Electrical Fire -- WARNING TO KEYSTONE OWNERS

[rmcspeterson]

We own a 2013 Keystone Cougar 5th wheel model 331MKS. It is 11 moths old. Yesterday my wife and I left for a 3 day weekend camping by the Pacific Ocean in Washington State (about 2 1/2 hours from our home). When we got to the campground, we started setting up. The rig was only on 12V battery power. I had not yet connected to shore power. When I pushed the button to lower the landing gear, nothing happened. I tried the remote control, and nothing happened again. Thinking that the battery may have discharged, I went to get the power cord intending to plug it in. The cord was in the storage area in the front, under the hitch, where the battery is. When I opened the door, immediately SMOKE was billowing out. Then I saw the FLAME. It was coming from the circuit board above the battery.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I immediately got the fire extinguisher. After using it several times, the flame kept coming back. I called 911 for the fire department. While on the phone with 911, they asked about propane on board. The propane tanks are right next to the area burning. I immediately removed both of them. All I could think of was the possibility of an explosion. The dispatcher asked if there was anything else nearby that could burn. I said "yes, it is connected to my truck which is full of diesel." I could imagine everything going up in smoke. I turned off the battery, turned off all the circuit breakers, but the flame kept coming back after I kept using the fire extinguisher.

My wife went for the campground ranger. I finally emptied the fire extinguisher and the flame came back. I had nothing else to try, so I reached in and pulled the wires out which were all melted at and around the circuit board. The fire finally went out. By the time the fire department came, it was out.

The camp ranger told us that he had never seen anything like this before since it was not plugged into 110. Since the trip was ruined and since the warranty is good for a few more weeks, I drove the rig to the dealer (about 2 1/2 hours away). I called them in advance. Initially they sounded like they didn't believe me.

When I got to the dealership, 3 men came out to look. They said that they couldn't believe what they saw and that they had never seen this happen before. They took pictures. Our 5th wheel is now at the dealer. They said they will be talking to Keystone on Monday to see what next steps there are.

I am sharing all this:

1. To alert fellow 5th wheelers about this, particularly anyone with a 2013 Keystone Cougar 331MKS. This could have resulted in serious injury or even death. What would have happened if this fire started in the night? The bedroom is directly above the compartment that was burning. We could have been killed.

2. The dealer said this is the first time they have ever seen this. Maybe that is true (particularly for that particular dealership), but perhaps this is a bigger or pervasive problem. The staff at the dealership said that the circuit breaker or fuses between the battery and the circuit panel that burned had not done anything. Clearly that is a huge problem if the safety devices do not work when they should.

3. I think it is important that fellow RVer's inform others of such hazards. Perhaps Good Sam Club or other agency tracks this kind of serious problem. I did lodge a concern with Consumer Reports already. I don't know if there is a state or federal agency that should also be notified.

4. I don't know what the resolution with Keystone and the dealership will be at this time. Perhaps there is some type of advocacy that is available to help us.

BOTTOM LINE: If this can happen to us, it could happen to anyone. We were fortunate that no one was hurt or worse. But, maybe the next family will not be so lucky.

I appreciate this opportunity to share this scary and worrisome situation with all of you.

[TakingThe5th]

richfaa wrote:
"We own a 2013 Keystone Cougar 5th wheel model 331MKS. It is 11 moths old"

be that the case it is still under warranty. Call the keystone service center and get the problem recorded. call you dealer now. If it is under warranty you have no problem.

X2. As others have said - you did an outstanding job.

Our 333MKS is at the dealer now as it turns 12 months old, having work done on the punch list, so I am extremely interested in the outcome of your problem. One of our punch list items is to have the defective control panel replaced, so I will take that opportunity to see if I can strike up a conversation and gather some additional information.

Previously I was told that the landing gear does bypass the main disconnect switch - they said it was a safety feature because the landing gear should always be available.

Our unit has several notable oversights - whoever designed the electrical systems on this generation of Cougars needs to be better connected - or fired. :E

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I just want to add a thought: since so many of our RV's share common components - whatever happened to the OP's 5er, might happen to ANY brand, if the component that failed (? Just guessing here) is not built "in house".

[RandACampin]

Francesca Knowles wrote:

M GO BLUE wrote:
So you filed a complaint with different websites, etc. BEFORE you know the exact cause of the fire??

