if you think you are safe in your 40 year old RV from fire, you may not want to read this post today…certainly if you’re tired of me standing on a soap box because this one is a biggies and the timing for this is NOW!
Last week there was a very complete montage on Facebook of a GMC on fire. As usual the thread was full of how can we stop this….what caused that…… you don’t want this to happen to you and a few other scary comments but still everyone tiptoes around the fact that if you do not prepare yourself for an event like fire it really COULD happen to you!
This is why some 6 maybe 8 years ago a GMC owner/fire engineer came up with a perfect “paperclip” fire measure for our GMC. Ralph Kennerknect made is career of designing fire systems for military, maritime and aircraft application. Living on a boat for 20 years in Miami he took his oars inland, purchased a GMC Motorhome for a new chapter in his life.
One day he said to me, “These motorhomes look like a mobile campfire looking for a match!”. 40 year old dry, flakey particle board is just like starter wood. Petroleum based glues holding it all together, vinyl and plastic interior parts give off toxic fumes when on fire and all that locked in an aluminum tube…hey, what could go wrong? And what will happen when something DOES go wrong?
The drpressing part of all this to me is through help from a good frie3nd and GMC owner I wanted to keep Ralphs products going after Ralph passed away….and with a little help from my friends I did. I still haven’t paid that man back fully from yhelping me….why not? Because no one thinks it will EVER happen to them…..but guys it can and it IS happening!
This was a nice coach, has headers, Alcoas and a Honda generator…nothing helped it when the fire came
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There is NO company addressing RV fire dangers still than Fire Fight Products in a real, positive way. The products Ralph came up with can save your life and maybe your coach….but not if you just talk about it and the business will fail unless some of you wake up and do something to protect your baby!
Yes, it does burn if something happens. This coach left us after some interior work, the transmission overflowed and there it is 
A squirrel chewed a hole in a rubber hose put to the carb. Hey, looks like they saved the Alcoas on this one! 
Towed to us, the block was even cracked on this one! 
hey and you’re not safe at home either 
They go up in the driveway! 
And if you call this “scare tactics” lemme really scare you the way I was on Thursday last week. Friday I had a Fire Fight fire safety talk and installation meeting for techs at a Prevost dealership. The day before you guys have been watching me rewire 3 coaches installing a new dash AC/heat system. #3 project was ready to power back up the coach reconnecting to the living area electrical system…….. 
and remember the 4 boxes of wiring I extracted from the engine electrical system 
Now time to reconnect the living area electrical system it was similarly rigged up but “assuming” it came in that way would be OK……….WRONG! The living area electrical system was actually rigged worse than the engine system. There is a huge convert/inverter swedged in the closet with another converter still in the utility compartment 
You should never do that. 2 converters confuse charging. The data cable to that monster inverter/charged shorted out under the latem nodel bedroom seats the previous owner had put into this 1973 coach…the flat data cable pinched, grounded out and the damage was done! This weekend was spent polluting myself cleaning 
The damage is mitigated 
and now I will reinstall his bedroom. It was the crappy living area electriocal system….good intentions from the previous owner, improperly and sloppily installed…dangerously and it failed. First…bigger ain’t better. Having 2 smart chargers they fight themselves and there is no reason to have such a monstaer in a GMC…the only thing you can do with that thing is run the microwave for a bit…that thing cannot run a roof air and will flatten your battery in no time flat. And then there was the good converter totally overshadowed. Wires? OMG…..hey, go look at the wiring in your coach…..does it make sense, do you know what it’s all about and do YOU have countermeasures when that pile of wires melts itself?
If you honestly answer that….you need a fire system or at least personal fire measures to keep yourself at least safe! That’s what the Fire Fight Products we have can do. They have saved people and property and it can help you but you have to get it!
Am I yelling from my soap box? You’re damn straight! I and other GMC owners have gone out on a financial limb to have fire countermeasures available to you…and honestly for less cash than anyone else out there and we are struggling. Why…….it’s you! You don’t like me to say that do you…….but it’s true! This is a small 3 man company with 2 of the 3 owning a GMC! It was designed by a GMC owner for you to protect your coach….and very few are taking this seriously! Protect yourself and your friend, your motor, your generator and your frig for less than $!000. Yeah that’s money but yeah that’s a fire and it’s gong to hurt you and your coach! DO SOMETHING! Don’t just sit there at your keyboard going tisk-tisk, that will never happen to me….it will!
Buy new seats, floor, dash and all that but protect all that with a fire system…….I hate to say it this way but if you do not….it’s all on you!
Can you say I’m upset…u bet your ass. The GMC is the ONLY community that has fire measures designed specifically for the GMC and most do not have it…….. hey that’s fine…if you come to me you will have this stuff when you leave. If this makes you upset at me…honestly I don’t care. I have committed financially to make this stuff available….guess it’s true you can lead a horse to water………………..
I’m going to shut up now, get off of my soap box and fall back into not being so assertive on fires like I have been,………you make the decision to do something….I need to get to work. See ya tomorrow….I hope to hear from you about fire systems…Ada will answer the phone….she and Jim Galbavy have fire suppression in their coach….do you?.
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Scary photos! All that sweat equity up in smoke…
Glad you’ll be putting that fire suppression system in our engine and gen compartments.
Tom & Anneke (Texas Tux)
Thanks for the heads up on the dangers of fire in an RV. As a retired Indianapolis Indiana Firefighter, I’ve learned that nothing burns faster than a mobile home or a motorhome. The real threat to sleeping occupants is the deadly fumes emitted by PVC’s (poly vinyl chloride). Wiring and plastic that are beginning to melt and burn can fill a room and render a person unconscious before the flames break out. Possibly before a smoke detector could alert.