When you look at vehicle fires on motorways a large proportion of them seem to be mobile cranes. What is it about these vehicles in particular why they seem to spontaneously combust more than others?
Just lately seems to be them parcel double deckers catching fire. Especially on the M6.
DickyNick:
When you look at vehicle fires on motorways a large proportion of them seem to be mobile cranes. What is it about these vehicles in particular why they seem to spontaneously combust more than others?
Last week one of these burst into flames on the Eastbound M62 just after J22, i.e. having ground its way up Windy Hill. It may be that the engine on these is more enclosed than on a normal unit to allow the crane to be mounted low, a red hot turbo and damaged or missing heat shielding is a possible cause.
DickyNick:
When you look at vehicle fires on motorways a large proportion of them seem to be mobile cranes. What is it about these vehicles in particular why they seem to spontaneously combust more than others?
Now here’s an idea how about you drive one maybe if we’re unlucky enough you could report back.
The M62 one was caught on dashcam and looks like it not only caught fire, there was quite an explosion too.
Kindof surprised as I didn’t think diesel did that. Unless the hydraulic fluids are flammable. Not sure I’d want to be close to that when it went up.
They do seem to struggle when it comes to hills, even more than a DAF, so maybe the engine is too small to really cope and they overheat regularly.
Another one today on the M9
Maybe like combines, they are not used much, belts, pulleys, mice nests, kittens etc
A lot of newish rear engined single and double deck buses are going up in flames after engine fires. A friend who runs several of them was driving one home after buying it and it burnt out on the motorway. He said these newish engines are only small capacity and run very hot to burn off a lot of the emissions. He said there are all sorts of pipes fitted around the engine and in his case the engine put a rod through the block and the oil thrown out caught fire on all the hot pipes and a standard fire extinguisher would not put it out.
Brakes are very poorly ventilated on them so any bind or bearing failure probably gets hotter much quicker.
Maybe sitting around during lockdown encouraged parking brakes to bind. Usually seem to be on discs rather than drums but that’s only from my extensive mobile crane experience of working on 2.
Numbum:
A lot of newish rear engined single and double deck buses are going up in flames after engine fires. A friend who runs several of them was driving one home after buying it and it burnt out on the motorway. He said these newish engines are only small capacity and run very hot to burn off a lot of the emissions. He said there are all sorts of pipes fitted around the engine and in his case the engine put a rod through the block and the oil thrown out caught fire on all the hot pipes and a standard fire extinguisher would not put it out.
Oh now you’ve done it…
Stand by for a two page rant fest by Carryfast… 
Buckstones:
Last week one of these burst into flames on the Eastbound M62 just after J22, i.e. having ground its way up Windy Hill. It may be that the engine on these is more enclosed than on a normal unit to allow the crane to be mounted low, a red hot turbo and damaged or missing heat shielding is a possible cause.
That was down to their mechanic not fixing it properly two days earlier. I passed that particular crane a couple of days before that crawling up the A1 northbound to Wetherby Services at 30MPH with their recovery van behind it belching loads of smoke out of the exhaust that stank of diesel. Literally must have been pouring fuel into the engine.