Do you carry foldatanks on your pumpers? If so, how many gallons will they hold?
Do you use them simply for water shuttles in unhydranted areas or do you use them during an urban structural fire to augment your attack?

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We have 3 tanks on our 2 tankers, 2 of them are 3000 gallons, 1 is 2000 gallons. We have areas with long driveways and some of the district is NOT hydranted, so we use them in this situation
we have a 1000 gallon on our tanker that is used just about every fire call, we live in a rural area we have maybe 3 hydrants in the township and othe rthen that we have about 6 dry hydrants we get water from, or simply just pump it out of the creek.
We have a 2000 gallon folda tank on the side of our tanker for the rural areas.
We carry two folding tanks, one on each tanker. We call them “portable ponds” and they have a capacity of 2100 gallons - on a level surface, that is. Since 98% or more of our district is without hydrants, tanker operations are our mainstay. I have been to a few large fires in other districts where hydrant operations were supplemented by a tanker shuttle. In some cases there was excess draw on the municipal system, while in others the mains supplying the hydrants were either too small to begin with or occluded with rust and debris.

For those not familiar with folding tank use, here’s an example of how they are used.

The first pumper in generally takes position as close as is safe to the structure. The second pumper worries about establishing a water supply, laying hose and choosing a spot allowing good tanker access. The pump operator prepares to draft out of a portable pond, getting the hard suction out and hooked up to the steamer inlet. A low-flow strainer is used on the other end of the suction hose. The first arriving tanker drops its portable pond, positions it, fills it, then scoots to a fill site. The PO drops in the strainer, primes the pump and starts delivering water.

The second tanker drops a second pond right next to the first, dumps into it, then takes off for the fill site. Meanwhile we get out our jet siphon, which mounts on one end of a length of hard suction. This is positioned so that the jet end is in the second or “nurse” pond, and the other end of the hose is positioned over the first pond. The jet siphon is powered by a 1 ½” or 1 ¾” line from the pump panel and is used to move water from the nurse pond to the draft pond.

In full operation we’ll have tankers dumping into both ponds at once. I don’t have a good number as to how much water the jet siphon moves, I’m guessing it’s probably 300 to 400 gpm.
We have one on our tender. We use it at all structure fires, because we have to shuttle all of our water here. The tank holds our tender which is 1800 gallons. This seems to be the best way to do it here. Pumping is slower but we still have departments do it.
We have 2 "port-a-tanks" on our tanker. Forgive me, I don't remember off hand how much water they will hold. We have no hydrants in our district, and if we get a legitimate fire, we are doing a tanker shuttle to move water and supply the guys on scene. We fill at "dry hydrants" near or in ponds, and our tankers are probably the most under-appreciated and most valuable piece of equipment in our department bays. Someday I want to learn how to use a hydrant, too... grin, lol!
the amount of water the jet siphon moves is dependant on the suction hose you use and how much pressure you put on the 1.5 inch hose. a six inch pipe with gravity flow will produce aprox. 950 gpm flow. with a jet you should be able to produce that and more with a 4.5 inch hose and more with larger dia.
we run two tankers one at 2500 gal and the other at 1000 gal. both carry 2100 gal. drop tanks and a jet siphon. the only times we have used a shuttle and dump tanks are in training and inside the city when we had a major fire when we had a flood at the same time. we have had some barn fires in the county and used the dump tanks but not the tanker shuttle. sorta like hydrants and large dia hose when you hook up the irragation and 4.5 inch traveller hose and pump it into the dump tank. these pumps usally discharge 1000 gpm at 150 psi plenty of water and not hard to set up. we use to run a 6000 gal tanker with no dump tank and nurse but when you are out of water it is a long time to get more. we have put in for a new tanker at 3000 gal and a 3000 gal dump tank. need to match the dump tank to the tanker so you don't have to wait to dump it cost you in gpm delivered to the fire.

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