Hi Gnarls,

As someone who watches constantly for threatening fires during the summer months, I quite understand your biases. I have seen a few forest fires and grass fires in my day: I live in a house that was threatened severely by one, and every summer we are vaguely menaced by at least one other. I have no desire to start a wildfire of my own, anywhere.

That said, I know that many people here also live in very dry places, and presumably want to get out in the summer months. Thus, it seemed (and still seems) probable to me that someone has already come up with a safe way to drive a vehicle through dry tinder. If such a way exists, I would probably try to implement it. However, I am unsure of my own ability design it right without input.

So… if you are one of those people who ignores common sense and egomaniacal then you may suffer the cost of your actions.

I definitely am. I ignore common sense every day, and am probably more egomaniacal than most. I also regularly suffer the consequences. But I try to keep my mistakes small, and for some reason starting a wildfire doesn't seem very small.

With that said, I doubt that you could actually design and construct a sufficient barrier in the form of a huge skip plate that would provide enough protection from the chances of grass getting caught, catching fire and then dropping back onto the ground to start a raging fire.

Well, I think it would have to cover about half the underside width of the vehicle, and reach from the engine to the end of the tailpipe. Either that, or case the exhaust pipe in triple wall stovepipe.

It’s amazing what uncontained smoke and fire in the dead of night does to your sense of alertness!

Yup.

Given my above-mentioned egomania and lack of common sense, I will probably try to construct a heat shield. I will probably test it thoroughly with a thermometer. But it seems kind of dumb to actually test anything of this nature in dry grass. What if I made a mistake? What about the design flaw I never thought of or found?

If I had a proven design that was easy to do well, I might have the confidence to actually use it. I'm still sure such a design is possible, but I've never seen one realized. Hopefully, some cleverer person here has done it already.

Lewis