Truck blew up in drive way

[Skinny Blinky]

Bad news from my Bro.Thurs. moring about 1am his 03 duramax caught fire & BLEW UP!!! only thing he did was plug the truck in for cold night starting, has anyone every here of this happening?

[Jake99Z71]

Yeah,
My buddy's 2002 D/A burned up in March 2003 while parked in his garage. The truck had burned from the front bumper to the drivers seat. Was dicovered that the block heater cord had shorted out while being plugged into a GFP outlet on a timer.

[crafty]

That's real intereesting!!!! Last winter my truck kept blowing the fuse on the plug circuit when I tried to plug the truck in. I had the cord replaced and all was fine for one week and then it blew again. This time it melted the cord right off at the block. The dealer replaced the whole heater this time and all has been fine since. No damage was done to the truck as far as I can tell. :D :D :D

[ADub]

Wow. I made sure everything I hooked up was rated to 15 amps or greater, but hearing that stuff still makes me uneasy.

[rjschoolcraft]

I saw pictures of a 2002 Ford SuperDuty that burned up due to a short in the block heater cord. WOW! :eek: It belonged to the UPS driver that delivers to us. He saw my diesel Suburban and warned me not to use the block heater...

It's wise to inspect the cord periodically. :eek:

[deerhunter7]

I would think that should be covered under your warranty.Seems the cord is to light for amps the heater is drawing. Have not used mine much, mostly use my Espar Heater.Spews a little smoke when it starts but no BOOM !!!!

[SLT556]

Don't know about previous model years, but on the 05 it doesn't help that the cord is on the same side as the fuel filter, now that I think of it.

[rjschoolcraft]

It's also a good idea to use a power source protected with a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) outlet.

[SLT556]

Originally posted by ronniejoe:
It's also a good idea to use a power source protected with a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) outlet. That is a very good idea. I'm a little disspointed in myself for not thinkng of that. That's basically the solution to the worry.

[autocrosser]

A GFI won't necessarily protect the truck from a fire. If the power cord shorts between the neutral and the hot wire the GFI doesn't do a thing. It only protects for unbalance current in the neutral and hot wire. This occurs when there is a current flow from the hot wire to ground like someone getting shocked standing in a puddle of water or a voltage leakage to the body of the truck and someone touching it and ground. Normally there is the same amount of current flowing in the hot and neutral wire and the neutral is the return side for the power fed ot the heater.

The best protection is fusing the line with the proper size fuse/breaker so that it will pop if the current increases say 25 percent.

[YZF1R]

autocrosser: I was thinking the same thing. I think I"ll use a 10 amp breaker beings they seem to draw about 8 amps.

Steve