So my department has a 4500 gallon tri-axle monster of a tanker that we have given the nickname "the whale." I want to know if anyone has anything bigger. I dont know how to upload a photo from a differant computer but if you check out my page there is a pix of it somewhere. You will notice it (the big white truck) LOL
I was always told to never partially fill a tanker because of the danger of the "slosshing" water. Also, if you ever go and dump some water to dump it all no matter if its needed or not so that you dont have half a tank on the ride home. I've heard its easier for the truck to flip over if its only half filled. IDK maybe I'm wrong.
Permalink Reply by Todd on February 20, 2009 at 1:17am
Here is what we have at Sta 24
Tanker 244
1996 Ford/KME 400gpm pump/1500gal tank. 6" Jet Dump, 3" direct tank fill.
All tankers in the Lexington County Fire Service are 1500 gal tanks. With the jet dump system we use for large water supply calls it's better for all tankers to be around the same size. Our tankers are spec'd to dump the entire tank in less than 90 seconds. The newer tankers we are getting in the county are "tanker/pumpers". They have crosslays, hose reels, and 750gpm pumps for at least a halfway decent offensive attack capability. I'd prefer at least 1000 gpm pumps, but at least now we are buying rated fire pumps.
Looking for pics for this thread reminded me I need to shoot the current T104 at Lexington, and try to shoot a pic of one of our newer tanker/pumpers. Since the majority of our response area has hydrants we keep getting different used tankers as new ones are placed in service. Usually we get the one that is next in line to be deadlined, but this time around we got a fairly decent one. I imagine we'll keep this one for a while.
Okay kids... I know that some of you have long been awaiting a side pix of "the whale" that started this whole deal. Well... I still have no idea how to copy the pix off of the website but if you go to http://indianafiretrucks.com/pages/porter/hebron.html you can see a couple of pix of the tanker as well as all other HFD apparatus
WOW some of you have it made. We have a 1900something international with an old milk truck tank on the back. 2500 gals. With a honda 3 inch trash pump to unload with. NO DUMP VALVE. No baffles either so either full or empty no in between for us.
Our biggest right now is 3000 gallons, but our new one is going to be 3500. Even our city pumper carries 1000 gallons of water on board and our main county pumper carries just about 2500. But my dept covers over 3000 sq miles out of one station. And only the towns have any kind of water supply from hydrants. which there are only two towns in the county with hydrants and they are 25 miles apart. So we need trucks that carry alot water.