This past weekend, on what was to be the last trip before winterizing, we took a trip to a west Texas ranch that my family used to own to camp. This trip proved to be disasterous as our 2006 Crossroads Cruiser burned. We were very lucky that the fire did not occur at night when we were asleep are we might not be alive today. We had just broken camp and had driven about one mile when I noticed smoke coming from the trailer, I stopped and hurriedly went back to check on the fire and found it to be coming from the refrigerator vents. This area of ranchland is very grown up with highly flamable growth from an abnormaly wet Summer an the fire potential was extremely high. My first thought was to find a place where I could unhook and not burn hundreds of thousands of acres of prime ranchland; that was not possible so I pulled up to the best spot that I could find and proceeded to do the best I could with the limited means available. I doused the flames from the vents the best I could using water from the bathroom sink into a bucket until the smoke became too overwhelming and then accepted the fact that the trailer would be lost and that I had best unhook the truck to send the wife to call for help from a fire department that was more than 25 miles away. I next removed the LP bottles and unhooked the batteries and removed anything highly flamable in the storage that I could and then ripped the cover off the outside shower compartment to try to get some more water to fight the flames (keys were inside). Unbelievably the pump kept working for a long time and I was able to suppress the total involvement of the trailer for a good time, and drown out some of the brush/grass fires that erupted near the trailer. Praise the Dickens County fire department as they arrived in about forty minutes and with about 3500 gallons of water extinguished the blaze. These guys did one heck of a job and with their speedy response saved untold acres of ranchland and the lives so many animals that live in what would have been the path of an out of control wildfire.
That said what if we had been in one of our national forrests? Worse yet, we were in a land where hard working people work long days to provide food and security to their families. Either is devasting, but these are families we could have burned down.
If there are other instances of fires being started by the Dometic refrigerators we would like to be informed; we fill this is a very serious matter, a matter of life and death.


This fire came from the refrigerator, there is no doubt. Five months ago I informed my RV dealership that the fins and piping of this refrigerator were much hotter than any that I had ever had before, so hot that you could not put your hand on them, their response was that this was normal for this model and not to worry-----how stupid can I be,I bought it and now look where we are.
I fear that there are many others out there who are in an extreme state of danger of fire, and the need to be alerted althouth there have not been any recalls on these units. The refrigerator is Dometic although there is a glitch at this point of obtaining the serial number. As info becomes available I will post. This may not be a Crossroads only issue!
Thanks,
Randy

You are really lucky that it happened in the day time, and that you were there.. Sorry to hear you lost your trailer and contents. Hope your insurence comes through for you.

I recieved a recall notice from NUWA on my Dometic refer. It was cocerning a fatigue crack in the boiler tube, which could result in a vehicle fire. My unit is a 2000 model, so you probably have a much later refer. I reread the letter, and it says it is only for refers manufactured between 4-97 and 5-03.

So sorry to here about your misfortune. Thank God no one was injured and your actions prevented a major forest fire. I must say this is a scary situation for all of us RVers.

Our Texas Boomers Wagon Master Sandy Creekmore has been in touch with Norcold concerning a recall they have concerning the same problem with their refrigerators and we just posted a notice on the Texas Boomers web site Bulletin Board about that recall.

That notice can be seen here:
http://www.texasboomers.net/bboard.html

I do hope your insurance will cover your loss and that you did not lose any irreplaceable personal items in the fire.

Dometic has had a problem with their cooling units developing fatigue cracks in the boiler, and there's a recall out for this problem. If running on propane, the escaping refrigerant can fuel a fire. An individual on another forum lost his Mobile Suites to a refrigerator fire. We lost a Dometic cooling unit on our rig, but fortunately it was running on 120VAC when it failed while the RV was in covered storage. Both my fridge and the other Mobile Suites owner mentioned above had Dometic units newer than the recall scope - which would seem to indicate (along with your experience) that the problem still exists.

Rusty

It is beyond me, that with life at stake there is not more being done about this issue. It may be that the percentage for devastating fires is small enough that it is more economically feasable for Dometic to address the individual cases with good lawyers rather than doing the right thing and eliminating the possibility of the loss of life and property--who knows. With the way our insurance company has reacted thus far it will probably come down to use having direct envolvement with Dometic. Any advice would be considered.

Did you buy your 5er new? Did you receive notices from Dometic with regards to the issue and recall?

I owned a Wilderness 5er that had a Dometic fridge and I sold it in 2002. I received 2 notices from Dometic; the initial notification of the issue and subsequent recall and a followup as their records did not show that I responded to the original.

In MOHO, I don't know what else Dometic could have done.

John,

My 5th wheel was purchased in August 2004. My failed Dometic was, I am told, a higher serial number than that covered by the mentioned recall. Therefore, I never received any recall notices.

Since the original poster's 5th wheel is a 2006 model, I would think the same situation would apply.

Rusty

Hi
I have a 2004 Prowler trailer with a Dometic fridge , was included in recall and was serviced by an RV dealer this past summer..

Another camper told me about the problem , so I phoned DOMETIC and sure enough my fridge had this fire hazzard..

hope you make out OK........Barrie

quote:

Originally posted by rrraider:
With the way our insurance company has reacted thus far it will probably come down to use having direct envolvement with Dometic. Any advice would be considered.

I think the best advice from anyone on this forum would be to talk to an attourney as soon as possible as it appears that you may have to bring legal action to get reimbursed. Don't you just love insurance companies, they'll take and take your money but when it's time to pay off it is always someone else's problem.

Good Luck !

Nube here. My fatherinlaw has an RV and we're looking into getting a travel trailer so I'm just starting my homework assignment to find out the do's and don'ts.

What other brands are there to consider and is this something you typically can select the brand for when ordering?

Thanks