My Lightning burned to the ground

[majorgearhead]

Post 67 pointed to different truck fire that did have an Ohmmu. Since that post, a bunch of people here have decided either it applies to the OP, or they’re commenting about the other fire. Hard to tell.

And wait until AI gets a hold of this thread and starts spreading it as fact. Ohmmu will go up in flames, figuratively, at least.

Just look at the previous post, post 66. That has links to where the OP stated they were running a Ohmmu battery and were having issues. The OP had an Ohmmu battery in their truck, and should NOT be blamed for what happened. Ohmmu states and many trust that their batteries are compatible with the Lightning. It is just an interesting data point that they had an Ohmmu battery, were suffering low voltage issues with it which “could” cause the Fords BMS to do that high amp charge thing which may have overwhelmed his particular battery, causing a fire that could have blown the pyro fuses and caused his actual Li-Ion packs to runaway ignite.

This is all conjecture until a fire investigator looks at it, but I would not be surprised if the Ohmmu battery played a part in it. Thankfully the OP, family, Pets and house is fine. He will be made whole by someone in the failure chain.

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[Maquis]

Just look at the previous post, post 66. That has links to where the OP stated they were running a Ohmmu battery and were having issues. The OP had an Ohmmu battery in their truck, and should NOT be blamed for what happened. Ohmmu states and many trust that their batteries are compatible with the Lightning. It is just an interesting data point that they had an Ohmmu battery, were suffering low voltage issues with it which “could” cause the Fords BMS to do that high amp charge thing which may have overwhelmed his particular battery, causing a fire that could have blown the pyro fuses and caused his actual Li-Ion packs to runaway ignite.

This is all conjecture until a fire investigator looks at it, but I would not be surprised if the Ohmmu battery played a part in it. Thankfully the OP, family, Pets and house is fine. He will be made whole by someone in the failure chain.

OK…I didn’t follow that link.

 

[chl]

Unless the truck was undercoated in thermite like the hindenberg, I don’t think this was a LVB event. OP said they barely had time to gather a few items from the back seat before the truck was fully engulfed in flames. He also posted a pic of the truck in flames from tip to tail before the fire department could get there.

To me, it seems like a catastrophic HVB event.

You could be right.

But if you look at other pickup truck truck fire images due to 12v battery fires they are not dissimilar to the images the OP posted, so much flammable stuff in modern vehicles.

I am not a fire expert but...

Electrical fires always involve burning wire insulation, and once the insulation burns off the copper wires short out and cause even more fire. When the insulation on the HV battery lines goes the fire would spread to the undercarriage and rear of the truck PDQ.

When the Lithium get hot enough it too will go - Lithium is highly flammable and can combust spontaneously when it gets too hot. It can ignite at anywhere from 140F to 212F so any fire in an EV is a serious concern because of the likelihood the HVB will be involved eventually.

There are quite a lot of safeguards built in to the Lightning and other EVs to prevent and warn about dangerous HVB problems, which is why an HVB fire is a rare event. They most often occur when ruptured in an accident or while charging. Neither seem to be the case in the OP's situation.

He said there was no warning of any HVB problem.
But his previous posts noted some tell-tale signs of a 12v battery system problem.

12v battery fires are not as rare as EV battery fires, and they occur in all kinds of vehicles, often from short circuits or hydrogen gas explosions (like the Hindenberg?) due to overcharging, etc. Not just cars, but boats and planes as well, anything that uses a 12v lead acid battery - they store a lot of energy and people underestimate that.

Just one recent example:

Toyota RAV4 Investigation (NHTSA PE 21-005): A notable investigation into 2013-2018 Toyota RAV4 gasoline models identified 11 reported fires originating from the 12-volt battery under the hood, often caused by the positive terminal shorting to the hold-down frame, frequently following improper installation or repair.

 

[ZeusDriver]

???
It was being "FORCE CHARGED" by the Lightning???

No one should ever try to charge any lithium chemistry battery that has one cell at one volt. That cell is shot, and is well below the lowest voltage to attempt a normal recharge. The Ohmmu BMS should have prevented any current from going in or out of the battery, no matter what chargers or chargers were connected.

The owner of that battery (not the same as the owner of the truck that caught fire, BTW) should have known better ... somewhere in the Ohmmu manual it would have mentioned the danger of trying to charge a battery with one or more dead cells. If Ohmmu failed to put that in the manual, then shame on them. If the BMS allowed charging under that condition, again, shame on them.

Personally, I would not dream of using any replacement battery for the Ford that is not of identical chemistry and construction to the original, or if not, that has explicit endorsement by Ford as being safe.

 

[TwentyTwentyThree]

So, I imagine trolls from elektek and other questionable three letter big news sources may be interested in re-posting select content.
For the sake of truth, @Administrator of the page - are you able to change the headline to ‘my aftermarket 12v battery burned my truck down to the ground’?

 

[B177y]

For the sake of truth, @Administrator of the page - are you able to change the headline to ‘my aftermarket 12v battery burned my truck down to the ground’?

Nobody knows what the cause is. The fact is the truck burned.

 

[Jseis]

I’m curious if the local town/municipalities fire company was/is trained to fight such fires given the volume of water needed. I’ve not seen any news accounts regarding.

 

[chriserx]

I’m curious if the local town/municipalities fire company was/is trained to fight such fires given the volume of water needed. I’ve not seen any news accounts regarding.

Even at the department where I volunteered, there were mats and foam at our disposal. Wasn't much in training but there were far fewer EVs on the road back then too, but there was at least one course available, even then.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I may have over looked it in the thread but did the op actually come back and say if they had done any mods to the truck that could possibly contribute to this sad situation?

I see where someone asked but never got a reply then someone else chimed in almost as if to claim it was the ohmmu.

Sad situation all the way around.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...-have-sounded-different-why.34079/post-633256

 

[TaxmanHog]

Current thread title is sufficient until we know more.

IMHO, folks running with the OHMMU 12v Li battery should think twice before continuing to run with it.

 

[ZeusDriver]

Very high charge currents have been seen/measured when the Lightning is charging the 12v battery. Maybe the Ohmmu BMS should have prevented this? Maybe the Ford 12v Battery Manager is a battery mangler?

In the particular case from Reddit, the Ohmmu BMS is clearly at fault, if the post is to be believed. There is no way that one cell of a LiFePo battery can get as low as 1.0 volt, with the other cells being "normal" (presumably 3.2-3.5 volts) with a functioning BMS. A "smart" BMS should give an indication that the battery should be removed immediately, and no attempt to charge it should be made. But if an attempt to charge the battery under such a condition were made, the BMS should not permit it, at all, no matter how aggressively the Ford BMS might be trying to do so. It should be an open circuit to the Ford.

I have a bunch of 60A LiFePo cells from 15 years ago, that are still functioning. A BMS from that era would not allow the cells (in a battery) to be charged or discharged if one cell was at 1.0 volts. (2.0V is the absolute low voltage cutoff). One would hope that modern BMS's are better, not worse.

As far as this recent fire goes, there are all sorts of things that might have gone wrong. We can hope that enough of the truck is left to find the root cause. And we can all be thankful that no one was hurt. The loss for the insurance company will be low enough that the investigation may be very brief. If they were on the hook for far more money, then there would be likely subrogation against Ohmmu, which would require a thorough investigation, lots of experts, etc. Chances are good that we will never know what went wrong.

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