Roll up doors

[ChiefKN]

Sounds like a lot of you have departments full of idiots. Come on, its a door. If you can't figure out how to close it you have a problem. If you can't close all the doors on the truck before leaving you are an idiot. These are the worst reasons to advocate roll ups. Does switching to roll up doors turn your firefighters from morons to geniuses that remember to close compartments?

Roll up doors in NY seem to only last in slow places that are religious about cleaning them. Anyone that runs a lot that isn't able to wash it out after each run in the dirt/salt has problems with the roll ups sticking.

So accidents just never happen? Someone has to be an idiot for a civilian taking off a compartment door or having a latch fail and that door popping open?

I know of a lot of busy companies that manage to keep their roll up doors working just fine.

Cute post, though.

[LVFD301]

Sounds like a lot of you have departments full of idiots. Come on, its a door. If you can't figure out how to close it you have a problem. If you can't close all the doors on the truck before leaving you are an idiot. These are the worst reasons to advocate roll ups. Does switching to roll up doors turn your firefighters from morons to geniuses that remember to close compartments?
.

I am not going to go that far, I just have never had it happen to me or my people. Now, pulling the bus out while the door was not open all the way? Been there, but was not driving!

A hosecover took care of that nicely...

[SPFDRum]

Anyone that runs a lot that isn't able to wash it out after each run in the dirt/salt has problems with the roll ups sticking.

Well we may be a department of 400+ idiots doing 50,00 or so runs a year, but we do have professional drivers. A position obtained by testing and promoting, and they never seem to have a problem with the basic requirements to keep the roll up doors working. Even here here in Minnesota with all the snow, slush, salt, sand, and dirt you could hope for.

[BoxAlarm187]

Sounds like a lot of you have departments full of idiots. Come on, its a door. If you can't figure out how to close it you have a problem. If you can't close all the doors on the truck before leaving you are an idiot. These are the worst reasons to advocate roll ups. Does switching to roll up doors turn your firefighters from morons to geniuses that remember to close compartments?

Yeah, I've advocating for years that we only promote the geniuses to engineer, but who's gonna listen to me?

Ever heard of "shyt happens?"

[BULL321]

Roll up doors in NY seem to only last in slow places that are religious about cleaning them. Anyone that runs a lot that isn't able to wash it out after each run in the dirt/salt has problems with the roll ups sticking.

What don't you have Beer/Pepsi/battery trucks in your area? I bet that you do, I promise you that those roll up doors are open and closed a lot more than any fire truck in the world. I know the slats are larger but they are still roll up doors that are exposed to dirt and salt.

[nameless]

So accidents just never happen? Someone has to be an idiot for a civilian taking off a compartment door or having a latch fail and that door popping open?

The type of door isn't going to fix accidents. If guys leave hinged doors open, they'll leave roll ups open. If they can't get hinged doors to latch, they won't get the roll ups to close securely you'll hit a bump and it'll fly open. So you won't whack the side of the fire house when you leave, and you'll keep going. Hopefully you don't throw out something heavy and whack a pedestrian. But please tell me, how does changing the door style prevent those accidents? If its so much of a problem you are advocating switching door styles because of it, your people might be a little slow.

cute post though.

All I can say is from my experience the doors bind up. Yea we have pepsi trucks here, but I bet pepsi doesn't keep their trucks in heated garages. That speeds up corrosion.

[rm1524]

We have roll up doors on a 98 and have not any problems with them binding up.

[ChiefKN]

The type of door isn't going to fix accidents. If guys leave hinged doors open, they'll leave roll ups open. If they can't get hinged doors to latch, they won't get the roll ups to close securely you'll hit a bump and it'll fly open. So you won't whack the side of the fire house when you leave, and you'll keep going. Hopefully you don't throw out something heavy and whack a pedestrian. But please tell me, how does changing the door style prevent those accidents? If its so much of a problem you are advocating switching door styles because of it, your people might be a little slow.

Funny how those wiley ol' roll up doors either stick or they fly up when you hit a bump (I've never seen it happen). Which is it?

My experience with the apparatus is that the roll ups require very little maintenance, I've never had a latch problem, never had a problem with clearance when opening, it was much easier moving a fan or portable pump out of the compartment... Can't say the same for hinged.

Its simple a roll up door won't get ripped off or damage a door frame if left open or if the latch breaks.

All I can say is from my experience the doors bind up. Yea we have pepsi trucks here, but I bet pepsi doesn't keep their trucks in heated garages. That speeds up corrosion.

I would say you should probably buy better quality roll up doors.

Other then those roll up doors sticking (a relatively easy thing to prevent), what's the advantage to hinged doors?

[HFDINSTR]

Dry silicone spray and atleast monthly washing and every run wash works good for us.

