Hauling VP Fuel and Motorcycles in a trailer - Fire

Things I've seen that I imagine could set off race gas (or anything for that matter) while driving down the road:
Lithium batteries shorting - Fire Dept should be able to figure that out easily
Trailer Wheel bearings on fire - Would have been evidence of that as well

Sparks can come from all kinds of things, metal on metal anything, heck, even static discharges. Aircraft are bonded to the ground while stationary to help prevent fires from static.

 

For curiosity's sake- let's say you have 1,000 cubic feet of air in your trailer. How much gas would have to vaporize in there to create 14,000 ppm? A cup? A gallon?

 

Oh dear lord. That's something a chemical engineer would be able to figure out. I don't do math.
We just stick a monitor in the room to tell us if the air is safe.

I think I can figure out how much vapor you would need to fill the room: 28.32m3 x .014 = .39648m3 vapor = 396.48 liters of vapor

But I can't figure out how I would calculate how much liquid gasoline you would need to reach that amount of vapor. I am stuck at the rate of evaporation in a a closed system.... I am probably over thinking it - I tend to do that.

Anyone else can jump in here

 

What you are trying to calculate probably isn't that simple. You would need to know the properties of the substances. There is probably a table out there somewhere that could work a an approximation, but it would probably vary between different brands / blends of gasoline and even more between pump fuels and VP.

So per Wikipedia, gasoline ranges between: 0.71–0.77 kg/L for our example lets use 0.75 kg / L.

One problem is that air density will vary a lot more based on altitude, pressure and temperature. Let's assume the inside of your trailer is fairly hot and just use 1.2 kg / cubic meter as a rough estimate here.

So for your example we would be talking about 1000 cu. ft. or 28.3 cubic meters. So ...

1.2 KG / cubic meter times 28.3 cubic meters would be 33.96 kg of air. Multiply this by 0.014 to get how many kg you would need to be 14ppm in 1000 cu ft space. That would be about 0.475 kg. Multiple that by the inverse of the density of fuel (1/0.75 kg/l) = 0.633 liters which sounds like an awful lot to me, so I probably screwed something up.

So after all that, I am not smart enough and/or don't have sufficient time to properly research this to get to the correct answer, but I had fun trying. I like math.

 

Another reason why powerboat engine holds/compartments have powered fans venting them.

 

OK. I think I figured out the problem. The fuel vapor is heavier than the air, so it sinks to the bottom of the trailer. So if it generally settled in the bottom 1/6 of the trailer you would only need about 0.633 l / 6 = 0.105 l which sounds a bit more reasonable. Then you get to factor in stuff like the trailer not being perfectly air tight, the height of the ignition source, etc.

 

That's kind of what I was thinking. It would take alot of gas to get it to the point where the vapor would be readily ignitable. Now some open fuel or fuel soaked rags...

My little 6x12 trailer has two vents on the sides, I always wondered how much air was flowing through there at highway speeds.

 

At least that part is easy to check. Just climb into the trailer and have your mother-in-law drive you down the highway for an hour or so.

 

Hi all, that was my stuff that burned down. So, the question is was it race fuel? No, not a single can ignited or exploded. A BMW started on fire during transit, which caught over 100 tires on fire. I'm the midwest Michelin Race tire dealer WWW.TRACKSUPPORTSPECIALISTS.COM and I was moving a bike for a customer. It burned everything, including my carbon fibre rimmed HRC CBR600RRs, all my tools, tires, two other bikes...Total damage was just under $200K ish but I just heard they may total out my truck, adding $70k to that.

 

T

Jason and Derick will be taken care of quite well, and that was my trailer and stuff, not yours.

 

this is a real thing. My roadrace mechanic does water ski shows. Someone on the team had their family out on a boat with an inboard engine. They didn't vent it before starting. BIG BOOM. The guy lost a leg, and an arm.. he literally, with one leg and one arm. Saved one of his own children from drowning. Crazy stuff. My Grandfather had a 22' boat with a 351cc Cleveland engine.. I remember as a kid, he always warned me to run the vent fans for 2 minutes prior to starting.

 

f-in scary stuff Thomas. Mega sorry to hear about this. Any clue on what caused the bmw to catch fire ?

 

Read other messages I posted, but the point of ignition, 95% confirmed but still waiting for the final report, was a customer top filling a hot off track BMW and then placing it in the trailer. There was a good chance fuel was spilled and started a slow burn under the tank. The travel time was 30 minutes from Autobahn Country club to River casino for dinner. At the stop light, a guy told me the trailer was on fire. There wer 5 straps holding the bike in place, with front brake zip tied. I've hauled hundreds of motorcycles from WI to FL and back and never tipped a single bike. The bike the most melted is the BMW. The MR12 was 30 ft in front of it, in the front of the trailer next to a pair of CBR's that look like bikes still, and the MR12 did not spill, blow, or ignite. Also, the forest did not start on fire, and no animals or people were hurt.

 

See you october?!

 

Relax dude I am quoting the news article. I wouldn't want to be you anyway. You don't know how to make a pass stick racing a super moto. lol Its Steve btw.

 

I read all those news articles, and not one of them has it right. Fake F'ing news! lol WHat up steve. And, my rear shock fell out of my bike! that one hurt

 

Sending you a pm dude.

 

LOL I stand corrected. I got it from ur post on ur thread on FB

 

Mine was