Sure it's broken

[6809er]

At the Shack, we had a 30 day return policy, and we were extending it to mean 30 days after Christmas so people could return or exchange their Christmas gifts if needed. We informed each and every customer of this when they bought obvious holiday gifts. But do you think a mere 30 days was enough time for some people???

At the beginning of March we had a "lady" return a remote-controlled 4x4 truck. She claimed it just wasn't working right - it wouldn't turn or some nonsense. After explaining the return policy and getting nothing but idiotic blathering in response, my manager took the truck back.

We figured that the truck probably worked just fine, and since we couldn't resell it we decided to have some fun with it and see just how "broken" it was.

Let's see...

It survived a full-speed drive straight into a wall. It survived a 2 foot drop off a shelf while at speed. It survived an 8 foot plunge off of a store cabinet and the plastic didn't even crack. In short, this thing was proving to be anything but broken.

Never present a challenge to a couple of bored 20-something males. We decided to see what it took to actually have this truck not work anymore. So (and kids, do NOT try this at home), we doused the truck bed with anything flammable we could find and set it free into the night air in the lot outside the back door.

To this day, I still remember driving that flame-truck around. It had to be one of the coolest and most irresponsible things I've seen and done. And the real kicker - the truck still worked even after the flames went out. Sure, the bed was ruined, but the truck still worked.

Sure lady, that truck was broken...

[Custard Chick]

That...Is just...AWESOME! I totally want to do that now... lol!

[princess4life]

Sounds like fun can I try?

[rvdammit]

Sounds like the real thing, look on youtube using "top gear truck" and watch the Killing a toyata bits

[crazylegs]

Its all available here http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=18789

[Emrld]

now this is the post that has me saying - we need photos!!! I would love to see the thing on fire being controlled around.

[6809er]

now this is the post that has me saying - we need photos!!! I would love to see the thing on fire being controlled around.

Sadly, this happened back in the Paleolithic era, when the only cameras available were made of stone...

In other words, I'm really old and the only cameras around that could have taken pictures worked by film.

[MadRocketScientist]

Back in my youth I used to play with model rockets. When I had a rocket that had made just a few too many returns to Earth, it was given a viking funeral.

I would rip out the parachute and the engine mount, glue the largest engine I could into the base of the rocket, and tie a condom with some gasoline to the nodecone, then glue the nosecone to the rocket body.

For those who are not familiar with model rockets, when a model rocket launches, the motor burns and puts the rocket into the sky. After the motor burns out, the rocket glides for a bit before an ejection charge at the top of the motor fires and forces the nosecone and the attached parachute out of the rocket body. The rocket and nose cone then descend together on the parachute.

That ejection charge does a pretty good job of igniting the gasoline.

Quite a few rockets ascended gloriously and made very pretty fireballs in the sky.

Some barely cleared the launchpad and me and my friends would hit the dirt as the fireball washed overhead.

Good times had by all

[Dreamstalker]

We decided to see what it took to actually have this truck not work anymore. So (and kids, do NOT try this at home), we doused the truck bed with anything flammable we could find and set it free into the night air in the lot outside the back door.

COOL!

Mythbusters last night had a similar contraption....the "firebug". They were testing if a lit trail of gas from a punctured fuel tank could cause the vehicle to explode (the flame followed the fuel trail, but amazingly the tank did not go boom).

[simplyanother]

Never present a challenge to a couple of bored 20-something males. We decided to see what it took to actually have this truck not work anymore. So (and kids, do NOT try this at home), we doused the truck bed with anything flammable we could find and set it free into the night air in the lot outside the back door.
..

Hehe, it sounds like an episode of Mythbusters, doesn't it?

[6809er]

COOL!

Mythbusters last night had a similar contraption....the "firebug". They were testing if a lit trail of gas from a punctured fuel tank could cause the vehicle to explode (the flame followed the fuel trail, but amazingly the tank did not go boom).

Hehe, it sounds like an episode of Mythbusters, doesn't it?

It was the Mythbusters firebug episode that jogged my memory about this in the first place. Only we did it first!

[Hon'ya-chan]

Its all available here http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=18789

http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...89&postcount=6

Less scrolling.

[Andara Bledin]

So (and kids, do NOT try this at home), we doused the truck bed with anything flammable we could find and set it free into the night air in the lot outside the back door.

Wait, are you my cousin?

I have a cousin that built a canal system in the back back yard at my grandmother's place and at one point put something flamable in it so he could burn his rc ships in it. He'd also do the same thing with rc tanks and the like.

And, at one time while I was there also, we managed to put a burning foam glider up onto the roof of the neighboring KMart. Thankfully, nothing came of it, but it did put a stop to most flaming flyers, at least for a while.

Mythbusters last night had a similar contraption....the "firebug". They were testing if a lit trail of gas from a punctured fuel tank could cause the vehicle to explode (the flame followed the fuel trail, but amazingly the tank did not go boom).

Of course it didn't. It's too wet. Now, if they had the gas tank almost completely empty, and did the same thing, I suspect it might make a rather satisfying boom. Liquid gasoline isn't flammable; gaseous fuel, however, is exceedingly so.

^-.-^

[Imogene]

Liquid gasoline isn't flammable; gaseous fuel, however, is exceedingly so.

Oddly enough, so is baking flour. Seriously. Do NOT light a match if there is flour floating through the air.
Also, spider webs are flammable.
Man, the stuff you learn from your third grade teacher. Or at least, from my third grade teacher...

[JustADude]

Oddly enough, so is baking flour. Seriously. Do NOT light a match if there is flour floating through the air.

And how. An empty grain silo will go up like a fuel-air bomb if you put a flame into it before the dust is settled.