Back a couple of years ago, on the Guff Coast, after Hurricane George the Casino I worked at was closed for repairs for a couple of weeks. Being hunting season It was a chance for me to spend a lot of time in the woods. I was driving to a spot I have not hunted in a while. About 300 yards off the black top the road was wallowed out with some deep ruts with standing water, so I figured I would just drive my 2 wheel drive Chevy around the ruts and continue on my way. My brand new "Mud" tires got me bout 20 yards and then the truck sunk in the mud up to the axles. After 30 minutes of trying to drive out of it I headed back to the main road to try to flag some body down to either help pull me out or drive me to a place where my Bag phone ( Yep that was back in the day when the big honking bag phones where The portable phone.) c ould get a signal. I was almost to the black top when I looked back and thought I saw some smoke. I kept walking and stopped and looked back again, I thought , That looks really close to my truck....Then I realized IT WAS MY TRUCK.
The catalytic converter had set the grass under the truck on fire. By the time I got back to the truck the smoke was rolling out from under the hood. I was able to get my hunting gear out of the back of the truck. Some one driving on the main road called the Volunteer Fire Department and put out the fire . Truck was a total loss.I did learn that when a plastic bed liner gets really hot it will melt and roll up into a big plastic ball.