M35 A2 Tankers

[saddamsnightmare]

October 30th, 2015.


Beware of any deuce for brush fire service, as the original parking brake will not hold the truck by itself should you have water sloshing in the tank! Most converted deuce brush trucks back in W.Va. have been disposed of because far too many ran away over the hill with the parking brakes set. The deuce brake (parking) was never designed for such a dynamic loading effect as water sloshing...... 800 gallons can really mess up your day when the truck runs away....

 

[rustystud]

October 30th, 2015.


Beware of any deuce for brush fire service, as the original parking brake will not hold the truck by itself should you have water sloshing in the tank! Most converted deuce brush trucks back in W.Va. have been disposed of because far too many ran away over the hill with the parking brakes set. The deuce brake (parking) was never designed for such a dynamic loading effect as water sloshing...... 800 gallons can really mess up your day when the truck runs away....

So are you saying that if someone picks-up an old fire truck deuce to fix the parking brake first ? That makes sense. The problem I had with my ex-fire department truck was the hole through the block that the rods made. They had to hurry to a fire and did not warm up the truck. They just get in and revved it up to go. According to the guy who was there when I picked-it up, the truck got about 30 yards before blowing the side out of the block.

 

[JohnnyBM931A2]

So are you saying that if someone picks-up an old fire truck deuce to fix the parking brake first ? That makes sense. The problem I had with my ex-fire department truck was the hole through the block that the rods made. They had to hurry to a fire and did not warm up the truck. They just get in and revved it up to go. According to the guy who was there when I picked-it up, the truck got about 30 yards before blowing the side out of the block.

Don't fire departments run the trucks to keep them ready to go? Every time I have done work in a fire department I've seen rather large exhaust hoses that allow them to run the trucks indoors.. I never actually asked anyone about them.

 

[AZK9]

Don't fire departments run the trucks to keep them ready to go? Every time I have done work in a fire department I've seen rather large exhaust hoses that allow them to run the trucks indoors.. I never actually asked anyone about them.

Yes... most fire stations have exhaust ventilation systems for that purpose.

From personal experience:
In the case of many volunteer departments, responding to a call... the first firefighter to arrive at station usually has the responsibility of starting the engine/truck (exhaust ventilation is automatically activated). Once three, or more 'crew' arrive at station... the 'truck' then leaves for the fire/incident location. In some cases where the firefighters arrive at station quickly, it could be that the vehicle has not had a proper warmup period. So... there could be damage done as a result.

 

[fasttruck]

Military fuel trucks converted to FD water tenders have not faired well owing to the high center of gravity, lack of side to side baffles, overloading and poorly trained operators. I recall the most common apparatus LOD cause was tanker rollovers. Whatever monies were saved in a homemade conversion are typically rapidly surpassed in a LOD claim.

 

[Akicita]

So, if the standard parking brake doesn't do the job, what improvements are made or should be made to make the FD trucks safer?

I can see how sloshing fluid (water) creates a different problem from any static load of the same weight, and I know that wheel chocks are only useful as long as they don't slide on mud, wet road, snow, ice, etc.

 

[Jeepsinker]

You could try and fit an aftermarket driveline brake. You need something that locks more positively than the old two shoe and drum system. The 939 series trucks use a similar system, but in conjunction with the wheel end brakes ( because they have full air brakes) and those suckers hold solid. The parts do not interchange, but I know there are other good aftermarket driveline brakes available that would fit the bill.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Also, single circuit brakes are bad juju on a tanker. I have parts of a vfd deuce tanker here that lost brakes and went into a lake or river. Every tooth in that transmission was stripped off from the driver trying to downshift and stop it. You would do well to install the braided stainless brake lines that Peashooter has made. These trucks love to blow brake flex hoses off when they still have the old rubber ones installed. It has happened to a bunch of us.

And you should go through all of the hubs and replace the brake wheel cylinders.

