Watch That Generator!

[Lin]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-18/biker-deaths-tennessee/50457812/1

[robertglines1]

Just caught the local news: We live just 100 miles from there.  Pictures were of a modern camper with a portable gen set setting close by. point being not junk! Very Sad with the helpless involved.  Prayers go out to their families.  I was just trying how to post a warning to our bus family when I saw your post.   Bob        Rockwood  camper

[rv_safetyman]

Lin, thanks for posting.  How sad!!!

Some of you may recall that I wrote an article on detection devices for BCM a few months ago.  In that article I emphasized CO detectors.  They are not mandated in motorhomes, but they should be!!!  Our vehicles have a very small living volume and it does not take a heck of a lot of CO to cause a problem.

In the article, I mention that CO detectors have a rather short life (about 5 years).  We carry two CO detectors with us at all times.

Part of the issue is that the CO may not come just from your own coach.  At some of these events they pack the coaches very close together, so the CO source could be from a neighbor vehicle.

Jim

[Busted Knuckle]

Wow that's real close to home. I'm like Bob less than 2 hrs away from Clarksville and know many of the Biker's from that area who participate in Biker's Who Care and other charity events.

I don't know if it was anyone I know personally yet or not, but I will be finding out!
  BK 

[wal1809]

You know Lin.  I don't have a CO or fire alram in my rig.  I am going to stop today and get one on the way home.  It is just stupid for us not to have one.  Thank you for posting.

[AndyG]

fixing my broken CO detector just moved up a bunch of spots on "the list".  It was equipped with one powered by the 12V house battery.  I plan on replacing it with a regular 9V unit like you would find in your house. 

[plyonsMC9]

Lin, Jim all the rest posting here --  Thanks for the reminders & heads up!!

There are so many details & things we should be doing to watch out for those we are responsible for, it is much appreciated when you take the time to post the warnings. 

Those traveling with us in our coaches are our responsibilities and whether they do it consciously or subconsciously, they put themselves in our care when they travel with us.  I'm checking / fixing up my CO detectors as well.  !!

Kind regards & thank you,
Phil

[TomC]

On my big rig, I had an Onan 6.5kw Commercial Emerald gasoline model.  At night, when I had to run it for cooling or heating, I had an electric box fan that was positioned to push the fumes away from the truck.  Always created a conversation starter why I had the fan outside.  Good Luck, TomC

[Lin]

We have a CO detector, but should test it more often.  Our generator exhausts just below the generator radiator with the fan blowing the exhaust away from us, but possibly toward someone else.  We run it up over the bus in those kind of situations.  However, when it piped up, we lose the fan effect, and a leak could come back to haunt us.  Anyway, my main interest in posting it was just as a reminder to others, as the article was to me, not to take anything for granted with deadly poisons.  One day, one of those things that only happen to other people could happen to us--especially if we don't puncture our charmed life fantasies one in a while.

[belfert]

How does one really test a CO detector more than just pushing the test button?  Hold it behind a car exhaust?

My understanding is that diesel exhaust doesn't produce much CO, but I still wouldn't want to breath it for too long.  I have a exhaust stack for my diesel generator, but I haven't used it a whole lot because I don't run my generator all that much most of the time.