Kubota M5660SUHD caught on fire (60hrs)!

[Rustyiron]

I'd like to know what insurance company regards mice damage as vandalism. AFAIK, mice, rats, and squirrel damage is not covered, as they are rodents, which are specifically excluded in many/most insurance policies.

As we entertain ourselves while waiting for the next "episode", I agree with Will.
BUT shouldn't manufacturers consider mice (or anything else) chewing on any part of the tractor may happen and although this may disable the tractor, (not their responsibility) in no way it should result in a fire, operating or parked.
Weather it's shielding, fuses or routing of potential short circuiting it doesn't seem like it's a difficult or expensive problem to solve.

 

[Peter 315]

As we entertain ourselves while waiting for the next "episode", I agree with Will.
BUT shouldn't manufacturers consider mice (or anything else) chewing on any part of the tractor may happen and although this may disable the tractor, (not their responsibility) in no way it should result in a fire, operating or parked.
Weather it's shielding, fuses or routing of potential short circuiting it doesn't seem like it's a difficult or expensive problem to solve.

Maybe a mouse chewed a fuel return line..

 

[scootr]

Rodents can build nests where they can catch fire during operation. I had a ride on mower that started smoking - I found it had a very flammable nest packed between the motor and the muffler.

 

[WinterDeere]

Rodents can build nests where they can catch fire during operation. I had a ride on mower that started smoking - I found it had a very flammable nest packed between the motor and the muffler.

Been there, done that. In my case, they've always smouldered and stunk bad enough that I found and removed them. It's hard to imagine a rodent nest causing a major fire like this, I'm not sure they'd even burn hot enough to ignite wire insulation, but I guess anything is possible.

 

[2manyrocks]

I recently bought a used MX5200. The dealer had pressure washed it, and supposedly serviced it. I found a substantial bird's nest in the opening below the DPF muffler.

 

[Rustyiron]

Maybe a mouse chewed a fuel return line..

Maybe with gasoline, but it's very difficult to catch diesel fuel on fire just from heat, electrical sparks I don't know.
I've had return fuel lines leak just from age up around the injectors and the smell and light smoke gave it away. Maybe I was just lucky, but you're right, my thinking was pigeonholed by all of the electrical talk.

 

[JethroB]

Maybe something like this? My Willys Jeep that sat in the barn too long. Pack rat got busy. (RIP)

 

[fbitz777]

None of the fuel lines and reserve reservoir were burned and they were is the path of the flame! Again this was a very hot flame that followed the wiring harness. Plastic burn

 

[Torvy]

A bit of a myth that rodents only chew soy based wiring. Sure, soy will increase odds.
Chewed wiring + nesting material = recipe for disaster in an engine compartment. Lots of secondary things that can burn hot.

 

[stevem5215]

I have a buddy with a 01' Polaris Sportsman 700. It burned up the wiring harness recently and of course there are none available new anymore. But before it burned up it wouldn't start the atv and I helped him on the phone to diagnose it and found that the positive 12v was in places where grounds should have been. Upon further diagnosis we found that the grounding system in the ATV was suspect just from the design of it. Instead of having a single ground there were at least three grounding points in different places where the corrosion could cause a high resistance situation not allowing ground to be at ground potential. And the real problem was in his case after we got the starter to actually work again he decided to give it a rip before fully correcting whatever ground issue there was. So what happened was that he took it for a quick ride down and back a couple of times and it ran good but the wiring started burning up and smoke was pouring out everywhere. He was able to get it out but the wiring harness is completely shot. And none available new of course and the used ones he has found are way expensive or hacked to death. So actually what happened was simple to figure out. Due to the multiple grounds the actual grounding circuit was trying to use wires that were way undersized to carry all that current hence the burn out of the ground wires in the system. After looking at subsequent years of Sportsmans it was found that they completely changed the grounding setup and used a block method with all grounds attached to one point and those grounds had a common path so the wiring if corrosion occurred wouldn't be the path and be overloaded and burn.

So all that said I'd bet this guy had a similar issue with grounding. Maybe not a good connection (painted surface or something) causing a high resistance situation or even something like the glow plug system was staying on (bad glow ignition box) overloading the circuit (which would be warranty if determined). But something caused an overload. Whether or not it's the grounds like in the ATV or some high current situation in other wiring. Truthfully the engineers should be able to figure that out. Hence all the pictures laid out on a table with the engineers at the company looking at the wiring diagrams like we did for the ATV and finding and comparing those to the known engineering specs of the wiring. My guess is that they will eventually assist in this repair. In my engineering experiences it takes a while for corporations to acknowledge that something is wrong and come up with a fix (new update to newer machine or a Field change order to fix ones in the field).