JonC
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- June 30, 2009
- Messages
- 176
- Reaction score
- 15
- City, State
- Derby
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '99 UK spec - LPG soon!
Gentlemen of the forum, while I wish you all the very best for Christmas and the New Year, I do need to share yet more gloom and doom in the hope this this might save even just one other Explorer owner from similar distress.
Yesterday moring I filled up with gas and half a tank of the more expensive stuff. All good for the Christmas break. Yesterday afternoon we had the works Christmas lunch - all paid for and all good.
On the way home, I'd just turned a corner off some lights and there was a nasty clunk and graunching sound from behind. Knowing my motor has an improvised rear exhaust hanger, I was mentally reaching for the ty-wraps as I pulled over but no, not the exhaust - the f.......g gas tank was lying on the road, jammed under the towbar!
We tried to move it and one of the unions cracked, jetting propane like a good un! Now at what - 258 to 1 liquid to vapour ratio? That's the thick end of 13 cubic metres of gas about to be created!
999!!! Two hours with some great guys from Matlock station (and my heatfelt thanks to them all) and it was closed up (it's an old handwheel system), removed and in the back of the truck - immediate trauma over.
What had happened was the carrier (presumably the original Fraud wheel ring) had broken through. Once that happens, the hangers just behave like Bambi's legs and the tank hits the deck. The scary thing is that it was only a spontaneous thing for me to choose to go that way home. That tiny choice that made the difference between me doing 15 - 20 mph away from the lights or doing 60+ down the A6 (actually 50 officer!). I can only imagine the result if it had done the same at speed.
As an engineer, it also bothers me that there's no secondary means of retention on what's actually a pretty flimsy structure carrying a heavy load.
But who would have checked it? I will now and I hope all you gas-fired guys out there will too.
Don't let the next one be you - have a safe and Happy Christmas!
Jon
Yesterday moring I filled up with gas and half a tank of the more expensive stuff. All good for the Christmas break. Yesterday afternoon we had the works Christmas lunch - all paid for and all good.
On the way home, I'd just turned a corner off some lights and there was a nasty clunk and graunching sound from behind. Knowing my motor has an improvised rear exhaust hanger, I was mentally reaching for the ty-wraps as I pulled over but no, not the exhaust - the f.......g gas tank was lying on the road, jammed under the towbar!
We tried to move it and one of the unions cracked, jetting propane like a good un! Now at what - 258 to 1 liquid to vapour ratio? That's the thick end of 13 cubic metres of gas about to be created!
999!!! Two hours with some great guys from Matlock station (and my heatfelt thanks to them all) and it was closed up (it's an old handwheel system), removed and in the back of the truck - immediate trauma over.
What had happened was the carrier (presumably the original Fraud wheel ring) had broken through. Once that happens, the hangers just behave like Bambi's legs and the tank hits the deck. The scary thing is that it was only a spontaneous thing for me to choose to go that way home. That tiny choice that made the difference between me doing 15 - 20 mph away from the lights or doing 60+ down the A6 (actually 50 officer!). I can only imagine the result if it had done the same at speed.
As an engineer, it also bothers me that there's no secondary means of retention on what's actually a pretty flimsy structure carrying a heavy load.
But who would have checked it? I will now and I hope all you gas-fired guys out there will too.
Don't let the next one be you - have a safe and Happy Christmas!
Jon
