep a rag to wipe down the inside of my windscreen, I thought it was a great idea. Last night while driving home from work it fell out onto my exhust pipe, I didn't notice it when I parked the truck in my garage. I went into my home and changed clothes then went to the garage to get a beer. The garage was hazy and smoke was coming out of my truck!!! I had NO idea why and prayed that it would start, it did so I backed it out on to the driveway...barely missing t-boning my wifes Disco I was so shook up. After a few panicky moments I found the rag...on top of the exhust and right along side my leakey overdrive, smoldering away!

Lessons learned:
Don't half-ass any repairs...do it right.
Keep your beer and your rover close, they will take care of each other.

Does jacking the wrong wheel up while off-roading and thus making my Rover chase me down a rocky slope for a bit while I outran my disabled friend to get out of the way count as nearly as stupid?

[scott]

Scott- Thanks.
This weekend, per your advice, I installed a mini-fridge and a semirespectable chair in the garage. Tested the combo today without driving the truck....seemed right proper. Sooo... went to a garage sale and found a 12" TV and a porta potty. All I need now are the hot dogs.
Drove the truck to the garage sale, and retested the setup on return. It still works.
Jeff

my garage's a mess. couldn't get my truck in w/ a long weekend of cleaning. but when i do get it cleaned out i'm starting a remodel on the laundry room. wife thinks it to make it a nicer. i'm doing it to get plumbing in the wall between my garage and the laundry room. this way i can put a deep sink and a urinal in the garage.

[Momo]

I've been out camping in my 109 so I'm late to this thread but I had a similar incident years ago. A friend bought another friend's 1960 Ford F-100 pickup, which had been sitting for many years. We were all in college at the time, the truck was in Denver so we flew from AZ out to collect it. The plan was to get it operational and drive it from Denver back to Tucson.

After two days of work the thing was running great. It was around 10 pm when we began driving. After a couple hours our eyes were stinging like crazy and the cab smelled weird, and we both had bad headaches.

We pulled over for some coffee, and after a minute or two my buddy Tom yelled "Fire!" There were flames shooting out from under the driver's seat. We pulled the extinguisher out and knocked the fire down, and when we looked under the seat we found charred newspaper. A drain hole in the cab floor was missing its rubber plug, and the exhaust pipe had been cooking that newspaper the whole time. Once we stopped it had a good air supply and lit off.