 

[18operator]

Our Union training center has an M35 fuel tanker that is still in use. The tank is now run off a small horsepower pony motor instead of running off the pto. A lot of the apprentices are afraid to drive it, so they bring the equipment to the tanker instead of vise versa. Hopefully when the training center is finished with it, I can acquire it for little or no money. They don't know what they have!

 

[Jeepsinker]

That would be great, but you gotta get the pto pump hooked back up. That was one of the coolest features on them.

 

[quickfarms]

Something to do with NFPA, all surplus are no longer considered safe for department use, as well as other trucks over a certain age (ten years I think). It's been a while since our chief told us about it. That's when we turned in our last couple of surplus trucks.

I do not think it is 10 years based on the amount of older reserve equipment that our county fields.

 

[RobDuece]

Ok guys here is the deal with the breaks. We haul wheel chalks on all our trucks you stop you chalk the truck no matter what. The break that is on that truck is no different the the old gmc and chevy traditional cab trucks. The truck we have for sale is a 1979 and has a brake shoe drive line parking break. Also our true tanker has 3 baffles in the tank our brush truck does not but it only has a 400 gallon tank not 1200 gallon. You have to respect any truck out there especially tanker truck if not it will hurt you no matter who makes it. The age of the equipment does have some to do with it but most departments can not afford to update there equipment. NFPA says they must have current PM's and maintenance and be able to pass certain test to be still considered for fire service. A tanker /tender falls into a different class and must have up to date PM's and maintenance. In our state age is not a big factor as long it is safe.

 

[BnaditCorps]

Don't fire departments run the trucks to keep them ready to go? Every time I have done work in a fire department I've seen rather large exhaust hoses that allow them to run the trucks indoors.. I never actually asked anyone about them.

That is just to take the Exhaust out of the station while you turn it on (when most on the bad stuff goes out). They usually detach at a certain point near the door via a magnetic clip.

They do run them on a regular basis though, usually weekly (just a basic systems check, lights pump, engine, etc.), bi-weekly (Same as weekly, but more thorough), Monthly (test all systems thoroughly).

Now though, the exhaust hoses are for stations with a permanent staff (24/7 staffing). Most volunteer stations do not have them as they are not staffed 24/7, however some newer volunteer stations do as they are becoming cheaper, and some are transitioning to full time staff.

I found this out because the new VFPD fire station has to get a fan put in if Cal Fire occupies the station as they will then be a "full time" crew. They do not have to have the hoses however. The requirement is that it must cycle air in the engine bay 1 per hour, meaning the air in the engine bay must be refreshed at least once per hour. That is to cycle out fumes/smoke.

Trucks are also plugged in with a auto disconnect upon start so that the batteries will take longer to die. That has issues though as they pulled a cord out recently, causing a huge arc from the cord to the truck to the ground. It got caught on the ladder on the side.

 

[Akicita]

For those of you who are thinking about using the kind of corrugated flexible hose you can pick up in the gardening and roofing sections at Home Depot, Lowe's and places like that for when you run your Deuce in your garage: Don't!

Those hoses are relatively cheap but they don't do the job. I remember reading in the papers here that someone attached one of those hoses to his truck (not an MV but it had large exhaust pipe under the chassis), and the heat of the exhaust melted the plastic so that fumes filled the garage. These relatively inexpensive hoses are used by landscapers to take rainwater run-off away from the house and into the garden. The cheap flexible hoses do not withstand the heat of hot exhaust.

 

[BnaditCorps]

For those of you who are thinking about using the kind of corrugated flexible hose you can pick up in the gardening and roofing sections at Home Depot, Lowe's and places like that for when you run your Deuce in your garage: Don't!

Those hoses are relatively cheap but they don't do the job. I remember reading in the papers here that someone attached one of those hoses to his truck (not an MV but it had large exhaust pipe under the chassis), and the heat of the exhaust melted the plastic so that fumes filled the garage. These relatively inexpensive hoses are used by landscapers to take rainwater run-off away from the house and into the garden. The cheap flexible hoses do not withstand the heat of hot exhaust.

Please do not do anything even slightly related to this idea unless you have the proper resources.