Less tippy brush fire truck

[mcmullag]

I saw this truck in the staging area of a parade in Canon City, CO I was doing May 5th. Talked to the driver and said it does really well offroad, holds 1,000 gallons of water. Thought maybe it would help to broadcast this idea around the country. If I understand it correctly, they fabricate this in Ft. Collins, CO. Some of the brush fire trucks I see pictured in threads on here look very tippy to take offroad for fires.

Fire Shop & Equipment - Colorado State Forest Service - Colorado State University

 

[FireFighterHill]

Looks good but its over loaded for its rated 5,000 pound offroad use, and probably close to or over its limit of 10,000 pounds for on road use. 1000 gallons of water is 8350 pounds (4 tons). Plus all the equipment and the weight of the tank its self. Id put that same setup on the back of a 5ton and call it a day.

 

[goldneagle]

I don't know if anyone noticed but the tank looks the a boat hull.

 

[preyn2]

I've thought about a similar idea.

Looks good but its over loaded for its rated 5,000 pound offroad use, and probably close to or over its limit of 10,000 pounds for on road use.

My thought is that when you remove the bed, you gain that amount of carrying capacity, although I don't know what a deuce bed weighs.

Neat idea, if the weight is within the chassis restictions.

 

[Warthog]

I noticed the squared turn singal guards that some one asked about the other day.

I wonder what the tank is made of? Steel or aluminum.

With the lowering of the CG of the tank, It is much better than a couple of 600 gal pods. Still may be over weight.

 

[Csm Davis]

Guys even the military made over weight deuces you don't know if they addressed that or not, I have one that had like twenty thousand put on it permanently. With the engineering that went into that tank that could have been addressed also.

 

[pwrwagonfire]

Gentlemen, their is a mechanic here on SS from the Colorado Forest Service who is in charge of building these things...hopefully he can chime in here and answer your questions!

I worked with one of these trucks about 6 years ago when in Colorado for a couple wildfire classes. If I remember correctly, the tank was aluminum.

EDIT: Read the link you posted, appears I was wrong the tanks are steel and hot dipped. The link says each tank they CFS shop makes is 880 gallons

 

[pctrans]

Maybe you can see it action, with that big wildfire they are fighting right now.

 

[FireFighterHill]

I forgot to take into the account of the bed missing so that deducts 2000 pounds/1 ton so 880 gallons of water weigh 3.674 tons minus 1 ton equals 2.674 tons PLUS the weight of all the equipment on top on the tank. That sounds much more offroadable.

 

[73m819]

I forgot to take into the account of the bed missing so that deducts 2000 pounds/1 ton so 880 gallons of water weigh 3.674 tons minus 1 ton equals 2.674 tons PLUS the weight of all the equipment on top on the tank. That sounds much more offroadable.

Bet the empty STEEL tank weighs as much as a deuce bed

 

[FireFighterHill]

yeah you are right i must be tonight