This was a story in my local newspaper of a local rancher whose F150 Supercrew burned to a crisp because of some dry grass that got caught underneath the frame near the exhaust. Anyway, this guy got off his truck for mere seconds to open a gate. On his way back to the truck he noticed smoke coming from underneath. When he looked under the truck he saw flames and just ran away, no fire extinguisher to use and a full tank of gas, he wasn't taking any chances. He just stood there in horror as the fire engulfed the truck with amazing speed. The story included pictures and it was an 04 model Supercrew 4x4. A long time ago I saw something similar in person on another F150 on a ranch. Fortunately the owner did have a fire extinguisher and put it out. I don't carry a fire extinguisher in my truck now and I never have. I will now, you just never know.

 

I just recently got a fire extinguisher to put in my truck. Good to know that its not just waisting space and could actually help me.

 

This is nothing new, catalytic convertors on all vehicles get really hot, and could set off dry high grass burning.

 

I was just surprised at how fast the fire spread. The bottom of the truck is mostly metal . If there had been a clump of grass stuck near the exhaust, it think it would have burned itself out rather quickly. The story also mentioned skid plates as being possibly at fault for collecting the dry grass.

 

Plus rubber, plastic, leaked oil, grease, etc. etc. All of which burn quickly and easily.

 

Met a rancher around here who'd set the grass under his truck on fire. Wasn't a new truck either, no cat, just the exhaust. Cost him a four-year-old 1-ton, but nobody was hurt.

I'm kinda nervous about parking cars in grass now....if the grass is high enough to touch the bottom of the car, I either don't stop there, or shut it off.

 

Just a quick thought...If you extinguish the flames on a half burnt truck your insurance will want to fix it and it may never be right. This happened to a friend of mine (on a chevy) and he could not get them to total the rig. He ended up with a truck that was never right (assuming the Chevy ever was).

Whatever...

 

Working in auto insurance claims, you would be surprised how often we get this type of claim. Saw one the other day where, not only did the guy's truck burn up from parking in a field and the catalytic converter caught the grass on fire but also about 40 adjacent acres of timber (someone ELSE's land). They don't put those warnings in the owner's manual for nothing.

When I'm handling a claim on a "half burnt truck", I'll never try to repair it. Once wiring harnesses, etc., get torched, it is tough to get back right.

I'm like Medicine Man.....go get a bag of marshmallows and let 'er burn (talking about a Chevy of course)!

 

My 93' Ranger came with a 'heat shield' under the converter. I was told it was to prevent exactly this. My 04 150 has the 'skid plates'. I assumed that included a heat shield. I have not crawled under the truck to look. When I had the ranger, I was on my folks farm a lot and viewed that as important. My life now does not have me in the fields as much as I used to be....

 

This is actually surprising in that shouldnt manufacturers expect that a vehicle like a pickup would be used frequently by farmers and ranchers? You would think considering how dangerous this could be that they would be doing everything possible to prevent something like this from happening. I understand that trucks get hot, Im sure there must be a better way though. Whatever the cost of doing so, it would probably be cheaper than a major recall or settling a multi-million dollar lawsuit if people were to die, i.e. Ford/Firestone lawsuits.

 

Not related to Catalytic converters, but did any of you guys happen to see the report on TV about Ford makes before '04 with the faulty Cruise Control "off switch" to the breaks, causing the vehical to catch fire? The switch is a bad design. This is the switch that turns the cruise off when you push the break. Seems the switch is hot all the time, even after you shut the vehical down.
According to the report, the seal between the switching mechanism and the break fluid is too thin. If the seal breaks the hot leads to the switch can ignite the break fluid and lead to a fire. Ford has changed the design for '04 but has yet to issue a recall for earlier installed switches. Scary.