Another reason to own a Airstream

[Hummer]

I am a volunteer firefighter and the next department over has just rolled into a scene with a fully involved camper three minutes ago parked in the yard of a residence. The call went out 15 minutes ago that an on board generator caught a camper on fire. All were out but their cat.

As well it was threatening a nearby structure.

Made me appreciate our 76 Sovereign that much more.


I am surprised there is not more of these incidents with on board units.

When I hook up auxillary power to our home (three times in last 15 years) the unit is away from anything that will light off and when we go to bed it is shut down.

Radio traffic just indicated it was knocked down but they are standing by till it cools down.

Lesson here is generators are fine but keep them away from anything that will ignite if something happens.

[McDave]

How would you rate the risk of accident from a gasoline powered generator with the risk of accident from an on-board propane system that might be powering any or all of the stove, refrigerator, hot water heater, and furnace at the same time? How about operating a gasoline powered generator in the rain? I assume you wouldn't recommend sheltering it under the tailgate of the truck? Any other advice other than keeping it away from things you don't want burned up?


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[Hummer]

McDave, Very good points Sir. I don't utilize propane on the move for exactly the reasons you point out. Before we leave I pull her around and plug up and get the fridge cooling down. Put all the food we are taking in it at least 24 hours before leaving, close it up and I have bungee cords hooked to eye bolts to make sure it does not come open till I want to open it. The 12 volt on the fridge wasn't working when we got her so basically it is 120V or nothing.

I drive all day and that evening plug it in. We have never had any food spoilage and everything in freezer is still rock hard. Obviously when we stop at a camp ground plug it in all night and back on road following morning. Again never lost any food.

I have one of the Champion 4 KW 120V generators for 30AMP RV use and it is still NIB four years later. Never unpacked it

I don't use the water heater nor the furnace since all are 40 years old and the plumbing for them has seen lots of vibration on the road and is suspect. When I first got a Minnie Winnie a old hand at camping on the road gave me good advice.

Get a good 1500 watt electric heater and you will be fine. So far he has been correct, the floor heater has done fine. I had the tanks filled in 2010 and only time propane has been used is the stove/oven. I got one of the bigger heaters that has a flat top that rolls around on wheels.

When my house backup generator is running outside I have a sheet of 3/4" plywood about 4X6 and it is placed on top of the generator to keep it dry. When I plug the house line in I have on rubber fire boots, the shore line is dry and firefighter gloves which the good ones keep your hands dry even though gloves are wet. It is literally amazing how good $50.00+ gloves take care of you. When we are crawling in we have to pick up burning things and move them to the side to get by.

Now that interior structure attack methodology has changed in last several years and we now take steps to reduce the interior threat to our personnel before entry is made when possible as the risk is less.

I also installed a smoke detector in middle of unit.

We are not real thrilled about introducing water into a structure with the main service line still powered up either but you gotta do what you gotta do. What we are really concerned about is propane tanks close to structures and down power lines that are still hot laying out in wet grass. So far no one has stepped on a down line but I have been present when the small green propane tanks let go and a 500 gal propane tank vented off and that was a real attention getter.


I met another guy from Canada who drove down to Indiana, hooked up campers and pulls them back and delivers them all over Canada and he puts about 90,000 miles a year on them. He told me never tow a trailer over 60 MPH because at higher speed if something happens the tail is wagging the dog so to speak. Thusly I think on the road I may have passed maybe half a dozen other vehicles.

On this forum I read about using LT tires on trailer and now I am running 10 ply LT tires on rims rated stronger than factory on the Sovereign and the improvement is remarkable.


Last thing I do before cranking up truck is unplug trailer and stow shore line.