rockerdude
Member
While staying in our '13 Big Country last week, we woke (actually my wife did, I was dead asleep) about an hour after we went to bed to find that our entire rig was full of smoke. About 20-30 seconds AFTER we woke up, our smoke alarm finally went off. Smelling burned wire, we figured it was an electrical fire and so turned off the power (electric and battery) and opened up all the windows. We then called the local Fire Dept to come check over the RV to make sure nothing was still hot before we left it.
The following morning, I called our warranty company (XtraRide) who after quite awhile, finally got ahold of a RV Repair guy that luckily was able to stop by and check out what happened and where. I have to say, we were very lucky in more ways than one. First, we are very lucky to be alive after surviving this fire, but secondly, we were very lucky to find Don at Copper Mountain RV Repair. All other companies we called were at least 2 weeks out before someone could even come and look at our rig.
What Don found was that our converter had shorted and was burning the wires on both sides and hoses that were laying across it. We are very lucky that there was nothing combustible any closer than they were, or we wouldn't be here now. He noticed, while investigating the problem, that a water line above the converter (that's right, plumbing ABOVE an electrical piece of equipment, not smart) had a slow leak, about a drip every 30 seconds or so, which happened to be landing on the converter.
So after contacting XtraRide and starting our claim, Xtraride's contract says we must first get permission BEFORE starting the work. So here we were 450 miles from home and wanted to get back in our RV, so we had the work done, figuring XtraRide would get to us soon. Well here it is 6 days later and they have finally gotten back to our repair guy, and told him they are sending someone out to investigate our claim. Can you believe it, like I said, it's been 6 days and NOW they are finally sending someone out to check it out? Now knowing they we were suppose to get permission first, I can only imagine they will not pay for our repair. They should be glad we unplugged the power and saved the entire rig from burning up. The investigator won't even be here for another day or two, so I guess we'll see what XtraRide says. Now I know why they want you to get permission first, knowing you're not going to wait a week or more to get it fixed, they can turn down your claim. Needless to say, if they don't accept our claim, we will be canceling our policy with them.
The following morning, I called our warranty company (XtraRide) who after quite awhile, finally got ahold of a RV Repair guy that luckily was able to stop by and check out what happened and where. I have to say, we were very lucky in more ways than one. First, we are very lucky to be alive after surviving this fire, but secondly, we were very lucky to find Don at Copper Mountain RV Repair. All other companies we called were at least 2 weeks out before someone could even come and look at our rig.
What Don found was that our converter had shorted and was burning the wires on both sides and hoses that were laying across it. We are very lucky that there was nothing combustible any closer than they were, or we wouldn't be here now. He noticed, while investigating the problem, that a water line above the converter (that's right, plumbing ABOVE an electrical piece of equipment, not smart) had a slow leak, about a drip every 30 seconds or so, which happened to be landing on the converter.
So after contacting XtraRide and starting our claim, Xtraride's contract says we must first get permission BEFORE starting the work. So here we were 450 miles from home and wanted to get back in our RV, so we had the work done, figuring XtraRide would get to us soon. Well here it is 6 days later and they have finally gotten back to our repair guy, and told him they are sending someone out to investigate our claim. Can you believe it, like I said, it's been 6 days and NOW they are finally sending someone out to check it out? Now knowing they we were suppose to get permission first, I can only imagine they will not pay for our repair. They should be glad we unplugged the power and saved the entire rig from burning up. The investigator won't even be here for another day or two, so I guess we'll see what XtraRide says. Now I know why they want you to get permission first, knowing you're not going to wait a week or more to get it fixed, they can turn down your claim. Needless to say, if they don't accept our claim, we will be canceling our policy with them.