What tpe of hoe lays do departments like on thier preconnects (mattydales, crosslays)? even though I am chief, The members dont really have a preference, I have asked all the members and they say that they will use whats on the truck. Looking for suggestions and ideas, pictures would be helpful too
Used to use mattydales, love the triple layer loads. They take a little to get used to, but pack and play out better. Also, smaller and shorted people have trouble with mattydales.
Permalink Reply by FETC on October 22, 2008 at 9:29am
Chief,
Seeing you are not the one to actually pull the lines, your focus should be on pre-planning the appropriate hose loads for the given targets. If you are a bedroom community you will may require shorter loads, if your heavy with commercial and industrial then you will need some longer - bigger lines as well.
Then as some have said, you need to look at your members. Short people or people who have less upper body strength,(PC) are unlikely to pull an efficient 200' minuteman load because of the weight needed to be carried on one's shoulder and also walking upstairs with it...
My department has multiple hose load set-ups, from flat 100' trash lines, 150' triple-loads and 200' minuteman loads all on 1 -3/4" attack line and 200' of 2 - 1/2' blitz triple loaded. We also carry two high rise packs with the Bundle Load. All trucks are set up the same for continuity!
When I teach outside fire departments with my business, I usually let them pull their 200' flat load with four guys and time the stretch to flowing water without kinks. Then repack the hose in the triple load configuration and have just ONE person pull the same 200' line and show them how mush FASTER and more efficient (ONE GUY) can be.
But thats if your members like the flat load and do not want to carry or need to carry the pre-connect on their shoulder.
Disadvantange of the triple load: It takes more time to load the hose after a call, but I usually tell them that if you are complaining about the time it takes to re-pack a truck, you have lost focus on loading the most efficient load when we are going to battle the devil. That would be like the miltary loading their guns only after they were engaged with an enemy?
AS FOR THE TRIPLE LOAD - HERE IS HOW TO SET IT UP. Let's connect 150' for an example (it does work on 100', 150' , and 200" loads too)
CONNECT ALL THE HOSE TOGETHER AND ATTACH THE NOZZLE.
Connect the hose to the truck stretch out the first 50' and make a fold 2' after the first 50' coupling and lay the hose FLAT back on top of the hose coming from the truck. (STACK IT) Do this all the way back to the truck and make your second fold near the truck and lay the 3rd piece of hose on top of the first two. It should look like single stack pancakes with 3 pieces of hose. Now when you get back to the end of the hose with the nozzle, take the first fold (on the bottom) and slip the hose through the bale of the nozzle and leave the fold equal to the nozzle tip. (no extra loop)
You might have to adjust the fold closer to the truck to make the three pieces of hose lay flat with no kinks. When you have it nice and flat, have the group loading the truck pick up some hose about 5' apart from each other and you will load the stacked hose in a FLAT LOAD CONFIGURATION into the hose bed. (You will be loading three pieces at once, back and forth flat) Loads really fast as it is only a 50' load. Then when you get to the end, it will have the nozzle and the fold through the bale on the top. The loop in the bale will have become a little longer, (that is OK) ideally you want a small 6-8" loop to pull the hose down from the bed.
NOTE: If you start with a 6 or 8" loop BEFORE you start loading the hose, during loading the hose and making the folds, it will make the loop through the bale become 2-3 feet - which is too much and will delay the stretch.
To pull the line: The firefighter will pull the nozzle with the fold through the bale, (just like a flat load but really pulling three pieces at once and walking 52' from the truck and until all 150' is out of the bed. The firefighter will then slip the fold out of the bale and lay it flat on the ground. It should look like a (Z) The firefighter is ready to call for water, and when charged it will flow out in the z configuration without kinks.
100' load the firefighter will only stretch 33.5'
150' load the firefighter will only stretch 52'
200' load the firefighter will only stretch 66.6'
The triple load is the best load for crosslays. The department I worked on in KY uses these. I have been trying to get my current department to switch to this load for years. Their attitude is "it's always been done this way".
After a recent house fire, we were loading a 250' 1 3/4" crosslay back at the station. The battalion chief who was helping us commented on how we needed to find a better way to load and deploy this long line. I told him about the triple load, and he seems receptive. I also told him we should be doing this with all of our crosslays, which include 150' and 200' 1 3/4".
Our 150' preconnect is a flat load, the 200' is a double load, and the 250' is flat loaded for the first 50', then double loaded for the remaining 200'. WTF?