Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Robinson on May 3, 2008 at 1:05am

I think all tip pipes and all bed pipes should be straight pipes. The Engine already has enough elevation loss to deal with.

Also the prepiped gun on a stick, especially the tip gun, gets a lot of abuse over the years. They are punched through windows, dropped onto roofs, exposed to heat, smoke, and ice, and when you go to use them, the fog tips are always messed up. The remotely operated Fog/SS feature never seems to work correctly after a while. They end up clogged and stuck on wide fog, and your 1000 GPM tip ends up throwing 300 GPM in every direction but forward.

The straight pipe always works.

We used straight pipes on 2 1/2" handlines. 1 1/8" tips for inside work, 1 1/4" tip for exterior work.

Small lines (1 3/4") all had combination nozzles except for highrise packs, some of which had a 7/8" tip on the small lines.

Permalink Reply by 144Truck on May 6, 2008 at 7:47am

All of our master stream appliances, on the engines as well as the truck are stacked tips.... We do carry fog deluge nozzles, but the smooth bore stacked tip is the "default" setup.

Permalink Reply by Mick Mayers on May 10, 2008 at 12:03pm

Although I think you need to utilize the stack tips up there, you should have the option of fog for exposure protection, be that actual exposures or your own apparatus or personnel become the exposure.

As far as straight tips on hand-helds, same thing. I prefer the stack but have the fog option in the deck in case of an appropriate application.

Permalink Reply by Jason on June 21, 2008 at 8:09am

We all know that the smooth bore is the ONLY nozzle. However, isnt this a Truckie group? :)

Permalink Reply by SMOKEnPipesJim on July 13, 2008 at 1:05pm

Yep Jason it is, unfortuantely much of the country buys a truck for spectacular roof burning ceremonies, because they think THAT is "truck work".. They dont understand that attacking the seat of the fire aggressivly in sequence with either horizontal or preferably Verticle ventilation , followed with line above the fire to check extension is how fires are put out... even in this truckie forum the very idea that people still think adjustible master streams Or handlines are actually worth much.. ... Sometimes If youshut down the ladder stream, and allow the fire to vent you can actually NOT spend 20 hours on scene... it becomes a outside rubbish pile anyway so why bother?.lol and besides NOt useing them eleveates the "outstanding* " firefighters position and puts them to real work


* Outstanding ,, behind the truck..... of course :P

Permalink Reply by Rob on January 9, 2009 at 5:03am

Very few fog/combination nozzels I have seen will truly give you 1000gpm. Those that do will make your pump (or the engine that is supplying you) work a whole lot harder. I do not have the luxury of a ladder even though my company lives to be truckies. Our engine carries both a combination nozzel and a smooth bore stacked tip for the deck gun (combination for mass decon shower, not nessecarily fire supression). I can tell you the stacked tip is on the deck gun 24/7/365. I will not hesitate to knock a section or two off before opening the valve if I think I need it either! You can flow a shit-load more water withe less effort through the stacked tip smooth bore! Anyone that doubts you might want to go take a hydraulics class or even a class on how to do annual pump test since that will show just how much water you can get out of a rig (with stacked tip smooth bore nozzels I might add).

Rob

Permalink Reply by Rob on January 9, 2009 at 5:07am

AMEN! Just had a fire not too long ago that we called the neighbor for the stick to keep it from running the block and had nothing but bitching form the hose jockeys because it lit up and came through the roof. But once it showed the truck crew where it actually was it got real damn dark real damn fast even though the interrior crews had 4 hose lines in play for 45 minutes without getting the job done.

Rob

Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on January 9, 2009 at 7:27am

In my own humble opinion, smoothbore is the way to go for any aerial device. I do not run on a tower/bucket truck. My truck is a straight stick with a prepiped waterway, but every tower in our area has 2 nozzles( a fog and a smooth bore). I understand exposure protection and the option is nice, but even a true nozzle head will tell you that smoothbore outweighs an adjustable fog any day of the week. I also agree with John Robinson that a fog on a straight stick gets abused by punching through windows, heat exposure, ice, salt, leaning against walls and parapits,etc...and I have never seen a fog on a straight stick that did not malfunction after some years of service.