OT- Truck fire

Had a little excitement last night- phone rang about quarter to midnight, neighbor told us we had a big fire near our house. It was our '95 Ford diesel PU, fully involved- about 5 feet from the corner of the garage. I started hosing down the building while Mrs. called the fire dept. They got here quick, but truck, of course, is total loss.

I figure the block heater started it- we started plugging it in about a week ago. The block heater was a couple years old. Breaker was tripped on the circuit it was plugged into.

Do block heaters cause many fires? Fireman said he's seen several.

Guess I'm truck shopping! We've also got a Cummins Dodge, I'm leaning toward getting another one.

Sorry to hear about your truck.

We have a 95 Dodge 3500 Cummins diesel with close to 300,000 miles on it now. Finally had to have the original clutch replaced last w/e. Its been and still is a great truck. With 410 gears, it will tow anything, just not fast. On the highway, with no load, running 65 mph, gets about 18 mpg, tach reads about 2300 rpm.

In June I bought a 97 Ford F-350, single rear wheel, 4sp auto tranny with the 7.3L diesel. It had 92,000 miles on it when I bought it. I can't speak to durability yet, but it has easily pulled everything we needed. Heaviest load so far - about 8,000 lbs. Don't know what kind of mileage it gets towing, but on the highway I get between 20 and 22. One of the selling points for me on the Ford was at 60 the tach read 1600 rpm. I wanted another Dodge, but I couldn't find one in my price range that wasn't beat up and my mechanic said the older Fords with the 7.3L diesel were good trucks.

I can tell you this - about a month ago the power steering hose blew out of the housing on my Ford (design flaw for that year). Called a wrecker to come get it and take it to my mechanic's shop. The wrecker was the exact same truck as my 97 Ford. I rode with the driver to the shop and asked about the truck. He said it had 479,000 miles and that didn't include idling time. I watched his tach as he drove (after we had dropped off my truck). With no load, at 60 his engine was turning 2300 rpm (manual tranny). I'm sure it was geared low for towing. You can bet that wrecker has been driven hard and its still going.

I haven"t checked, but it seems awhile back Ford was having trouble with ignition switch failures and resulting fires...
Might not hurt to check Center For Auto Safety (if NHTSA had fire reports they wouldn"t tell you) or search a couple Ford truck sites...
Sorry about the loss; hope it"s insured...

We had comprehensive insurance on it, so they will be cutting me a check. Have Country Insurance, they've always treated us right.

Been doing a little Craiglist shopping, and am thinking we may have to get another Ford, for the same reason you did. The Dodges are just too pricey. Our Dodge is a one ton dually 4X4, with Banks turbo- so is a "pullin' fool". We got a 10 foot camper and a 3 horse trailer, and after the first trip with that lash-up, my wife laughed and said we need a bigger trailer or bigger horses, because the Dodge still doesn't know anything's back there. The truck we buy now doesn't have to be that herky, but still needs to be able to pull the horse trailer or equipment trailer. Another F250 would fill the bill quite nicely, actually.

A friend of mine had a 95 F 350 crew cab single wheel truck burn about 2 years ago. It caught fire in his yard in the middle of the night. It had a 351 with well over 300,000 miles but he had taken care of it and it was still a very nice truck. I think his fire was related to the cruise control recall they had.

When I was a kid, we had one start on fire that was hooked up to a tractor. Being that they are in some of the lowest areas in the engine compartment, I suspect a lot of them plug up with antifreeze scale, stop circulating and eventually overheat.

If you go with a Ford, make sure you get the 7.3L diesel, not the 6.0. 6.0 had problems. You"ll have to go to a little older truck to get the 7.3 because Ford doesn"t offer it anymore.

I bet a Single Wheel truck is hard to balance!

I bet a Single Wheel truck is hard to balance!

Install an after market gyroscopic control and it's a breeze!

The new engine ford is producing is actaully going to be a very good engine, needs to be after the failure of the 6.0

6.4 i think? dont quote me

I like your humor, Ernie

Neighbour lost a brand new JD 6000 series and the shop due to a block heater failure. No insurance.

Place the block heater on a timer to start about 2 hours before you want to go. Juice pigs hooked up 24/7. As for fires thing do ago and go bad. A good ground faulk plug in is a starting point.

yea, that 6.4 is so awesome it is being replaced by a totally different engine in 2011. I"m a ford man, but this revolving engine door is getting very old

My 95 burned up while sitting in a parking lot. It was my first and last Ford. Insurance paid for it but it was a Ford defect. Luckily it was not in my attached five stall garage at the time. I would have lost some irreplaceable classics.

Nothing but Toyota for me since then.

LOTS of stuff besides the block heater COULD have started the fire. Once on fire the block heater cord would melt and burn and short, tripping the breaker.

Sort of a "which came first, the egg or the chicken" sort of thing.

The heater COULD have started to fire OR the heater/cord could have been shorted out as a result of a fire that started elsewhere.

B-I-L shop burned down one night. It had a Ford truck inside. They believe it started the fire.
SDE

I have been a volunteer firefighter since 1992 in my community, and the vast majority of our vehicle fires occured in Ford truck/suv"s from a vintage of 1991 to 1997. My brother"s gas F-150 caught fire at the alternator/wiring harness twice. He happened to be in it at the time both times.

It was most likely the speed control deactivation switch. They have a recall out on them. They have started many fires...Jim

I learn a lot off this board. I'm thinking of getting a pickup capable of hauling a horse trailer. Lesson from this thread: Get an older Ford with the 7.3L diesel but WITHOUT cruise control. :wink:

Whether or not it has cruise control they still have this deactivation switch. It activates the brake lights along with telling the pcm that you are braking to down shift the transmission and etc. The one in my moms mustang melted preventing her to get it out of park, cruise control would not shut off (it would speed up when you tried to brake), tranny would shift weird. But no brake or check engine light ever came on. The part was not fords fault it was manufactured by texas instruments. I'm surprised it took this long for the recall to come totally around to all vehicles. We were talking about this recall back in 05 ish. I was told they weren't originally recalling the diesels because the switch doesn't get power when the truck is off, unlike the gassers. Which then makes me wonder how does the brake lights come on when the truck is off? I haven't looked through the wiring diagrams to find out if this was true or not.

Switch must be too expensi ve. Ford recall is to add an inline fuse under the hood.