Riding Brush Trucks

[NCKSFIRE]

Who rides on the brush trucks at grass fires. All of the districts around us do but alot of the new apparatus you see does not have a place on their to ride. I know you are all going to say nobody is supposed to ride while the truck is moving. Out here in the open prairie the fire line can stretch pretty long. Having someone drag a line is a sure way to have them have a heart attack. How do ground sweeps work. I have seen pictures of them, but never seen one in use. Our next trucks will have remote nozzles on the front. I was wondering if a type III engine with a front mount remote controlled nozzle and ground sweeps would eliminate the need for someone to ride on the exterior of the truck. Thanks for your thoughts.

[lmrchief2]

We used to with our old brush truck:cool: . The truck we got to replace it is a f-350 crew cab what we do now is pull the booster hose through the back window and spray out the front window and run the fireline that way. We did have a big one right after we got it that one of the guys set up on top of the slide in unit-old habits are hard to break:D .

It works pretty well from the front seat most of the time. We also set up a couple of 25ft garden hoses that we can use to walk along the side of the truck to clean up any hot spots we may have.

A Dept. we worked with yesterday on a field fire had guys riding on the back. They have a setup with belts to keep you on the truck.

[Rayr49]

We run ground sweeps controlled from the cab and also use class A foam. One pass normally knocks down the fire. The "walk" part comes in during mop up which can normally be handled with 25" or less of booster line. The hard part is putting out all the cowp[es and yucca plants.

Stay Safe
IACOJ

[ramseycl]

I have seen several type III and IIII S&S engines that have hand rails and seats over the tank. We too have pulled the hose in through the window and worked that way.

[lmrchief2]

49 are cowpies and yucca plants the same-if cowpies are burning that sure would be yucca:D :D :D

[Rayr49]

Imrchief2,

Not quite the same. Cowpies get soft when water is applied, are yucca when you step in them, and cause your dog to want to roll on you boots when you get home.

Yucca plants have to be dug out, have multi sharp pointy leafs, and can cause loss of blood from cuts around the legs. Your dog is not normally as interested in the cuts as the cowpie residue.:D

Stay Safe
IACOJ

[hwoods]

And I thought I have problems here...................... :eek:

[247365]

Our grass/brush rig (F-350)is set up so if you are riding you are standing directly behind the cab on a platform that is the same height as the bottom of the frame, behind this platform is a utility body. When standing on the platform the rider can talk to the driver through a sliding window, you can stand on either side of the truck, and there is also a "mansaver" bar on each side that lifts up to allow you to step in but then comes back down to help prevent a FF from falling out.

[chief4102]

We have ground sweeps on our grass rig. They work very well on running grass fires. You can cover a lot of ground in a hurry. It is set up with 2 nozzles and lays a water strip approximately eight (8) feet wide. This will really stop a moving grass fire in it's tracks. Garden hoses and/or the booster line on the unit are used to get the hot spots on a second pass as needed.

[nicyjones]

We have two f-350 Brush trucks that have a bed that was built by West Tex Welding who is also building our new tanker. They have a remote nozzle mounted on the front, and The bed is designed with a crosswalk area in the front that has a gate that closes itself when you step into the cross walk, allowing you to spray from the cross walk, there is hose mounted in this area allowing two fire fighters to be able to spray out of either side at one time, and of course there is hose mounted on the top of the pump.

[SamsonFCDES]

We have alwaysed rode on our brush trucks. We have a lot of rolling prarie, lots of sagebrush, and spotty Pine patches here in Eastern Montana.

We have been until this year running a pretty standard design. F350 with 300-400 galon tank, standard wildland pump, booster reel and monkey bars around the flatbed so that you can stand and fight while ridding.

We want to get away form this system for safety. MT DNRC gives us hell for doing it, and realy we have had enough close calls, sprained ankles form jumping off the beds, etc... to get us started down a new path.

We just had our Type III international 4x4 refited with an updated CAFS system and a Fire Fox Monitor on the front bumper. It is controled from the cab by a joystick. We got it back on friday and we havent had a fire yet, but, we have already put 10 hours on the pump praciticing over th weekend! With this set up ground sweeps and riding the truck have become toaly unessesary, and obsolete.

A remote control monitor is the way to go. The pro built ones are comeing down in price, and we are as we speak building a Roscommon Equipment Center Project 58 remote nozzle to try out.

Go here: http://www.roscommonequipmentcenter.c om

Look for Project 58

Here is the monitor we just recieved, we are to going to be buying some more off a small grant we just recieved.

http://www.akronbrass.com/pages/products/firefox.html

This thing is awsome. We are using it with CAFS and the variable GPM nozzle. It can be adjusted from 30 gpm to 125 gpm. We also have a 1.5 smooth bore CAFS cone we put ont it. Unreal the foam that comes out of that thing, but we drained the 840 gallon poly tank in about 3 minutes! :D The foam was 2 feet deep though!

[Jay911]

The newer trucks around here have bumper nozzles as well as a plumbed 1 3/4" line coming out of the body right behind the passenger door, to a short piece of hose and a pistol-grip nozzle that the officer can use from his seat inside the truck.

[ramseycl]

SamsonFCDES: What year is your International? Is it the 7500?
We got a 2003 last year and had a fair number of problems with it. Mostly electrical, some mechanical. We had to get the started replaced and a piston in the transfer case. It spent about a month to a month and a half out of service last year. We also had a problem with the Robwen foam system. There was no way to flush the foam lines, and they got plugged.

[SamsonFCDES]

Originally posted by ramseycl
SamsonFCDES: What year is your International? Is it the 7500?
We got a 2003 last year and had a fair number of problems with it. Mostly electrical, some mechanical. We had to get the started replaced and a piston in the transfer case. It spent about a month to a month and a half out of service last year. We also had a problem with the Robwen foam system. There was no way to flush the foam lines, and they got plugged.

It is a 1985 4x4, not sure what model number. Detriot 466, Alison auto, regular cab. It was a BLM Heavy with CAFS, we got it surplus for 14,000$ in about 96, it had about 35,000 miles. It worked great with the original batch mix CAFS system, it also had the ability to put out retardent, the red aircraft retardent. Never any problems at all with the Chassis itself.

The CAFS met its demise in 2002, the steel tank had been abused by having foam solution in it for 17 years, that batch mix again. We had a shop sandblast it and coat it. It came back from the shop, worked a fire or two, and was completely fried. They had not cleanout out all of the sand from the sandblast job and the liner was comeing off. It toaly screwed up the CAFS. We could still pump water and used it this way for a while.

We had it refurbished the last few months. It just got back. We now have a 840 gallon poly tank, a Odin foam Colt II, and a Fire Fox monitor.

It is sure to be a beast on the fireline.

[firedawg803]

Our brush rig is also an F-350, and we do ride on the back, due to the fact that is nearly impossible to keep up with a running fire, when you have to run through mesquites and yuccas. You fellow flatlanders know where I am coming from. We have bumper sweeps, but rarely use them, except for a fire off the side of the road, and occasionally for mop-up.
A neighbor department has remote monitors mounted on their brush guards, with joystick mounted inside, under radio. We used them on a fire recently at a dairy. They work really well for what they are designed to do. They would not fit our needs, due to the fact that a steady water supply is not readily available.