Back in 1992 NBC ran a fake test that made our trucks look drivable gas bombs

[72blu]

Not sure how many guys have seen this but I was sure shocked when I stumbled upon it haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtpMzGN9uWc

[hewittca]

That is very interesting. I once read a top ten list of the most dangerous vehicles on the road and to my surprise, square body pickups were number one because of their tanks! I wonder if that list was fueled (get it) by this fake NBC report. In hind sight, it really isn't the best location for the tank but I don't think it resulted in very many "explosions" either.

[friscobob]

Unlike the Pinto with the drop in tank that became the trunk floor and no firewall between the trunk and passenger compartment.

[old Rusty C10]

its funny this thread came up, I was just telling a kid who bought a truck from me about this over the past weekend

[Dead Parrot]

I still have the Consumer Certificate that GM sent out as part of the lawsuit settlement. Worth a whole $1000 off on a new truck purchase. Framed it and hung it on the wall next to the $0.12 check from AT&T from a different lawsuit settlement.

One article I read when this was hot news claimed the overall side impact death rate for GM trucks was actually a bit lower then the equivalent trucks from Ford or Dodge. But the death by fire rate was higher.

Still have the truck I received the Certificate settlement for. The lawsuit claimed owners lost resale value due to the side mount tanks. Current prices argue otherwise.

[nonstop]

Wait.......The media lied? Hard to believe.....

I remember that. My mother (I was a teen at the time) kept citing that as one of the reasons I shouldn't get a truck for a first car.

[tucsonjwt]

I had 2 squares and received two $1000 certificates. I used one on a new 2001 Tahoe (along with the first of GM's "rebates" of $1000). I sold that Tahoe after 6 months and bought a 2002 Tahoe, and used the second certificate on that one. I traded the 2001 into the dealer for the 2002 Tahoe, and actually made about $3,000 on the transaction. Worked out well for me.

I kept buying new GM vehicles every 6 months for about 6 years, until the trade in values dropped too much and I did not want to come out of pocket on another new vehicle.

One of the two squares was a 1973 C20 which I kept for 21 years.

[100%Chevy]

I got the rebate too.
In fact,I asked why I didn't get 2 checks since mine has 2 tanks!
They didn't think it was funny.
Still have the truck.It's a 82,K-10 Silverado.Traded in a 80,K-20,Custom Delux for it.
I've never seen or heard of one blowing up!
I also owned a 71 Pinto.Obviously,it didn't blow either!
Mike.

[meatwagon83]

I remember this, I also remember NBC getting in hot water over rigging the trucks to explode

[Keith Seymore]

I worked for GM Truck engineering at the time (still do).

My dad made the fuel tanks at Chevrolet Flint Manufacturing.

To say this is a touchy subject for me would be an understatement.

K

[Matt Man]

My 95 jeep wrangler had the gas tank right behind the rear bumper.... I wonder if NBC knew that the 67-72 chevy trucks had gas tank in the cab!

[Tiger Joe]

whats amazing is how even after NBC came out and said the test was rigged, most people don't remember that, but they remember the original story.

I have seen a truck first hand get hit directly in the gas tank hard enough to bend the frame and total the truck. not only did the tank not blow, but they still drove the truck home

[friscobob]

Originally Posted by Matt Man

My 95 jeep wrangler had the gas tank right behind the rear bumper.... I wonder if NBC knew that the 67-72 chevy trucks had gas tank in the cab!

Yep! My 67 had that little feature, something I was never real comfortable with.
Bob

[KrazyRay]

I also receiver the $1000 certificate for the "explodo-baby gas tanks. Now youtube the SNL skit they did the next weekend after the story. Its pretty funny.

[Dead Parrot]

Originally Posted by friscobob

Yep! My 67 had that little feature, something I was never real comfortable with.
Bob

The first truck I remember my dad having was this way. Of course, any wreck bad enough to cause the tank to leak would probably cause so much leakage from the driver that it wouldn't matter anyway.

The irritating thing about it was listening to the lost siphon hose weight roll from one side of the tank to the other when we went around a corner.

[Wgesnerjr]

I have always wanted to know how many truck were produced sidesaddle tanks vs. how many explosions were actually documented.

That would give us an idea of the percentage.

[Keith Seymore]

There were roughly 15 million square body based vehicles produced.

NHTSA claimed, as of about 2008, that there were approximately 1800 truck fires during the squarebody years.

