Hose Loads

[skeeter6585]

Our department currently uses the triple layer hose load for all our crosslays. I was wondering what type of hose loads other department are utilzing for there pre-connect crosslays and how efficant they work for that deparment. Thanks for the input.

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[krg1401]

Skeeter - I think that would best be determined by your response area. We use the triple fold on two preconnects on our pumpers, but that's because thats what works best for us. Very easy to pull, especially in tight areas. Most of our residential areas have the homes no more than 25-30 feet from the roadway. If we run into something besides that, we have a blitz or minute-man load from the rear. The triple fold does get the job done for us.

[jlcooke3]

All of our hose loads on all of our machines are flat loaded with the only diffrence is in the way people deploy the load.

[Fire304]

200' Flat loads with a loop at 50 and 150 feet. Would love to do something else but we use plastic Neider hose which does not like triple loading.

[herbroberson]

We use something similiar to fire304's load, and call it a 2/5 flat load. We make large "dogears" in the second layer of the load and again in the fifth layer of the load. All engines carry 200' preconnects and on our engines that have mattydales or front bumper preconnects, the loops are made on both sides so it can be pulled form either side. The deployment is simple, the first firefighter off grabs the top loops and pulls them onto his/her shoulder and the second gets the second loops and does the same. Each friefighter usually has roughly 1/3 of the load to layout that way. Also if a longer lay is needed the engineer can quickly locate the coupling between the bed secrion and the second section of hose, break it and either insert the needed extra hose lengths or strech a length of 2 1/2" (or 3") to a gated wye and reconect the attack lines. Works well for us. .



If you are going to do battle with the devil, you need to have a bigger and better pitchfork !!

[specialops6]

We also now use the triple layer load for all our preconnects and have been for the past few years. Prior to that we used the flat load. As far as comparing the two, the triple layer load is the better of the two for us. As mentioned earlier if the line has to be pulled in a tight area a flat load tends to end up in pile of tangled hose that needs to be flaked causing a time delay. Also, due to our staffing, frequently the preconnect must be pulled by 1 FF and the triple layer load allows this to be down with minimal flaking, if any, prior to being charged. I've also noticed that we can work in a much smaller area, particularly on highway operations(vehicle fires/extrications) with the triple layer load due to not having to stretch the line the distance a flat load would require prior to charging the line. Hope this helps!

[STATION2]

In my career department we switched to the triple-layer load, california skid load, whatever you call it about 12 or so years ago. We found them to work best in territories where the stretches are mostly in a straight line away from the rig. Now with 87 Engine Co.'s, the territories vary greatly and we found the load not to be too hot for our area with a great number of garden apartment buildings with short stretches from the pumper before a flight of stairs or a series of turns, or both.

We switched to a standard flat load on our pumper which is loaded "2 shorts and a long", or 2 folds in the tray even with the outside and then a long for pulling the line. Another load that works for us on a 200' pre-connect is 1 fold (Loop) at the end of the 1st 50' section and another fold (Loop) at the beginning of the last 50' section. Either work great if you have short stretches, have flights of stairs close to the rig, or have frequent turns, or a combination of each.

Just a thought.

[ziggy171]

Does anyone have a website or link telling how to do the triple load? I have seen this and have heard nothing but good things about it but our fire dept don't utilize it.. I think it would benefit us well. Thanks for the help.

[Fire304]

Detailed instructions can be found in your IFSTA firefighter manual, you should have a few of these kicking around the FD. If you don't, get a couple and put one in each of the bathrooms after removing all the old copies of Firehouse magazine.

[OSD122]

Look into the Minuteman Load. There should be a few places online with information on this style hose load for preconnected lines.

[irons308]

I am looking for information on loads using both 2 1/2in hose and 1 3/4 hose for attack lines i.e. garden style/ "Detroit Loads", ect... we have approx. 2 feet in the rear bed to work with. does anyone have any suggestions, experiences. thanks

[fftrainer]

I am looking for information on loads using both 2 1/2in hose and 1 3/4 hose for attack lines i.e. garden style/ "Detroit Loads", ect... we have approx. 2 feet in the rear bed to work with. does anyone have any suggestions, experiences. thanks

I'll second that. We have a hose load in there right now that was a compromise with a past chief and I am not entirely impressed with it. I am looking to setup that 2 and 1/2 with a gated wye arrangement with a hose bed area that will accomodate 2 stacks of 2 and 1/2. Problem is I have no real area to store a hose pack to attach to the end so it is currently setup with the 1 & 3/4 on top preconnected off the rear and when you run out of that there is 2 & 1/2 with a gated wye. Disconnect the 1 & 3/4, connect it to one side of the wye and connect the 2 & 1/2 to the rear discharge and continue your stretch...... Please tell me there is a better way!

[NYSSFI]

We use a triple load. Works great with limited manpower and tight areas

[RFDACM]

We switched from the triple layer for the reasons listed above: not good when you need to make a quick turn coming away from the truck. We now do a modifies load with two layers of flat then changes to a triple layer with a large loop in it and finished with a 50' reverse horseshoe. You pull the horseshoe in one hand and the triple layer loop with the other. When the triple layer loop get taut you drop it (about 30' from the truck) and contiue to the objective with the horseshoe. This gives us a line that pulls off the truck quickly, doesn't turn into spaghetti an the ground and we end up where we're going with 50' of hose and the nozzle.

[MrYuk]

Does anyone have a website or link telling how to do the triple load? I have seen this and have heard nothing but good things about it but our fire dept don't utilize it.. I think it would benefit us well. Thanks for the help.

Not bad when you stretch the line but horrible to repack

[Catch22]

My FT department utilizes the triple layer exclusively on all attack lines. We found that if the FF pulling the line will go away from the truck at an angle until all the line is out of the bed, then to the door, it lays out smoother and has less kinks.

We've actually adopted the lay on my vollie FD on our speedlays. The only one that isn't is the top one, which is open. We flat lay it so we can pull less than 200' when needed.

It seems to me that the triple layer works better when packing hose into confined areas, like speedlay bins. At the same time, it works well on crosslays because you go 1/3 of the distance to get all the hose on the ground. If you walk it out at an angle like I mentioned, it lays out nice, no (or considerably less) kinks when charged.

Ziggy-- Here's a triple-layer load link I found that does a decent job of explaining it. I've seen better our there, but can't find one right off hand.

[mayday12]

we use triple lays for our 2 speedlays on our engines,200 ft one that pulls to right and one to left, all of we up and commers want to look into and do some testing on putting the flat load into effect. we have a funky bumper load, its 100 ft, you doughnut the first 50 then connect the last section and flat lay it infront with big ears on each side to lift the entire section out at one time, works good, you throw out the flat lay one way then roll out the doughnut the other lays out great. off the rear we have 300 ft of 3in for reverse and 300 for forward lay, our highrise bundle sits on that, simple y-z, then we have 300 ft of 2.5 for attack, and ofcourse our 1000 of 5in. smoothbores all around!

[aland438]

I have some experience with the triple fold and i love it, currently my FT department uses the minuteman and my vol dept uses the old standard flat. Both suck in my opinion. You either end up with a tangled pile of hose at the nozzle or at the panel. I would take the triple fold over those two any day. Now to convince everyone that the triple fold is the way to go is my next challenge.

[kkasten]

We use the triple but with 150' preconnects. Are thinking of switching to 200' lays but really have not had a problem with our 150' ones.

[chopper12]

We're using the Minuteman load with 200' preconnects of 1 3/4" on all our engines. I'm a big fan of the Minuteman - easy for one FF to unload, flake off even at an angle to the truck. It's also pretty easy to load back up with two FFs.