Yamaha Rhino

My inlaws bought a new Yamaha Rhino 4x4 ATV. It's the sit in like a golf cart type with the Grizzly 660 motor. It "was" a nice machine. They got a dose of bad gas and went down to the dealer to get a new fuel filter for it. It was so new that the dealer didn't have the new filters in so he gave them an older style and said "this will work". They started the thing up the other day to let it warm up and went in to get my kids to take them for a ride. When they came back outside they saw fireballs dripping on the ground underneath it. My father-in-law ran to get the garden hose to put out the ever increasing flames when reaching my hydrant remembered that he just ran over my garden hose the day before with the lawn mower. He tried spraying with the remainder with no avail. A few minutes later a 30' wall of fire ensued. About that time the volunteer fire department was called. 15 minutes later they arrived to the charred remains. The gas tank and all four tires exploded during the process. This excited everyone there since a mere 20' away from the blaze was my camper containing all of my reloading supplies inluding but not limited to: 20#'s of powder, thousands of primers, and who knows how much loaded ammo. Thankfully the fire dept. did not tear open the camper and hose it down. $8500 machine is a total loss. You could not believe how completly burnt the thing is. Even the wiring was nothing more than copper strands. They have insurance, hope it's covered for this.

DD

The insurance company said Yamaha wanted the remains to examine. This is the first known fire of this type for this model. The insurance Co. is going after Yamaha for sure they said.

DD