A tool to have...The Fire Extinguisher

[TreeTopFlyer]

I haven't uploaded any pics of the colorado trip because I have been lazy. But one nugget we learned was to have a fire extinguisher handy.

The first day we got into town(Ouray) we headed towards Imogene Pass. Do the typical drinking cup photo then head under the shelf area.

There was an f150 in front of us, he stopped and let us by, he wasn't sure he could make it....there was a vehicle in the road stalled out. We proceeded to find a IH Scout stalled on the side of the road.

Getting around it was pretty sketchy, looking back at the photos there seemed to be a lot of room to navigate, but at the time, it seemed like we had both wheels off the side going around him.

So he asks for some gas, he has nothing to put it in but a water bottle.

He's gonna "dump some down the carb". Some of you know where this is going. :REOutCampFire03:

So he dumps it down, tries to start it, kaboom. Of course, it backfired, blew fire and gas out the top and into the engine bay

They have nothing but a roll of paper towels that he tried to put it out with, yah, the paper towels caught on fire too. I wish I had the pic of that. They did have shirts on that might have worked, I would have used that before spraying an ABC extinguisher into my engine bay.

I grabbed the FE off the roll bar of our jeep and put out the fire with a quick shot. The truck could have gone up in smoke.

We got in the jeep and got the heck out of there before we ended up getting hurt around those guys. Eventful first hour of adventure.

Handy tool to have, you never know.

 

[1leglance]

Oh yes my youthful days working on carb'd engines...
Pouring gas, spraying ether, all those fun things that go boom

I love the idea of putting out a fire with PAPER towels.

Lucky for them you had the right gear.

 

[off.track]

i've never had an issue pouring gas down the carb.. maybe he sumped too much?

anyway, yes, extingueshers are a must but i see overwhelming majority of people mounting them way out of reach which is almost as dangerous as not having one.. it should be no more then a couple feet away from the driver.

 

[92 red cummins]

I carry mine mainly for looks and I hope I will never need it. It does work though.

fire-fire extiguisher=

 

[SunTzuNephew]

When I go 'wheeling, I also try and take a 2.5 gallon pressurized water fire extinguisher (like this:

I can fill it and pressurize it myself (150 psi), and it's handy for all sorts of things - cooling down an overheated dog or hiker, putting out a (very) small brush fire, etc.

I also carry (in addition to a shovel) a Pulaski fire tool

which is a mattock hoe and ax together. Very handy for lots of things. I've even put out a fire (someone else started).

The Max-Ax set has the same thing, kind of, but I prefer full sized tools.

 

[craig333]

What? No McCleod? I have AFFF in my extinguisher. Not so good for cooling down the dog though

 

[mog]

A plus one to always carrying a 2.5 gallon pressurized water fire extinguisher. Beside the fire fighting, they are great for spraying mud off a part, prior to working on it, and you get major kudo points from any ranger that sees it on your rig, or by the campfire.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I carry a pair of cable cutters in addition to a fire extinguisher. Most automotive fires are electrical and our types of rigs normally have a lot of battery power. A fire extinguisher will not stop an electric fire only dissconnecting the power works.

 

[SunTzuNephew]

What? No McCleod? I have AFFF in my extinguisher. Not so good for cooling down the dog though

Hey, I'm only one man! Plus they don't store well.....

Got an expansion chamber on the hose of your AFFF extinguisher? How does it work?

 

[craig333]

Don't need one for afff. It was hard to find a small quantity though. Interesting, they're now marketing it in a small extinguisher http://garage-toys.com/fi20fiex.html

http://fireade.com/

I originally got that when I was working the track at Vorra off road races. Being as we were all volunteers and most were only carrying a little dry powder extinguisher I figured at least one of us should have something with a little more oomph.

 

[winkosmosis]

I bought one of these the other day. Are they good?

 

[winkosmosis]

Don't need one for afff. It was hard to find a small quantity though. Interesting, they're now marketing it in a small extinguisher http://garage-toys.com/fi20fiex.html

http://fireade.com/

I originally got that when I was working the track at Vorra off road races. Being as we were all volunteers and most were only carrying a little dry powder extinguisher I figured at least one of us should have something with a little more oomph.

That looks good. Non toxic unlike the Tundra

 

[99wj]

funny this post should come up, just 1 day after i buy my extingushers, i have the biggest one "kidde" makes in the back of the jeep (i hope i never have to use it, cuz refiling it is going to be expensive...) and then i have one of the small chrome ones at my feet. after seeing some idiot quadders on a trail making flamethrowers with old wd40, i figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Layonnn]

I bought one of these the other day. Are they good?

For a very small fire, like that on the stove in a kitchen, yes.
You also need to be EXTREMELY close to the fire for this to be effective. I did a little bit of research about these before i bought a large one for my vehicle. My recommendation would be to own this and a large one.

For use in a vehicle, i would go with as large as one as you can mount/secure safely. ABC are good for vehicles.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

anyway, yes, extingueshers are a must but i see overwhelming majority of people mounting them way out of reach which is almost as dangerous as not having one.. it should be no more then a couple feet away from the driver.

A large fire extinguisher mounted out of reach is a lot better than a large extinguisher within reach in a poor mounting that will break in an accident and leave the FX to fly around. Also, a large extinguisher out of reach is better than a compact extinguisher withing reach, IMO. It can take a LOT of FX to put out a vehicle fire.

I used mine at a Pro Rally I was working at. A car pulled up to the start line and I noticed it was on fire, ran back to the truck and grabbed the big bottle out of the back and put it out. A little bottle wouldn't have worked.