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Hosebed Design: How Low Can You Go?
How Low Can You Go?
Story & Photos by Bob Vaccaro
I’ve covered issues related to hosebeds in the past, and I’m extremely happy to see that most apparatus manufacturers are finally starting to build lower rear hosebeds into their apparatus.
In my opinion, the best hosebeds are those that allow a firefighter to walk up to the rear of an engine, grab some hose and walk away. This should be done without having to step up on the running board or, God forbid, climb up on the hosebed. I doubt I could even think about performing that task with my tired bones these days.
I’m amazed when I attend the fire service industry shows and still see what I call the “hosebeds-in-the-sky” situation. Either these departments have gigantic, 7-foot-tall firefighters or there was simply no planning related to the hosebed. The apparatus manufacturers will build whatever you want—within reason—so why put the safety of your firefighters at risk to pull and pack hose?
How can we address this moving forward? Decide how much hose you need to carry, as well as the types and sizes of hose you’ll need. The size of your water tank may also come into play in the design. For example, if you’re building a 2,500- or 3,000-gallon tanker, then you might want to carry more crosslays lower to the ground instead of having hose on top of the tanker body in the rear.
Consult the new 2009 edition of NFPA 1901. You’ll see that every type of pumping apparatus will have a certain standard that has to be followed for hose storage.
I’ve included photos of some of the best designs I’ve seen at recent fire service shows. Check them out—they may help you come up with something for your department when speccing a new vehicle.
Remember that the size of the vehicle, water tank and type of vehicle all come into play with the design. Determine what will work for your department and, also, how it will make the design of your apparatus safer for your firefighters.
Bob Vaccaro has more than 30 years of fire-service experience. He is a former chief of the Deer Park (N.Y.) Fire Department. Vaccaro has also worked for the Insurance Services Office, The New York Fire Patrol and several major commercial insurance companies as a senior loss-control consultant. Vaccaro is a life member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
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Add a Comment
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Comment by Michael Meadows on May 23, 2010 at 12:45am
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Chief France does this truck come with rapelling gear? I don't think I've ever seen a hose bed that up in the air before.
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Comment by Oldman on May 20, 2010 at 11:26am
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As one who has experienced an injury stepping on the tailboard, I agree with the general premise of this discussion. However, I too go back to the basics. Basic science that is.
A wise person once said; "For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction." Nowhere is this more true than with fire apparatus design. Those who have the luxury of having hydrants every 500' - 1000', can conceivably design a pumper with very low hose beds, understanding that the trade-off could result in very small booster tanks. This would work for them. Those of us who have little to no hydrants, cannot afford to trade tank size for hose bed height.
Using the tanker comparison in this discussion by adding more cross lays lower to the ground isn't quite the same thing and an engine. A minimum of 400' of large diameter supply, would not be possible, at least in my area where supply line is 5". Imagine trying to load or unload 5" from a cross lay. I'm sure that some departments utilize their Tankers as Engines and might deploy LDH at fires. Generally, the LDH is already on the ground by the time Tankers arrive, dropped by the engine.
Ergonomically as John said, many of the lower hose beds are deep and are a pain in the posterior to load. Many rural departments must carry more equipment on their engines again because of the inability to have enough qualified drivers to pull more specialized apparatus such as a Rescue Truck.
I believe that the apparatus industry in general, is making great strides in improving designs and function. But even with new technology and materials, we are limited by what reaction we have to trade for our action.
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Comment by John S-B on May 20, 2010 at 7:04am
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On the flip side, some of those low hose beds are a pain in the butt to reload because they're too deep! Look at how deep that E-One hose bed is on the left side, now imagine trying to get new hose to fold correctly at the beginning of the load. My full time dept. has low hose beds, but that because we don't carry tons of equipment on the engines, just the basics and EMS cases which are in the cab. On the rural dept. that I'm on, we have high hose beds because the engines carry rescue and and some other extra gear. But we don't lay much hose since we use tankers a lot, the few times we actually have a fire. So it's not a big deal since we aren't laying or reloading hose much.
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