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Allllllllrighty. Background for those not familiar with every tiny aspect of our mods (not that all have been shared in any kind of useful manner)
TLDR: Fire bad. Extinguisher good. Check your electrical connections.
Wanted an air compressor, but didn’t like the idea of mounting it under the hood for various reasons. Decided we would put it under the toolbox in the rear cargo area with the inlets ran outside the storage compartment, tee’d together, then rerouted back up inside the cab so the filters would always be provided with cool, clean air. The muffler was deleted and dumped in front of the axle, so that helps keep heat down, but we were still diligent in checking temperatures of the compressor due to it being in an enclosed area. Never saw anything above 200F, so cool!
To supply power to the compressor there are companies out there trying to convince you to give them money for what some might think is a bad idea
EDIT AND UPDATE TO THE ABOVE-
I had bad information on the size of wiring ARB uses to supply power to the compressor. They do not use 8G on the positive lines. Upon seeing @4x4TruckLEDs.com responding to a user with why they used 10G wiring it looked to me like they were downplaying the importance of typically accepted wiring safety measures in order to sell a product. That shit really gets to me, and after this happened I felt compelled to call his product out as a potential safety hazard. But, I had bad information on the original size of the harness and for that I apologize.
Got distracted there. Sew! Our solution was ordering a heavy duty amplifier 4G wiring kit. Figured it would be nice as it comes with all the 4G one could want plus a fuse block and additional remote wiring that could come in handy at some point for another project. The 100 amp fuse block was placed 7-8 inches from the battery to protect the truck in the event the insulation is compromised via mouse or other means, and ran into a distribution block behind the rear driver access panel. From there we were able to remove two feet of 8G wire from the factory harness and use both of the provided 40 amp fuses to protect those wires. Nice easy access behind the access panel should they ever pop. Cool! Somewhat redundant protection-job done. Edit - as an additional example of trying to be safe with wiring, we also ran a power cutoff rated for 500A continuous 800A peak for the winches. Most people just run the wire from the battery straight to the winch as no fuse/breaker/disconnect is supplied from the manufacturer. I do not like the idea of a 0G wire constantly being hot with no protection, especially running it to the back. Car accident could turn into a fire. So we ran the disconnect and if we need to winch, just pop the hood and turn the power on. Before the edit I had this information in parentheses and in a peculiar spot that was confusing. So if some of the replies don’t make sense, that was my bad.
We’ve since aired up countless times (well, could probably count them if socks are removed) without issue. We ran Milts Mile (crushed it) and were near the road airing back up like normal. On the last tire, another bronco stopped and asked for directions to the tunnel, and while we were talking to them some random people started shouting “fire.” Turn around and holy shit-we are the fire! Or at least the source of the smoke. Luckily we have a fire extinguisher with a nice quick release and we chose to mount it in such a manner that priority was given to access rather than aesthetics. Grabbed the extinguisher and pulled the hood release-no hood pop. The fire had compromised the release cable housing and it had to be released with channel locks. But there was a lot of access provided by the portals and coilovers allowing the extinguisher to be discharged under the fender liner. An AC line blew while using the extinguisher and helped put out the fire. I cannot stress enough the importance of that extinguisher. We carry several gallons of water with us on every ride, and were surrounded by sand. Both would have been useless with the hood closed.
After extinguishing the fire we were eventually able to get the hood open (thanks self for packing leather gloves) and assess the damage. We will need to replace wiring (shoutout to @Ducati1098 for getting us part numbers) and other parts, but it could’ve been much much worse. The battery was close to being ruptured, and the brake fluid reservoir was not too far behind had we not had the extinguisher. We bought a new extinguisher, replaced the battery, and patched things up, tested it for awhile and called it a night. Successfully drove it 500 miles home and parked it near a fire hydrant.
Now, for the cause-I can’t be fully certain due to everything being melty melts, but it looks like it started from the fuse block. As best I can tell from pulling on the wires, it almost seems like the connection might have loosened or been compromised. (Edit - One side came out easily but the other side took some effort. Both allens still in place that hold the wire to the block, and seem to be the same length embedded into the wire) Hard to know if it was actually loose or the fire did that. It didn’t short against anything based on the routing, so I’m thinking that the loose connection still provided the power to the compressor but effectively through a “smaller” wire through the big fuses, so no circuit break. The wire and fuse block heated up, insulation and plastic covers melted then went up in flames. Or at least that’s my theory. Could be wrong.
I’ll certainly be more diligent on checking connections going forward. Could have been very bad.
Also a huge shoutout to Rock Krawler. Jeremy helped us out a ton, gave us a ride, then let us borrow one of his vehicles to run for parts. I couldn’t believe it. They were already awesome just from a customer service perspective but this was above and beyond.
Quick Release Fire Extinguisher... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF1D4D4H?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
If you don’t want an unprotected 0g wire being powered at all times for your winch-Spartan Power 600A Heavy Duty ON... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQL11HBW?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Halon fire extinguishers so you don’t douse everything with a dry powder that is corrosive to electronics and especially aluminum
https://www.h3rperformance.com/collections/halguard-fire-extinguishers
TLDR: Fire bad. Extinguisher good. Check your electrical connections.
