Fire down below!

IDC

Joined
Oct 29, 2023
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dethleffs trend 7157
Hello ,my first post and it is because we are in the middle of no where in Portugal and on rotating the passenger side captains seat my attention was drawn to a small pre bonfire night fire that was taking place ! Fortunately whilst I fumbled to pull out the pin on the fire extinguisher ,the fire ceased . On inspection ,what has burnt is an earth cable running from the battery terminal to the seat frame .Some background info. the van is lhd there are 2 leisure batteries under the seat which I assume were factory fitted or by the supplying dealer .Access is very tight if not impossible under the seat but I have managed to hook all the burnt cable off the terminal so that it is no longer shorting , nothing seems affected but obviously Iam concerned about the situation and can not call the agent as it is a Sunday .Any advice from the good people out there would be really appreciated , we are due to start our way back to the UK on Mon pm .
 
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Take the seat out so you can get proper access be careful they are flipping heavy. If that is not possible you can get better access by removing the side, front and rear seat base panels they come off easily.

Sounds like a cable or battery terminal has worked loose and was arcing.
 
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My leisure battery was under the drivers seat,from new the dealer had fitted a Bar to stop going back or forward ,but not to stop side to side.
Result was battery shorted on seat post. wiring loom caught fire ,battery melted and we were lucky to get out. 2 1/2 year old motorhome written off
 
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I think you need to re earth the battery to another location, not the seat frame. Most likely where the seat is anchored to the floor would be better and as said insulation the cable .
 
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Thanks everyone for your replies ,I will try to get access to the battery and deal with it .
 
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Insulation isnt the problem , its an earth lead, so the problem (overheating) must be down to a bad connection at the terminal , its not uncommon on HGV to completely melt the terminal post off the battery. You need to remove the connector from the post and check post and inside of connector are clean and the cable into the connector is not burnt away. Then reconnect and push down to use all of contact area and tighten up good and tight .
 
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OK, so seat out and burnt cable is from positive battery terminal to ground on seat frame ! WTF as they say .
That sounds more likely you are effectively shorting out the battery with no fuse. That usually makes quite a bang.
 
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I think whoever did that is a moron and a dangerous one at that! The other battery earth's are good and heavy ,so this odd cable seems to be a huge error on the partofthe fitter .I might be having a word when we get back . It makes sense now as I had noticed a hint of warm electric cable as we drove down but it was fleeting and did not persist .All in all I am thinking we are lucky as it could have burnt at anytime and also the previous owners spent 18 months touring Europe not knowing what was lurking under the seat .Thanks for all the replies .
 
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OK, so seat out and burnt cable is from positive battery terminal to ground on seat frame ! WTF as they say .
Be very careful, that doesn't sound as if it's possible. How do you know that the terminal is the battery positive?

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It isn't possible. If any attempt had been made to install an even partially charged battery in that way the cable, terminal, and possibly the installer, would all have been on fire. Depending of course on the connection to the other (negative) terminal.
 
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Battery terminal has a big plus sign on it ! I know, I just can't understand why this has been done and yes I will be careful and am aware of the problems. All I can say regarding the reason why it did not burn immediately, is because it was quite heavy duty .
 
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Have you had issues with flat batteries beforehand ?
Is there a layer of paint where the earth had been made to the seat base ?
Mike.
 
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Battery terminal has a big plus sign on it ! I know, I just can't understand why this has been done and yes I will be careful and am aware of the problems. All I can say regarding the reason why it did not burn immediately, is because it was quite heavy duty .
Are you sure that it's just not by rotating the seat you have have trapped the positive lead causing the short and hence the fire? Rather than the positive lead be secured to the seat as an earth.?
 
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If a standard height battery is fitted under a seat, it is common to see it short out when somebody sits on the seat and contacts the terminals/cables. Never a great idea to fit under a seat that gets bolted down

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Thanks for all the feedback ,just to be clear ,the wire in question was taken from battery plus to the seat frame ,it was not a positive cable ,I know it sounds preposterous but it is true . I can neither explain or understand it and can only suppose it was a huge error by the fitter .As regards the batteries, they are snug under there with a little clearance under the swivel, all other cables go down and are in no danger of shorting , battery terminals are well protected by the usual plastic covers .In my motorcycle mechanic days ,I can recall shorted cables which should have burnt but somehow didn't. I also remember a MOD who's parka caught fire from an electrical short and that was as he was riding along !
 
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