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Fire Apparatus Wheel Chocks. What's your SOG?
Most engines come equipped with a wheel chock mount.
Osha Requirements
OSHA Requirement 1910.178(k)(1) states, "The brakes of highway trucks shall be set and wheel chocks placed under the rear wheels to prevent the trucks from rolling while they are boarded with powered industrial trucks.
NFPA 1901
Two wheel chocks, mounted in readily accessible locations, each designed to hold the fully loaded apparatus on a 10 percent grade with the transmission in neutral and the parking brake released.
Fire Apparatus Chocks - Questions:
1. Do you use them regardless of whether you are on a grade?
2. What do you do to remind you that you "chocked" the tires?
3. Do you tether your chock to the engine to prevent loss?
4. Any insight about how to correctly use a wheel chock?
5. NFPA 1901 recommends using (2) wheel chocks, do you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Yes, the front wheels remain on the ground.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Owens on
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We are supposed to put them down, but I typically only do when I am pumping.
This may sound kinda of like a smart ass comment but here is a question. If you put them down every time your out of the station then why not in the station? I mean the likely hood of air brakes failing is just as good inside the house as it is outside right? Yet I never see the chocks down in the fire house?
Just seems silly to me...if the rig is running I think thats a different issue becuase the mostor is engaged but if its off and your still using chocks out of the firehouse then why not in the bay?
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Two reasons - the bay floor is flat and the rig isn't running so there is no chance of it moving on its own under power.
In the street, the rig can be parked on a gradient and is usually running, especially if pumping.
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But the bay floor isnt flat....it is sloped to run into the floor drain, so again its no different than being off on the street vs being off in the bay yet you never see them in the bay...like I said I get when they are running but when they are off I do not see the point.
I know your going to find issue with it, you find issue with the things everyone says on this site...this is my surprised face :\
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Reynolds on
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1. Do you use them regardless of whether you are on a grade?
YES
2. What do you do to remind you that you "chocked" the tires?
Place a cone at the bumper AND conduct a thorough walk-a-round every time.
3. Do you tether your chock to the engine to prevent loss?
No, someone would drag it down the road anyway.
4. Any insight about how to correctly use a wheel chock?
Start by using them every time you park your truck and you're not in quarters. Also, pay attention to which tires you "chock", especially when using an aerial device.
5. NFPA 1901 recommends using (2) wheel chocks, do you?
2 Chocks every time, one in front and one in back, then cone on the corner. We have a few apparatus that are only equipped with one chock, in which case, we chock the downhill side. If the grade is level, we chock in front of the rear tire to prevent the vehicle from driving off when in pumping gear (yes it's happened). Even though it is rare, it can happen if you experience a mechanical failure.
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You take issue with something I said and then end that post with complaining about how I (supposedly) find issue with "the things everyone says on this site"?
This is my "I see the irony in that statement" face. :CI
Shocking that firefighters don't universally share the same background or point of view, I know.
Very few bay floors are "just like the street" despite a minimal slope for the drains. A lot of those drains are centered under the apparatus with the floor sloping from the outside edges of the bay to the center, or are trench drains running under the long axis of the rig when it's parked.
Another consideration is that if the rig has that 1-in-a-million accident in the bay, the damage will likely be limited to the bay and the station, but if it happens in the street, the damage will probably include other property and a much higher chance of injuring a civilian.
Wheel chocks are an insurance policy. There's no point in using them - until you don't have them and have that 1:1,000,000,000 accident.
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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Our SOP is that the Driver/Operator will use at least one chock on the tires immmediately when exiting the apparatus regardless of grade and except when in quarters.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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"We are supposed to put them down, but I typically only do when I am pumping."
You've lost credibility when you admitted that you don't even bother to follow your own department's SOP's.
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Permalink Reply by Tyler Lyons on
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We always chock when away from the station. Our engines use rubber chocks with kleets on the bottom of them and they are tied together with rope, works pretty well, our trucks use the huge metal ones. I hated using chocks, but when you have some people who can't figure out how to put the rig in neutral and parking brake... well there are SOP's with names on them. I suppose that anything that improves safety is worth it.
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It has nothing to do with having the same back grounds, it has everything to do with bringing something productive to the table...I read alot of these forums, and in just about everyone of them you are telling someone they are wrong and you are right...
Its cool, must be tought being smarter than everyone.
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Its just like the mask issue, because you did not do it, or couldnt do it makes it wrong.
Just like Georges St Peirre says when people critique his fighting style "Do not get mad at me for doing something you cant"
Just because you cant or dont do something does not mean its wrong....open up that mind a little bit its a great big beautiful world out here!
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