Wanted an air compressor, but didn’t like the idea of mounting it under the hood for various reasons. Decided we would put it under the toolbox in the rear cargo area with the inlets ran outside the storage compartment, tee’d together, then rerouted back up inside the cab so the filters would always be provided with cool, clean air. The muffler was deleted and dumped in front of the axle, so that helps keep heat down, but we were still diligent in checking temperatures of the compressor due to it being in an enclosed area. Never saw anything above 200F, so cool!
To supply power to the compressor there are companies out there trying to convince you to give them money for what some might think is a bad idea
The ARB wiring is 6’ of 8G ran through two 40 amp fuses meant for underhood installation. The kit in the provided example seems to plug into that harness and use the same fuses provided by ARB for a compressor that draws a max of 56 (68?)amps, but reduces your wiring to 10 gauge for a significantly longer distance. I don’t know what insulation is used or if this kit is CCA or pure copper wire, but at this price one would expect pure copper. Recognizing that I’m just some asshole and certainly not an electrical engineer, based on the kit still being available one could assume they’ve had no issues. But I’m certainly not going to be going that route, personally. For those that have I’d suggest reducing your fuse amperage and hope they don’t reconnect after popping. But again-asshole. Not expert.
EDIT AND UPDATE TO THE ABOVE-
I had bad information on the size of wiring ARB uses to supply power to the compressor. They do not use 8G on the positive lines. Upon seeing @4x4TruckLEDs.com responding to a user with why they used 10G wiring it looked to me like they were downplaying the importance of typically accepted wiring safety measures in order to sell a product. That shit really gets to me, and after this happened I felt compelled to call his product out as a potential safety hazard. But, I had bad information on the original size of the harness and for that I apologize.
Got distracted there. Sew! Our solution was ordering a heavy duty amplifier 4G wiring kit. Figured it would be nice as it comes with all the 4G one could want plus a fuse block and additional remote wiring that could come in handy at some point for another project. The 100 amp fuse block was placed 7-8 inches from the battery to protect the truck in the event the insulation is compromised via mouse or other means, and ran into a distribution block behind the rear driver access panel. From there we were able to remove two feet of 8G wire from the factory harness and use both of the provided 40 amp fuses to protect those wires. Nice easy access behind the access panel should they ever pop. Cool! Somewhat redundant protection-job done. Edit - as an additional example of trying to be safe with wiring, we also ran a power cutoff rated for 500A continuous 800A peak for the winches. Most people just run the wire from the battery straight to the winch as no fuse/breaker/disconnect is supplied from the manufacturer. I do not like the idea of a 0G wire constantly being hot with no protection, especially running it to the back. Car accident could turn into a fire. So we ran the disconnect and if we need to winch, just pop the hood and turn the power on. Before the edit I had this information in parentheses and in a peculiar spot that was confusing. So if some of the replies don’t make sense, that was my bad.
We’ve since aired up countless times (well, could probably count them if socks are removed) without issue. We ran Milts Mile (crushed it) and were near the road airing back up like normal. On the last tire, another bronco stopped and asked for directions to the tunnel, and while we were talking to them some random people started shouting “fire.” Turn around and holy shit-we are the fire! Or at least the source of the smoke. Luckily we have a fire extinguisher with a nice quick release and we chose to mount it in such a manner that priority was given to access rather than aesthetics. Grabbed the extinguisher and pulled the hood release-no hood pop. The fire had compromised the release cable housing and it had to be released with channel locks. But there was a lot of access provided by the portals and coilovers allowing the extinguisher to be discharged under the fender liner. An AC line blew while using the extinguisher and helped put out the fire. I cannot stress enough the importance of that extinguisher. We carry several gallons of water with us on every ride, and were surrounded by sand. Both would have been useless with the hood closed.
After extinguishing the fire we were eventually able to get the hood open (thanks self for packing leather gloves) and assess the damage. We will need to replace wiring (shoutout to @Ducati1098 for getting us part numbers) and other parts, but it could’ve been much much worse. The battery was close to being ruptured, and the brake fluid reservoir was not too far behind had we not had the extinguisher. We bought a new extinguisher, replaced the battery, and patched things up, tested it for awhile and called it a night. Successfully drove it 500 miles home and parked it near a fire hydrant.
Now, for the cause-I can’t be fully certain due to everything being melty melts, but it looks like it started from the fuse block. As best I can tell from pulling on the wires, it almost seems like the connection might have loosened or been compromised. (Edit - One side came out easily but the other side took some effort. Both allens still in place that hold the wire to the block, and seem to be the same length embedded into the wire) Hard to know if it was actually loose or the fire did that. It didn’t short against anything based on the routing, so I’m thinking that the loose connection still provided the power to the compressor but effectively through a “smaller” wire through the big fuses, so no circuit break. The wire and fuse block heated up, insulation and plastic covers melted then went up in flames. Or at least that’s my theory. Could be wrong.
I’ll certainly be more diligent on checking connections going forward. Could have been very bad.
Also a huge shoutout to Rock Krawler. Jeremy helped us out a ton, gave us a ride, then let us borrow one of his vehicles to run for parts. I couldn’t believe it. They were already awesome just from a customer service perspective but this was above and beyond.
Quick Release Fire Extinguisher... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF1D4D4H?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
If you don’t want an unprotected 0g wire being powered at all times for your winch-Spartan Power 600A Heavy Duty ON... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQL11HBW?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Halon fire extinguishers so you don’t douse everything with a dry powder that is corrosive to electronics and especially aluminum
https://www.h3rperformance.com/collections/halguard-fire-extinguishers
Sponsored
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