My interpretation, written for a previous thread on this site, is below:

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Wincks -

You didn't ask for my opinion, but - because this is a topic I get somewhat emotional about (...I apologize in advance...) - I'm going to give it to you:

If your motivation in moving the tank is because of safety I think you are wasting your time.

It sounds like you may have done some reading, and so you may have already seen this thread, but I would ask you to read it again:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=379580

My editorial comments are documented there, although perhaps not as eloquently as I would have liked.

Secondly, your comments re-piqued my curiosity about this topic, so I did some (hopefully detatched and unemotional) research:

I wondered "...how many deaths were there, really, as a result of this?". So I did a quick internet search.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has documented what they believe to be 1800 fire related fatalities in '73 - '91 C/K and R/V trucks, from 1973 through calendar year 2000.

First off, in looking at the data, from what I can tell they don't distinguish between pickup, Blazer and Suburban - the later two which would not have side saddle type tanks - so the actual number will be somewhat smaller than the 1800.

Secondly, if you read through the data, it does not distinguish between "fire" as the cause of death vs "fire as a result of side saddle tanks" as a cause of death. Many of the fatalities occurred as a result of single vehicle accidents where the truck struck a tree or a pole or a bridge abutment. One could assume that in those cases the vehicle was moving forward, likely longitudinally (and perhaps at a moderately high rate of speed), and the fact that the tank was mounted on the side of the vehicle would be moot. (That is, these were not situations where the victim vehicle was T boned in the side - specifically the side that the tank was on - resulting in fire). This would also reduce NHTSA's number of fatalities directly attributable to side saddle tanks.

Lastly, in reviewing their data, in some cases there were two, three or even four people involved some of the vehicle incidents. So - the number of vehicles impacted (ie, specific crash events) was something less than 1800, like 1200 or so.

However, for the purposes of this discussion, let's do some math and use their number of 1800:

NHTSA estimates there were roughly 10 million of these vehicles produced (Note: I think that's low, 15 plus model years many of which were more than 1 million per year - but again we'll use their number). If we assume each of those vehicles traveled 50,000 miles in their lifetime (again, I am choosing a low number on purpose, as mine has nearly 200,000 miles) then the number of miles traveled in these types of vehicles would be 500,000,000,000 - hopefully that's 5 with 11 zeros behind it, or 500 billion miles.

I am relating it to miles traveled because that's the factor that causes you to be "exposed" to something bad happening. Said differently, there's really no danger when the vehicle is just sitting in the driveway. 500 billion miles - that's a lot of "exposure".

Your odds of dying in a fiery death, then, according to NHTSA would be that number divided by 1800 or 1 in 277,000,000. One in 277 million.

Just to give this number some perspective, I did a quick check on some other comparable statistics: your odds of winning the lottery, according to one website, are one in 120 million. Your odds of being killed on a commercial airline flight are one in 19 million. Your odds of being struck by lightning, the standard of measure in this type of thing, are one in 750,000. If you prefer a "straight up" numbers-to-numbers comparison, I found that there are roughly 12,000 deaths attributed to "slip and fall" incidents each year.

So basically you are twice as likely to win the lottery, 14 times more likely to die in a plane crash and 370 times more likely to be hit by lightning than to be killed in one of these trucks as a result of fire, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

[Keith Seymore]

Previous threads:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ight=lightning

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ight=lightning

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ight=lightning

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=379580

[S10Fan]

For most of my 20's I was a police officer and worked hundreds of traffic accidents. Never once did I work one that involved a fire, "square body" or otherwise. My father operated a towing business for many years, of the cars/trucks that were destroyed by fire, most were suspicious in nature.

I'd voice my opinion of so called "News" channels but I'd be in violation of forum rules.

[Wgesnerjr]

Thanks Keith!!

That is exactly what I was looking for. I figured the "odds" were low but your post showed just how shockingly low it is! Basically, I never thought to consider miles driven but makes perfect sense.

My thoughts were simpler: 1800 / 15,000,000 = 0.00012 or a little more than 1% of all vehicles produced would end up in a fire accident.

I would bet Pintos and Crown Vics had better odds of fire.

Thank you for the research and your passion for defending these trucks. I think I'm going to print out your post and keep it in the glove box. Then, the next time someone brings this up, I can lay it on them!!

[100%Chevy]

Don't forget about the Ford trucks fires caused by leaking brake fluid!
And,when betting and the odds are really high,remember---your number can come up any time!
Mike.

[Front Range]

Couple interesting articles, both short but pointed.

What really happened

NBC Settlement