Under car grass fire tip

you know I am going to have nightmares now !!!!!!


Could I just drink the beer and use the byproducts ?

You could, but usually with an under vehicle fire you haven't got much time to wait around for the byproducts to become available

Precautionary Preventative drinking? ( by the passenger of course :-)

Now thats a good idea! You might have to attach an additional spray motor and direct the line to where the most likely fire might happen. Then you could wire the motor up to a 12v timer and when driving through grass you could spray the effected areas on a regular basis. :-)

Having a rig that was formerly a wagon, but is now a dual cab, I am in the fortunate position of having the rear window washer not required.

So, I have re-routed the hose that used to go to the rear....it now sits in front of the radiator and i can squirt some extra cooling over the front of the radiator if i ever need to. This idea started from wanting to add washers to the headlights (which I've converted to HID and which therefore need washers to be legal).....but I've never actually got around to perfecting that idea (yet).

So, the question is.....how many of us would get more use from the washer that is designed for the rear window, if it was re-designed to squirt onto a known hot spot under the rig? It could be done with a simply "T" junction near the washer bottle......have it aligned to the back window when driving in non-bush setting/s, but be able to turn a tap so that that washer water goes to the hot spot when we're on bush tracks etc. Very simple to do.

My only concern would be that those washer bottles are not very large and I wouldn't think it would take very long before the water was depleted....maybe a separate & bigger bottle would be needed.

Roachie

Really, HID headlights must have washers?! Why is that?

I say 2 kids doing this in a datsun 120Y a few years back on a stinking hot day

Windows down driving at Max speed ( of 80kph ) and spraying each other to keep cool.

Looked like a good idea ;-)

The trouble with a dry-chemical powder extinguisher for grass fires is that it doesn't really cool things down much so they can quickly re-ignite. They work by removing the oxygen which suffocates the fire, but in the open air the oxygen is quickly replaced and with the heat and fuel still in place, the fire can return.

The are still better than nothing and will also give you time to get a water pump set up and working.

Dry powder will knock the fire down quickly the problem as you say is re ignition.

If you only have seconds to react use whatever comes to hand first and sort out the details later :-)

That works but if you want a really HOT weedkiller dissolve some ammonia nitrate based fertilizer with your roundup and also add detergent.

It makes an industrial strength killer for large areas.

Ammonia Nitrate fertilizers are difficult to find now because of the other uses for it ;-(

A smallish one of those would be good

Detergent could work on the kids too :-)

Hi austastar,

I know the type of fire extinguisher you are talking about. They are in wide use in the United States. I once owned one, but they are of very poor quality. Mine had a corrosion problem and was leaking. I dumped it as I feared it may blow if I put pressure on it. :-(
Due to my experience with this stuff I would not recommend it for use under 4WD conditions (vibrations etc.).

Some types of detergent, especially the real fire fighting foam additives, are quite corrosive and should only be used in pressure devices which are made for these conditions. Especially in the type of fire extinguisher named above there is high risk of corrosion.

The idea to add some detergent into the garden spray is very good. I know from practice that detergent acts as a wetting agent and enables the water to better penetrate a burning surface, as I am a fire protection engineer.

IMPORTANT: A garden spray should be seen as an additional fire extinguisher and should not replace the dry chemical fire extinguisher which is needed to extinguish a fire in the engine bay which involves liquid fuels.

Stay safe!

Cheers from bl..dy cold and boring Dortmund/Germany,

Juergen

In Bunnings the other day and they had a small battery powered (2 AA I think) pump/nozzle that you could fit into any of the 4 litre (wetting agent/weed killer) containers and I thought it may be good as a under car grass fire extinguisher.

cheers Dave