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fire fighting outfits?

1000 gallon agri nurse tank with 5 horse Honda on cast iron pump. 25 foot of 2 inch hose and neck down nozzle to 3/8 output. About all you can hang onto, but will shoot a spark out of a tree at 40 yards. 4 wheel drive pulling it is a good idea. Good for a quarter to a half mile of average grass fire line. Hope I never see that again, but, I will...
 
I have never had to use this for fires but it might work - - - holds 2,000 gal and depending on speed will really make the roads wet in the gravel pit. 2" pump with honda engine will fill from the creek in about 20 minutes and will cover a mile of gravel road turning it from dust to really wet in one pass.



With the booms folded in it is just 8' going down the road.



Not real technical but it works when needed, I can also use it for pressure washing in the field with a garden hose attachment on the back - - - it will wash a long time at 4 gal per minute - - - also hook it up to an old camper to provide restroom facilities at the shooting range.

The largest expense of building it was the pipe. I drilled a 3/8" hole every 2" and let gravity do the work for me.
 
All great but I was wondering about one with less water and a higher pressure pump. Something that would slip in the back of a pick up or strap down on the bale deck. We are few and far between in this country and it can get rough.It would take too long to walk a D6 12 miles to get to a fire and a 1000 gallons behind a 3/4 ton would just get you into trouble in the hills. I used a 500 gal on a trailer with a Honda pump, worked pretty good but looking for something with w quicker response time.
 
BMR---in u.s, after 9-11, govt decided feds couldn't do it all.
fema had lotsa of grants available----our little dept probably got 300k----we bought a new tender, apparatus for 3 brush trucks (we had to buy cab and chassis) cascade air system, turnouts---etc.
Anyhow----there's lots of used apparatus available, and it's way cheaper to buy it rigged up than put it together---it might be older, but kept inside, low miles and usually well maintained. and it's 'professional quality'---not screwing around with trash pumps, etc.

One thing: I suggest getting good nozzles, we used to use forestry on our brush trucks, always trying to conserve water. got more water on wheels now----and nozzled up to where we can knock down tall flames in heavy grain, grass---
 
some of the neighbors north of here were pretty isolated---went in together on an apparatus, had some kinda cheap anti-freeze in it in winter, whoever ran it out replaced it. the thing about fires is, a little water early usually beats lots later. it's nice to at least have some gloves, nomex and drinking water in rig---I despise buying bottled water for most stuff, but it keeps good--
 
We've got one of these:

http://www.wfrfire.com/trailers/bushbuggy.asp

225gal with the Scotty foam system. Pretty easy to slide on a bale deck, throw a couple straps on and you're ready. Can put out a lot if fire if you are careful, or you can run out of water in a couple minutes if it runs wide open.
 
Whatever set up you decide to go with I would suggest you use foam. The right set up that injects foam can really stretch your water supply out when you aren't carrying a lot. We run it in all our wildland fire trucks and love it. Littlejoe has a good point with used fire equipment. Check with government surplus and Auctions. You may find a brush truck for less than a skid pump setup.

On a side note, we have had fires here 3 days in a row. All that May rain has left plenty of stuff to burn now that the 100 degree days have arrived. A kid pulling a trailer with a blown wheel bearing started 11 fires on Monday, 1 of which almost burned the BLM firestation down. Thankfully us volunteers were around and saved it while the BLM crew was off dong something else. Lightning started 3 fires last night and also hit my brothers home. Blew a mirror off the wall in the master bath and burned up some outlets and tripped some breakers. Thankfully, no fire at his home though. Spent 3 hours putting out burning sagebrush and grass. Its going to be one of those summers I reckon.
 
leanin' H said:
Whatever set up you decide to go with I would suggest you use foam. The right set up that injects foam can really stretch your water supply out when you aren't carrying a lot. We run it in all our wildland fire trucks and love it. Littlejoe has a good point with used fire equipment. Check with government surplus and Auctions. You may find a brush truck for less than a skid pump setup.

On a side note, we have had fires here 3 days in a row. All that May rain has left plenty of stuff to burn now that the 100 degree days have arrived. A kid pulling a trailer with a blown wheel bearing started 11 fires on Monday, 1 of which almost burned the BLM firestation down. Thankfully us volunteers were around and saved it while the BLM crew was off dong something else. Lightning started 3 fires last night and also hit my brothers home. Blew a mirror off the wall in the master bath and burned up some outlets and tripped some breakers. Thankfully, no fire at his home though. Spent 3 hours putting out burning sagebrush and grass. Its going to be one of those summers I reckon.
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Wow! Sorry to hear about your fires. We have had haze here for the past two days. I guess it is coming from fires in Canada and Washington State. We got a thunderstorm and fast downpour last night. South of us got more hail. It's been quite a year so far with some crops totally hailed out. We don't have much hay, too cold and dry for too long. We have good grass cover that will eventually dry up and fuel fires here. Thank God for good volunteer fire departments!

Stay safe!
 