He filed an "incident report". The main purpose of such sites as Safercar.gov. is to track incidents- the value lies not in a customer giving an opinion as to what happened, but to store/count the events themselves.

It's patterns that matter- if this turns out to be the only such incident reported, it's likely a fluke. But if there are more: the units will get a closer look.

Not necessarily…filing a report because you threw some tools in the battery storage compartment, or something else to cause a short will certainly skew the data. Best to stop the knee jerk reporting and wait till a definitive cause can be found. Bad data reported for the sake of 'broadcast reporting" across multiple websites does no one any good.

[Francesca_Knowl]

M GO BLUE wrote:
So you filed a complaint with different websites, etc. BEFORE you know the exact cause of the fire??

He filed an "incident report". The main purpose of such sites as Safercar.gov. is to track incidents- the value lies not in a customer giving an opinion as to what happened, but to store/count the events themselves.

It's patterns that matter- if this turns out to be the only such incident reported, it's likely a fluke. But if there are more: the units will get a closer look.

[SailingOn]

For those of us anxious to avoid repeating something like this, what is the circuit board above your battery?

[M_GO_BLUE1]

So you filed a complaint with different websites, etc. BEFORE you know the exact cause of the fire??

[45Ricochet]

FLY 4 FUN wrote:
Please keep us posted on what you or the dealership find out. Anybody who has shorted out a 12v battery boosting etc knows how much energy they store so nothing to scoff at. If you have a chance to get photos to show where the short/fire started that may help us visualize how your rig is wired. Glad everybody is ok.

Daryll

X2
Yeah keep us posted.
Thanks

[Jerry_B]

My MS has a resettable breaker in the main 12Vdc cable right out of the battery.

[rmcspeterson]

We plan to have additional fire extinguishers when we get our 5th wheel back as well as adding a smoke detector in the battery compartment.

[tsetsaf]

Uppercrust wrote:
Good idea putting a smoke detector by the battery and also a fire extinguisher in the basement.

With that many extinguishers already may a I suggest adding the next one into the bed of your truck instead of the basement? You want one to be publicly accessible.

[Uppercrust]

Good idea putting a smoke detector by the battery and also a fire extinguisher in the basement.

[richfaa]

"We own a 2013 Keystone Cougar 5th wheel model 331MKS. It is 11 moths old"

be that the case it is still under warranty. Call the keystone service center and get the problem recorded. call you dealer now. If it is under warranty you have no problem.

[bigcitypopo]

i really think before filing a complaint... you need to find out how the fire was caused. sometimes electrical circuitry fails... it just does. or maybe a wire came loose from its connection and grounded out...

I'm very glad you kept a level head, and made good decisions... hats off to you for taking it straight to the dealer. I have seen just about every type of fire... they all generally end bad. you are very lucky.

I'm very interested to see how this shakes out. Keystone is a stand up company... they are too big to not fix it, and with forums such as this. they'll be watching.

[Splashers3]

To the OP - you were one cool customer under some emotional and scary times....

We have mounted a smoke detector right next to our battery to provide us additional warning time.

But, my take away, and thanks for alerting us, is I will now have my 4th extinguisher placed in the basement, next to the battery. Having 3, all inside the trailer, may have taken too much time to get.

Good luck with reimbursement and repairs.

[waltbennett]

I posted this comment on the Keystone Forum also. You said the flames were coming from a circuit board above the batteries. Was that the LCI controller? Also, although there are fuses for electric, those are after the batteries and for different circuits to devices. I'm pretty certain the LCI controller (along with carbon monoxide det. & a few other things) don't have fuses. There's been several instances reported over the years of those who've had shorts either at the batteries or somewhere not fused and had wiring overheat, etc. Very rare, but it can happen. Sounds like the power cable from your batteries to the LCI controller somehow shorted directly to ground at the controller. Guess your dealer will let you know.

As an aside, one of the things I just finished doing on our Montana was to add an air conditioner fused disconnect box, using one of the two fuses for the positive from our battery bank. The other will be used when I take the next bigger steps in adding some solar panels & charge controller. These are quite inexpensive (just be sure to use a 60 amp version) and available at any big box hardware store, along with 4 ga. wire and terminals.