22,000 RVers unaware of LP gas danger in their RVs

RV Travel ^ | 5-9-22 | RV Travel

[dynachrome]

Eight RV manufacturers, 37 models and 22,021 RVs from model years 2021 and 2022 have dangerous RV cracked and porous LP gas fittings that can lead to a fire, and they don’t know it. Worse yet, almost all of the RV factories say they will not send notices to tell dealers or the public about it until July 1st.

The recalls were quietly announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but virtually all factory warning letters to the RV dealers and owners of these RVs will not go out until July 2022, according to filings with federal safety regulators. Meanwhile, they say 100% of certain models of Cruiser RV, DRV, Heartland, Highland Ridge, Jayco, KZRV, Thor, and Starcraft have cracked gas fittings on recall.

Federal Recall personnel at NHTSA, the federal agency in charge of vehicle safety recalls, announced the fittings were made by Texas-based Flex Tech, which has a plant in Goshen, Indiana, with contaminated brass that can result in LP gas leaks, which can lead to a fire.

[fireman15]

Congratulations on being a “safety manager” at a shipyard. I am sure that was a big responsibility for you. You of course realize that natural gas is most often lighter than air and will disperse if a window or door is opened in the contaminated area. Let's see was that in your post to me? Where you scolded me, and said that people should just get the F out. Strangely not!

The article the thread is based on is talking about propane which is heavier than air. The fittings discussed are suppose to be “porous” which in practice means that the amount being leaked is very small. Small enough that it takes a detector to find it in most cases and the manufacturers are not being required to do recalls.

As the senior Hazmat Officer on my shift I was sometimes the incident commander at scenes where large gas mains had been broken by construction equipment. And I was also in charge of incidents where large numbers of people were evacuated. I apologize if my tone was dismissive to you. It sounded just like sheer panic which was one of the unhelpful behaviors that I encountered on many occasions during my career... sometimes from people who identified themselves as safety managers.

[suthener]

“I apologize if my tone was dismissive to you. It sounded just like sheer panic which was one of the unhelpful behaviors that I encountered on many occasions during my career... sometimes from people who identified themselves as safety managers.”

I had this really weird number one personal mission as a safety manager, which was to avoid people getting hurt. Having them sniff around to find a gas leak in an enclosed or confined space was not the ideal plan. I assure you that I was a professional, and not a person “who identified themselves as safety manager”. That was my only job. I was professional enough, actually, that ex-firemen were my favorite people to hire as safety inspectors (I had, at a peak, 9 dedicated safety inspectors, who were also professionals). I never panicked.

[fireman15]

There were major differences between your experiences and mine obviously. I cannot tell you how many idiotic actions that I ran into that caused death and destruction in the name of “safety”. I could literally go on and on.

We showed up at the scene of a bicyclist who had been hit by a truck. He was lying face down in a puddle. The safety Nazi that had taken charge of the scene before our arrival had allowed people in the crowd to put a blanket over the unconscious cyclist but insisted that it was too dangerous for anyone to touch him. He told the crowd that it was unsafe to touch an unconscious person with a possible spinal injury... The young man did not die from his injuries; he drowned in six inches of water.

If you think that was an unusually stupid event caused by idiotic “safety concerns”... I can tell you that it was most definitely not. In our society we have a big problem with people who cause all manner of chaos in the name of safety. The vast majority of the Covid nonsense that we have all been forced to endure for over two years has all justified by “safety”.

So when someone tells me that they worked as a “safety manager”, a “safety inspector”, or worse yet a “government safety inspector”... I have to admit that I tend to step back in horror.

But in our incident command structure, we always had a person assigned to be the “safety officer”. His or her job was roaming around looking for unsafe operations or situations that could develop into hazardous conditions. During a good portion of my career, I was assigned as a “chief’s aid” intermittently which was actually an officer level position and had a number of responsibilities. This position was eventually renamed to “safety Officer” because that was the role this person was given at most incidents.

So, believe it or not you and I actually were called something very similar at times. And I had to take my job very seriously when performing this role. You would not believe the fool hardy stuff that firefighters tend to do when left to their own devices. And believe it or not my reckless actions as a youngster helped me to recognize when things were starting to go off the rails, and helped prevent others from putting themselves in risky situations that came close to putting me out of service forever.

[suthener]

I spent 20 years at the same facility through 4 different owners because I was pretty good at not doing stupid shit. I’ll just finish by saying, I have the utmost respect for firefighters. One thing, though:

“You would not believe the fool hardy stuff that firefighters tend to do when left to their own devices.”

You ever been around shipyard workers? Those guys can invent ways to get hurt!

[fireman15]

I spent 20 years at the same facility through 4 different owners because I was pretty good at not doing stupid shit.

I am sure that you were good at your job and were well worth the money that they paid you.

You ever been around shipyard workers? Those guys can invent ways to get hurt!

I have been around shipyard workers. The fine city I worked in had a large port. Many of our calls were to shipyards and other businesses on the port. Some of them were quite gruesome, so I appreciate that you helped keep people out of trouble. I can remember calls where heavy things like containers were dropped on people. People becoming overcome from bad air in enclosed spaces. People falling a long ways down into cargo holds.

One of those was cargo hold incidents was almost me. I ran past the hold on our first attempt to get to a fire on a ship. When the hose turned out to be too short, I stepped into the hold when running back to use a more direct route. It is harder to see when there is a lot of smoke and your face piece is fogged up. Fortunately, I had a good grip on the hose line that I was dragging and I was going fast enough that I hit the opposite side of the hatch during my rapid descent. I was able to grab the hose that was stretched tight going into the hole, climbed out and continue on. It is amazing what you can do when you have a lot of adrenaline pumping. It would have been a long drop.

There is a saying, "Telegraph, telephone, tell a fireman". By the time we got back to the station the entire episode had made the rounds and had been exaggerated to ridiculous proportions.

The whole port experience reminds me a little of the movie, A Million Ways to Die in the West.

[suthener]

“Some of them were quite gruesome, so I appreciate that you helped keep people out of trouble. I can remember calls where heavy things like containers were dropped on people. People becoming overcome from bad air in enclosed spaces. People falling a long ways down into cargo holds.”

It is an extremely hazardous job, no doubt about it.

[VastRWCon]

***Why fix it yourself if it’s under warranty?***

Because service is so bad ked up you will likely not get your RV back months if lucky or well over a year it’s that bad.

I will never take ours back to service I’ll figure it out. Yes it’s still under warranty.