Anyone else catch a quad on fire?

[spock58 23]

I was reading another forum recently about fuel leaks and possibility of fire happening. Reminded me of an incident I had a few years ago while working at a Can Am dealership. The quad was a stolen & recovered Outlander 650 that had been tampered with. These quads have an electronic safety system, similar to their DESS system on the sleds. You cannot bypass the key switch and get spark without a computer with factory software. Anyway, I was trying to determine what was damaged since the thief had attempted to hot wire various electronic parts. I got all the extra wires removed and things looked back to stock. Pulled the spark plugs and was going to check for ignition and if the starter still worked. Well, they both worked alright and guess what - the cylinder was flooded with fuel! Instant flames with gas spraying all over...great!! I managed to use my hands to put out the fire, good thing I had on gloves (but choked they were ruined of course, haha). Seems it's possible to flood an engine with efi when you put power straight to the injectors, doh! As in much of life, you cannot take things for granted (I'd only seen carbs flood like that). And even though it had spark, the quad still needed a new ECM to run - that part alone was $1200. So lets hear your stories, crazy stuff happens every day I'm sure.

[MarkinAR 123]

I've thrown electrical fire more times than I can remember but never fuel fire. Caught a screwdriver in a ring gear. Caught a finger in a ujoint. Nearly broke an arm with a steeper bit the other day sizing the hitch on a 300 for a D ring. Yes a 19V cordless will indeed snag with a stepper and try to break an arm!

[Ajmboy 508]

@spock58 its amazing how much tech CanAm puts in its quads. I've never had a quad or any power sport catch on fire. Flipped and banged them up is about it!

[JacobSlabach 122]

i have yet to wreck an atv..  ive come up on two wheels a number of times and ended up in the ditch in AL when spinning some donuts on the old sportsman 500 but never turned one over or hit something.  i have almost flipped my lifted 570 hitting a ditch in a felid going about 40mph- had a trailer on it which kept the back end down.

i did flip riding mower going up a hill and just recently broke my collarbone jumping a road scooter with a flat front tire.  as for fire, ive done a lotta stupid stuff with fire but havnt caught anything i didnt want to on fire.  ive drove an atv through a fire but thats about it.

funny thing is my parents said id wreck an atv first, but the only times ive got hurt was on homemade things (was building the mower into a racing mower and had broke the seat off the scooter so i have to stand up on the pegs while riding it)

Edited May 1, 2020 by JacobSlabach

[spock58 23]

I just remembered another fire related story that happened to a buddy when he was a young kid. His dad had built him a go cart out of some random junk around their place. Somehow, it caught fire - not sure how, but that's not the crazy part. It seems that they had used a short length of water hose to siphon gas into the cart. When the fire started, he yelled for his sister to help out and get some water. Well, she grabbed the hose (still with some gas in it) and connected it to the tap. You can imagine what happened when they shot it at the fire, eh? Needless to say, that was the end of their go cart riding days. hahaha (good thing no one was hurt)

[JacobSlabach 122]

funny story happened last week- me and a buddy were ripping down a back road on my honda rubicon when the front wheel fell off lol.  didnt wreck just ran in the ditch with sparks flying.  wheel almost rolled down the mountain but a tree caught it.  happened do to me not putting in a cotter pin in the nut that holds the hub against the axle.

[Arizona 16]

On 4/29/2020 at 5:32 PM, MarkinAR said:

I've thrown electrical fire more times than I can remember but never fuel fire. Caught a screwdriver in a ring gear. Caught a finger in a ujoint. Nearly broke an arm with a steeper bit the other day sizing the hitch on a 300 for a D ring. Yes a 19V cordless will indeed snag with a stepper and try to break an arm!

I almost did the same thing, have a monster gear reduction drill and was drilling a 3/4 hole for the hitch, well the bit grabbed, 

slammed my fist into the sharp side of the exhaust pipe and almost dislocated my shoulder. ended up with a bloody hand

and a real sore shoulder. Gotta watch those heavy drills

[spock58 23]

 

That's gotta hurt!