Rescue Strut Mounting Ideas ? ?

[neiowa]

Not to hijack, but...

We're currently storing our Paratech struts in an under-body tray, but they're not mounted at all and so are subject to bouncing around. Does anybody know of a good source for the type of "foam inserts" that come in a sheet a few inches thick, and can be cut to accommodate whatever equipment you want to drop into it? Can't think of a better way to describe the stuff.

P.S. - Little Joe - awesome job on the equipment mounting. Did you guys do it yourselves?

This is the stuff I used.
http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies...oductId=300993

Farmtek is located nearby and have a warehouse store so could pickup odds and ends to fit compartments very cheap. Worked great as pads/protects yet also allows drainage, ventilation/drying.

Turtle tile is around $5/ft2 I think.

[LittleJoe7197]

Plastix Plus is awesome! I have had many custom mounts made there including one for our AMKUS Rope Rescue Device. Highly recommended.

I would make a cardboard template of what you want or if you have drafting or CAD skills send them what you want made. I drew up something to scale and E-mailed it to them and it came back perfect.

[ejfeicht]

Not to hijack, but...

We're currently storing our Paratech struts in an under-body tray, but they're not mounted at all and so are subject to bouncing around. Does anybody know of a good source for the type of "foam inserts" that come in a sheet a few inches thick, and can be cut to accommodate whatever equipment you want to drop into it? Can't think of a better way to describe the stuff.

P.S. - Little Joe - awesome job on the equipment mounting. Did you guys do it yourselves?

BlitzfireSolo

When researching mountings for our Struts I came across this company which can pretty much fabricate anything you want out of poly.

Plastix Plus
http://www.pptexas.com/

These are some custom trays they did for Dallas FD for their Paratech Struts
http://67.99.203.142/mm5/gallery5.html

[LittleJoe7197]

LittleJoe,

Those are some impressive pictures of the tool boards. We are in the process of spec'ing out a rescue and have been trying to find good pics of how to have things mounted and such. It looks like you have everything worked out well on that rig. Who is the manufacturer of the truck, and does your fire department have a website so I can look at more pics of the truck? Thanks in advance...

The truck was manufactured by 4-Guys in Meyersdale, PA. We have a website but detailed pictures of compartments are not up yet. PM me your E-mail address and I will send you a link to Snapfish where I have pics up.

Not to hijack, but...

We're currently storing our Paratech struts in an under-body tray, but they're not mounted at all and so are subject to bouncing around. Does anybody know of a good source for the type of "foam inserts" that come in a sheet a few inches thick, and can be cut to accommodate whatever equipment you want to drop into it? Can't think of a better way to describe the stuff.

P.S. - Little Joe - awesome job on the equipment mounting. Did you guys do it yourselves?

Thanks Blitzfire. You and I have conversed over E-mail, but I can't remember your address.

I think struts and jacks are ideal in underbody trays. I would suggest you get some sort of "cradle" make out of HD plastic made so the strut rests in it but is only secured with gravity.

We did a lot of the mounting ourselves but had 4-Guys do some also. We had ordered our pickets from a tent company and had them shipped directly to Meyersdale. They made the mount to hold them. Our Hi-Lift Jacks we had mounted, but they have since been modified to be a "mirror image" of each other to gain the space between them. This allowed us to mount a 1.5 ton floor jack on the board.

The tripod lights were mounted as well as the AMKUS rams.

The hardest toolboard to design was the one for our rams and struts. We knew we wanted them mounted vertically, but we also needed a poly bin to hold tips and straps which had to be able to be slid out from the front.

We decided to mount the rams on the boards and not with the other tools as they are not used as much and PAC had a nice mount for the bases. This toolboard was also moved to the far right position at 4-Guys in order to give us a void under the AMKUS handles where you can reach in and move the handle for our stay dry handle - the chute goes down between the compartments (notice the little extra body width?) and discharges under the body.

The struts are held using Paratech clips and PAC sells the aluminum "Z" which is perfect for holding the bases. These are mounted at an angle to prevent the bases from sliding into the roll-up door. