My company re-organized our Rescue last evening, freeing up some compartment space. Now, our problem is trying to fill that compartment space. The image provided is the compartment that is now empty. I'm looking for some ideas on something we could purchase to fill the space. You can find a list of the current equipment on the rig at http://www.gafc27.com/apparatus.html.
Figure out what you don't have that's the priority for your area.
Don't just add weight to the rig in order to fill up space.
It's better to run with an empty compartment for a while.
I agree 150%. If we can't see anything we need currently, that space will remain open for the future. What we are looking for are ideas that we might be overlooking that would be beneficial to our service. An option we are leaning towards is putting more block and wedge cribbing in that compartment. We are not carrying close to the amount we should be to consider ourselves a dedicated rescue company.
One of the first things a rescue company should carry is a small lumberyard of cribbing and shoring materials. Another consideration is a tensioned buttress system for stabilizing cars resting on their sides. Good choices for tensioned buttress systems are:
The ResQJack system
The Alpha Industries Crutch system
The Rescue 42 Telecribbing system
My department has a new set of the Rescue 42s on the front-line truck and a pair of the older steel ones on the spare rig. My previous department carried the Alpha Crutches. None of these systems can do as much as a Paratech or Air Shore system, but they're way faster and easier to use on wrecks, which is their primary use.
Look up some of Ron Moore's University of Extrication stuff in the Firehouse.com archives for more on tensioned buttress systems if you're not familiar with them.