[FIREMECH1]

I forgot about one more bitch about hinged doors. The struts not holding them open, then requiring 2 people to get something out of the compartment. Usually noticed after you open it, and it comes back down and hits you.

You will NEVER have that problem with a roll up door.

Our change to roll up doors wasn't necessitated by damaged hinged doors. Our reasons are for the weight savings, ease of removing/replacing equipment, and maintenance costs (struts and latches not needed in inventory, labor cost gone repairing them). I've never seen a roll up door catch fail, to where it opened. And if it did, a light inside the cab will tell you if it did. Can't say that about hinged doors (unless the newer ones have it, ours don't).

The people that are slow, are the ones still spec'ing hinged doors. Get with the program.

FM1

[FIREMECH1]

All I can say is from my experience the doors bind up. Yea we have pepsi trucks here, but I bet pepsi doesn't keep their trucks in heated garages. That speeds up corrosion.

Actually they and Coke do. They are also in the elements more and longer than your rig is, daily. They don't have corrosion issues. In fact, there is nothing to corrode. Look at how they are made.

FM1

[ADC120]

I can say while we wash our trucks, I can't think of a time we ever lubed the tracks on our R.O.M. doors. They have held up just fine for us, and I can say the Compartment Ajar light is very sensitive. All in all, roll ups have been a good choice for us.

[BULL321]

The only problem that we have ever had with our roll up doors was on the rescue pumper, when the cribbing had shifted in the compartment and we had a heck of a time opening the damn door. It was not the door's fault, but poor planing on our part. This problem has been address since then and the doors work like a champ. I do however missed the large hinged doors sometimes when it rains.

[nameless]

maybe my department is forward thinking, but an indicator light for compartment doors is pretty standard. We have rigs 20+ years old with them, so that surely isn't unique to a roll up.


It could be both. Flys open its first few months in service, jams up after that. Even jumping open a little is enough for smaller tools to fly out. Like I said before, if you have to worry about doors being left open so often that you use it in your decision between hinged and roll up doors, perhaps its not better quality equipment but better firemen that is needed.

I like hinged doors because even on 20+ year old pieces the doors still work however, all of the "older" pieces with roll up doors are a royal pain to use.

[FIREMECH1]

I like hinged doors because even on 20+ year old pieces the doors still work however, all of the "older" pieces with roll up doors are a royal pain to use.

Out of curiosity, what brand are these roll up doors you have??? Doesn't sound like they are ROM.

As for forward thinking using hinged doors, I don't think so. The ones I have without the cab warning light when open, are mid 90's.

And yet, I will call you out on this. What, if anything, have a I posted wrong concerning the negative aspect of hinged doors???

FM1

[ChiefKN]

Out of curiosity, what brand are these roll up doors you have??? Doesn't sound like they are ROM.

Maybe that is the problem... we use ROM as well.

[Rescue101]

(1) Recall fondly how you never had this problem with traditional hinged doors.
(2) Remove troublesome roll up doors.
(3) Replace with traditional hinged doors.
(4) Rejoice in the restoration of storage space wasted for roll-up doors.
(5) Remember this when you spec your next apparatus.

See doors peeled off by passing traffic,see doors lying beside apparatus bay doors. NO THANKS,I'll keep my roll ups. T.C.

[DeputyMarshal]

1. Less chance of taking out a support column between the bay doors when the door is either left open or comes open as the rig leaves the bay.

Sounds like a driver training issue.

2. Lessens the profile of the rig when operating alongside the roadway with an open door.

If the roadway is so narrow that an open compartment door is an obstruction, it should be closed down during operations anyway.

3. Doesn't create an obstruction for hydraulic hoses or electrical cables when coming off a roller fairlead. They'll just come right out of the compartment without having to also go around a door.

Hinge the door upwards, if that's an issue for you.

4. How much stuff are you really storing at the top front of the compartment that at roll-up is keeping you from putting there? Seriously?

In the past we've used a device called a "shelf" to make all levels of a compartment usable -- even the upper parts.

We're running over 50 rigs with roll-up doors and have used them since 1997. No chance of us going back to hinged doors.

Inertia is like that. Change sometimes comes along for its own sake and we wind up stuck with it.

[Rescue101]

Sounds like a driver training issue.



If the roadway is so narrow that an open compartment door is an obstruction, it should be closed down during operations anyway.



Hinge the door upwards, if that's an issue for you.



In the past we've used a device called a "shelf" to make all levels of a compartment usable -- even the upper parts.



Inertia is like that. Change sometimes comes along for its own sake and we wind up stuck with it.

You're from CT. It's HIGHLY unlikely you'd understand. Rollups work GREAT around here.Way less problems than pan doors. NOBODY around here uses pan doors. T.C.

[DeputyMarshal]

You're from CT. It's HIGHLY unlikely you'd understand.

Unlikely to understand what? Wasted compartment space is the same wherever you go.