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Failures

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I hope they got coverage on that rental!

Manchester is home to the annual four-day Bonnaroo Music & Arts festival each June. Last year someone apparently borrowed Daddy's Class-A motorhome to live in for the week. They almost made it, too. Apparently one of the rear tires blew out and no one inside heard or felt anything: they just kept driving, unaware that the bare rim was throwing a shower of sparks onto the undercarriage.

I should mention that they had failed to shut off the propane tanks and purge the lines.

The sparks relentlessly burned through the propane lines, which triggered a blowtorch effect as flames began burning through the flooring into the motorhome. Suddenly aware that something wasn't right, they stopped the motorhome on the side of the road with just five miles to go and jumped out of it. By the time local fire trucks could get to the scene, the entire RV was engulfed in flames. By the time it burned itself out, there was nothing left but a scorched metal frame.

I never found out if they enjoyed the festival or not...
 
After nigh on two decades of RV life, I think the worst I've witnessed was an older tinkering enthusiast. As I was gaining on this older RV, something didn't quite sound right. I had to hurriedly swerve to avoid hitting the thing while it was about 3 or 4 feet in the air. (I was beginning to pass it.) After pulling over and talking with the couple I learned what they did. They took the small block v8 out and replaced it with a straight 6, added nitro for the hills and figured they'd tour the continent with better milage. Turns out they had a gutless time bomb. When I looked at the damage, what I saw was harrowing. The engine mounts failed along with the tranny mounts. The entire drive train dropped, bounced, compressed the drive line which in turn dove into the pavement, punctured the floor (leaving the content of the waste tanks all over the place) and consequently took the rear axel out as well.

On another note, I still wonder what the folks behind me thought when a sudden guest of wind pushed my RV hard enough to lift the right wheels of the ground. Nothing was damaged aside from the awning that was forcefully opened. I just got all 6 wheels down again, secured the awning and kept rolling.
 
olbriar said:
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That looks painfully hilarious.

Reminds me of a time in my youth when someone removed a "critical" bank in the slalom course we made for inner tubes. I bounced between two rather close buildings for a bit after firmly planting my shoulder on the corner of one. Only injury besides ego was bruising.
 
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