I got a plastic 250 gallon tank. Mounted it on a skid that slids over my gooseneck ball and fastens to it. Quick to set in and can't move much.
I wouldn't want a much bigger tank than that on a single rear wheel pickup in our hills.

Can't rember where i got it, possibly harbor freight, but it is a two stage centrifugal pump. Name on the pump is (Davey) It was advertised as a fire fighting pump to pump 80 psi, but hardly does that, but will hold close to that with two nozzles. Have thought about replacing that engine with a bigger one, if it wasn't pulling down, it would hold more pressure. Not real picky about a little not so clean water, so can fill out of stock tanks. Have a suction hose with me to do that. 80 psi isn't quite enough, but lots better than a trash pump, and in a fire with lots of grass burning, it does better than the high pressure low gpm units.
In lots of trash it does about as well as the guys fooling with less pressure and a 2 inch hose, and the water last longer.


Found a real & 300 ft hose & nozzel off of a fire truck.
Second nozzle is ran off a 25 ft good quality 3/4" garden hose with a nozzel that i got at our farm supply store in the garden section, that looks like a fire nozzle. Cost about 10. Bucks. I use that one most as it is much lighter and easier to use than the hose that would handle 300 psi. Cheap nozzel is as good or better to use. I may add another garden hose & nozzel so i don't need to use the heavy hose unless we need to reach out away from the rig.

Always have valves so that if a hose blows, you can keep going with the other one. Had a guy get my hose with a shovel one time.

Have goggles with you.

Would hate to deal with a 2 inch hose.

Have thought about cutting a wire cattle panel in half so i could carry it with me, to drag the edges of the fire line after the fire is mostly out, to break up the burning cow pies. Seems like fires often take off again from those after all the trucks leave.

Don't know how to get a picture on here, but could email some if you want.
 
I ordered this outfit http://enduraplas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FS02601_Fire_Skid_Unit.pdf?4b7588
Should be here late next week.

Sound similar to your outfit. Might not be the best unit but it's better than nothing.

I here you about the fires starting up again. I can't believe how soon some guys take off, I like to walk the burn and make sure. It's no fun going back three days in a row to the same fire.
 
The medium pressure pumps these guys have would be great if you build your own.

block said:
We've got one of these:

http://www.wfrfire.com/trailers/bushbuggy.asp

225gal with the Scotty foam system. Pretty easy to slide on a bale deck, throw a couple straps on and you're ready. Can put out a lot if fire if you are careful, or you can run out of water in a couple minutes if it runs wide open.
Click to expand...
 
sandhiller said:
The medium pressure pumps from the company in brock's link would be really good if you build your own.
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Hayguy went over to the place that makes those unit. Fairly pricey, I probably could have built a good unit with a pump from these guys
http://waterax.com/eng/index.php
I would have to run around to find all the parts so should have started last winter instead of fire season, :?
 
Like H said, foam is a real 'water multiplier', plus lasts way longer on a wet line. It's nice to rig up so it mixes in @ the nozzle---nasty crap to run thru your apparatus, kinda slimey sticky gooey.

At coutts/sweetgrass, vol depts. cross line both ways, I gotta wonder if there ain't a way to facilitate bringing in u.s. rig. I see some farmers rigged up with totes and farm stores pumps, WAY better than a gunny sack, but no baffles and hi center of gravity can get a guy in a bind.

We underload our trucks when rigging them up, kinda have the habit of taking them any place they'll go.
 
Schaben makes skid sprayers that are reasonably priced. I probably don't have as much experience as some on here but I will tell you what it is. I took a Schaben 300 gal skid unit with a trash pump and added a high pressure unit to it. The rancher did not like the trash pump because it used too much water. The high pressure unit works great but if you are by yourself it is not as versatile, you don't have the option to lay down a lot of water. With the trash pump if you leave the return valve cracked you can get as much pressure as you need and stop spraying without dead heading the pump, you can mist a pattern at 10ft or knock a flame down at 50ft. The high pressure pump that I added doesn't have the option to put on more water if needed. This guy was always closing his return valve and dead heading it when he wasn't spraying or putting out maximum water all the time, he was using a lot of water all the time and it weakened his pump. You can control your water output with your return valve and engine throttle, the high pressure pump is what it is, not much for options. For a ranch rig I like the high volume low pressure pump better than the high pressure low volume. Maybe someone can tell you why you might want a high pressure pump.
 
The medium pressure pumps will use up your water quite fast, and you can fight a lot more fire with 100 to 150 psi than you can with 40 or 50 lbs.

Lots of places online to get the Davey twin impeller pumps on line.

One is rated 20 gpm @ 200 psi, and 60 gpm @ 40 psi.

Larger one i looked at was rated 100 gpm @ 75 psi, and 20 gpm @ 160 psi.

Either one will use up a pickup load of water in short order if you open your valve wide open.

They cost more than a trash pump, but you can fight a lot more fire with that much pressure, and they will fill your pickup sized tank fairly quickly without packing around a second pump.
 

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