How many of you are currently carrying large diameter hose? I am talking about 5 inch diameter or larger.
How much of it are you carrying on your units?
We have 800 feet on our Engine 3. It takes up alot of room, but is well worth it.
Also, is it set up for quick couple or are your connections threaded?
In some parts of our village, we still have 4 inch, but the idea behind using having the 5 inch hose now is because as we replace water main with 8 inch, we will be ready when it is. For the here and now, it's all about friction loss. A lot less friction loss with 5 inch than smaller diameter. There is a little more velocity going through the 5 inch as well. We used it Saturday on a downtown structural fire. We fed a ladder pipe. So, 4 inch main to 5 inch LDH fed a tower truck, so it does work.
TCSS.
Art
My department Is Inner city small by most standards By the largest in My state and back in the mid 90's LDH proved its worth tothe powers to be when dueto some "inner city " issues we had a set fire in a vacant frame that ended up extending to 4 other frames that were all occupied .... the locals had damaged about 15 plugs because they'd been shut down during the day, we began with 3 engines purchased in 1992 that were tacticly located around and utilized in various situations , they proved they're worth and now all the rigs carry 5" with stortz connections typically 1400' is the load with a 50 and two 25's as ponies inmany parts of the once heavily industrial city Plugs on 6-22" mains are a dime a dozen literally in some areas 100 feet apart, in some residential areas they are spread thinner .. Most likely the biggest problem we have is the morons who actuallythink they can drive over charged lines... I recall, one incident where a tractor trailer dragged the hose about 70 feet before it burst... he got pinched... yes we doour best to have the cops cover such intersections and each rig has 5 or 6 Huge cones , but think about it , anymoron who drives around a cruiser and still tryes to go over a hose that size deserves to be stood up against a wall and shot because they re as dumb as a rock...
We carry at least 1000' of 5" LDH on each of our three engines and one ladder. We service a city of about 13,000, running out of two full time staffed stations.
Tyler MT has a Engine specifically designed for this. It is a 1978 Peirce Custom built Engine that is equiped with a spool of LD hose on the back. It has 2000 feet of it . This truck solomly ever runs calls though. If you look and find my pics you will see an engine labled Engine 236 . That's the one.It is set up for a quick couple. Be Safe.