All Entries Tagged With: "fire"
Press Fleet Ram Catches Fire – Worker Sabotage To Blame?
Dallas Morning News contributor Terry Box had a pretty exciting vehicle review recently. He was driving a brand new Longhorn Edition Ram 1500, when other motorists started to waive and gesture at him frantically. The problem? His brand new press fleet Ram was burning.
By the time he got pulled over and out of the truck, the vehicle was quickly engulfed. See the story here.
Brand new Ram burns to the ground – sabotage at play? Image from Dallas Morning News
The question is, was this “a one-in-a-billion situation” as described by Ram CEO Fred Diaz, or is this problem a result of reported worker sabotage at Ram’s Warren Truck Assembly Plant?
Toyota Recalls 2007-09 Tundra Trucks Over Power Window Glitch
As you have undoubtedly heard, Toyota plans on recalling 2.47 million vehicles in the U.S. (7.43 million globally) to fix a power window issue that some news agencies are erroneously reporting as a “fire risk.”
Toyota has recalled 337,100 2007-2009 Toyota Tundra pickups to fix a power window glitch caused by an uneven application of special lubrication.
UPDATE: A new statement has been added to some news reports stating “documents filed by U.S. safety regulators show customers have reported 161 fires and nine injuries.” We have found that this “fire” is really classified as an “electrical fire” such as when the switch gets hot and smokes. Further analysis of the report shows that there were 161 incidents of smoke out of 2.4 million vehicles which is 0.0067% of the total recalled. Not really a big fire risk.
This is unfortunate – and borderline irresponsible – because while the recall effects all switches, the risk of fire is limited to switches that:
- Are “sticking” (this isn’t every switch…not even close)
- Have been “fixed” with a conventional lubricant like WD40
- Because the switch was never, ever designed for conventional lubrication, there is a chance that switches which have been lubed with something like WD40 could catch on fire
This explanation of Toyota’s massive recall is detailed, nuanced, and entirely too difficult to explain in 2 seconds. SO, most media outlets are reporting a global vehicle recall number (7.4 million) along with the phrase “fire risk” and leaving it at that.
This is BS, no?
Amatoya: Futuristic Firefighting Vehicle
Most of us grew up with fire trucks that were big, red, and noisy, designed to carry as much water, supplies and men as possible to the scene of a blaze while clearing a path along crowded city streets or twisting rural roads. The future of firefighting equipment, however, might look quite different if Liam Ferguson has his way. The designer has put together an entirely new type of firefighting vehicle called the Amatoya that is more adaptable to a wider range of situations than traditional truck-based apparatus.
The inspiration for the Amatoya came from the “Black Saturday” wild fires that swept across Victoria, Australia in 2009.
