Vacuum Tankers

[chief801911]

We are going to appy for a new tanker for the AFG grant this year. Has anyone had any experience with vacuum tankers. We had a demo a couple of weeks ago with FIROVAC and have WATER MASTER coming in this afternoon. From what we,ve seen so far we were quite impressed. Has anyone had any problems with them.

[ullrichk]

I can't speak about FIROVAC, but we have a 2250 Gal WaterMaster with a 500 gpm PTO pump on an International chassis which has performed well for us. Problems and complaints have been minimal. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss it further.

[DellroyVFD08]

We have a Firovac built tender on a 94 Peterbilt chassis. We have had no problems of major concern with it and it works flawlessly. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Have you guys made any decisions yet? How did the other demo go?

[engacc]

EAM makes a tanker called SIPHON. Looks similar to the Water Master but has better safety features and electronics and a real fire pump module. Call Tony Pimentel at 800-327-5431.

[Rogue427]

We have 2 of them and they work very good. 1 is 3500 Gal and the other is 3000 gals. Easy to fill and pressure dump or dump normal. Not shure manufacture. I've only been on one year now. Tim R.

[Weruj1]

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=71700&highlight=Vacuum+Tankers

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=56601&highlight=Vacuum+Tankers

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=44497&highlight=Vacuum+Tankers

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=40865&highlight=Vacuum+Tankers

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=23460&highlight=Vacuum+Tankers

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=47950&highlight=Vacuum+Tankers

[fire0099881]

Do you have any more vacuum tankers in your area? or do you alway's have a engine at the fill site? if you do, then you might as well go conventional tanker, I have seen them both work, I know that if you have a 4 or 5 inch inlet on your conventional tanker, and filling it with LDH hose, and a big engine, as everyone ought to know, don't put the biggest pump at the scene, b/c think about it let's supply a 2000 gpm pump with a 1250 gpm pump, makes no sense. you can get a lot more water to the scene quicker, doing it that way. vacuum tankers are good if you are on scene by yourself. but if you run an effecient water shuttle that can flow 2000 gpm's per minute ( yes it can be done, if you don't believe it, I dare you to come watch sometime) and you decide that you are gonna go find your own fill site, then that just screws up the whole water shuttle operation. otherwise if you are doing the watter shuttle operation and in the rotation, you would stil have to be filled by a pumper, so it all depends on how your dept. operates.

[Fyrtrks]

You can have a vacuum tanker in a regular rotation. Like stated above the engine can fill the vacuum tanker like a normal tanker or you can set up a portable pond. When the vacuum tanker gets there he loads from the protable pond left at the fill site. We all know there is down time at the fill site that could be used to fill the portable pond or you could just constantly fill it (the portable pond) and fill the others. Heck on warm days you can set up a portable pond someplace there is a hydrant and just let it flow into the portable pond and who cares if it over flows.

[ullrichk]

When the vacuum tanker gets there he loads from the protable pond left at the fill site.

This is how we operate as we have only one vacuum tanker in the area. If you gate a hydrant, one side is used for the vacuum tanker, the other to fill conventionals.