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Believe it or not, I still let my assistant help out on the Terminator. This incident was ultimately the Final Straw.
The date was around 1989 and it was a few days before the very first IASCA World Finals in Tempe, AZ. Many competitors had arrived in Tempe early and some were visiting the various auto sound manufacturers in town.
It just so happens that I was preparing the Terminator for exhibition at this show. To make set up and tear down at shows easier, I asked my trusty assistant to install "welding jack receptacles" so that I could hook up my battery chargers without clamps, or bolts. To me, this seemed like a fairly simple and straightforward job.
After a few hours of work, my assistant informed me that the job was complete. About this time, 8 or 10 competitors were walking through the bay area of our building where I kept the Terminator. I was working in my lab about 50 feet away. The next thing I know, an individual is running into my office screaming that my car is on fire.
We all run into the bay and sure enough, a small mushroom cloud is rising from under the hood of the Terminator. I quickly open the hood and see the 00 guage power cable glowing red hot. Folks, this wire is the size of a garden hose. All of the insulation is dripping off of the wire or turning to smoke. I immediately call for bolt cutters (to cut the wire), but almost as soon as I utter the words, the 500 Amp fuse by the batteries blows. Thank God I was smart enough to fuse my batteries.
Careful investigation revealed that my assistant had failed to install the insulators behind the welding jack receptacles. All that was required to set these events in motion was the simple touch of one of our visiting competitors.
This was the last time that I allowed my assistant to help out on the Terminator.
------------------ "Keep it Loud and Make me Proud!"
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Well a similer thing happened to another vehicle. This was not funny at the time. But huge demo vehicles have lots of batteries. And as you all know they should be fused, but the owner, at first refused to have fuses and whilst working on his own vehicle the 1/0 cable going to the eight optima yellows(yes eight) grounded at the alt. and I just walked in when it all started. There were eight batteries hissing and wire glowing red hot with the jakets melting off. Finally they got a few batteries cut off and it started to flame and explode. Between explosions of the batteries they would run through the smoke to cut another wire,(all 1/0)each battery was parallelled and they were exploding in order untill all the wires were cut. people could have died. This to me is the best reason to fuse everything, period! only 5 batteries survived. If you have ever seen a battery hiss and then explode you will understand the story better. They laugh now at the stupidity but I Garanteed it will never happen again.
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Put all that time into it and to have it messed up by somethe. I would have been mad!!!! But you just have to let things like that go and just learn from stuff like that.
------------------ Dan Spurlock Team Audio Wizards Akron, Ohio
Posts: 148 | From: Doylestown, Ohio USA | Registered: May 2000
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