Looking for new set of jaws

[billfraz]

We are looking to replace our ancient set of holmatro extrication equipment and none of us have any experience with any of the relatively new gear. Any input or reviews of newly purchased jaws cutters or rams would be greatly appreciated.

[rmoore]

Bill:

You're not going to get solid information with a posting like this. You're not giving the rest of us any parameters to start with.

For you guys searching to upgrade, there are no shortcuts. What you'll get here is follow-up posts that only reflect our opinions and thoughts. You have to invest the time and effort to do the leg work. You're the ones who have to make the decision and then live with it.

Figure out what your needs are first. One rescue a year is not the same as several entrapments every week or month. What's the need?

Figure out what your budget is. If you have the $20,000 it will take to go all out, then you have lots of choices. If you have barely $5,000, then you don't have the choices and actually have to look at cutting corners by considering tools like combination tools instead of dedicated spreaders and cutters. What's the budget?

What about dealers, service, warranty work, etc? If you have one vendor right next door and everyone else is in another state, then that should make a difference to you and your group trying to decide.

When you come back with more criteria like I am trying to get you to think about, then the rest of us can help you better.

Ron Moore

[mhenricks]

Bill,
I agree with Ron, your not giving much to go on. You might get a copy of NFPA 1936 to get familiar with the standard. If your looking to purchase a complete set, invite several dealers to let your dept demo thier tools.

We used a rating scale of 1-5, 5 being the best. We rated on wieght, ease of operation, warranty, & etc. Get a cut test from the dealers, this will be part of a third party test. The only two companies I know of that do third paty testing is UL and TUV, you can find information on the web.

I hope this helps alittle anyway, good luck.

Mike Henricks, Capt.
Wolfforth Fire Dept.
mhenricks@mylubbock.us
806-775-2637

[BoxAlarm187]

As the others have said, your post is somewhat vague.

However, here's a thread (Extrication tools question) from earlier in the year that is along the same lines.

[RyanEMVFD]

And if you can get a hold of a couple of cars to cut up when they come out to demo that is a great benefit. That's something we did when we started looking at tools.

[Bones42]

And work with your local sales guys. We were able to work a deal out with a set that was used as a demo set for a year. Ya, not brand new. But fully serviced/guaranteed/warrantied/etc. and for a lot less than a new set.

[jeremymader]

We are looking to replace our ancient set of holmatro extrication equipment and none of us have any experience with any of the relatively new gear. Any input or reviews of newly purchased jaws cutters or rams would be greatly appreciated.

When we speced out our new Rescue, we decided to explore something else besides Hurst(we had the low pressure stuff). We had several manufacturers(Hurst-high pressure, Amkus and TNT) come out and we demo'd their tools. I took all their spec's plugged the info into a spread sheet and we compared them. The big thing we looked at was cutter strength, general weight(mainly for the spreaders) and cost.

You want cutters that can cut over 200,000lbs to beat some of the new metals out there(which all 3 did). We decided to go with TNT(Their BFC's are rated at 320,000)