Almost had a fire in the ceiling last outing

[mindheavy]

I know the title sounds a little click-bait, but I was kind of shocked when I saw what the burning smell was last time we went out.


1978 Ambassador 28'


Here in Oklahoma we had a stretch of 100°+ weather and the site we were at had zero shade for the Airstream. I ran the AC (original Armstrong unit) nearly the entire two night stay. On the last morning before leaving we started to notice an electrical burning smell - it was the front vent fan.


I had opened it to try and let some of the hot air escape the front area but after smelling something burning we ended up shutting things down and a couple hours later packed up (we were leaving that morning anyway). The fan was never running, I never heard anything and didn't even think of the fan. It was up there melting away, locked up.


After a more thorough inspection the next week I found the front vent fan in this condition:



Careful out there, I really think we got lucky. This easily could have been worse!

[Ndcctrucks]

Yep

It looks original, so it’s 44-years-old.

It’s easy to trust old technology to be reliable, but everything has a limit.

I imagine you’ll inspect just about everything now, both electrical and propane. No point in burning down a perfectly good AS.

-Ken

[Fungus]

Similar problem on our 2017 two years ago. Our first night in it the lav exhaust fan burned up. I replaced it at home (my first foray into this hobby). So not decades old.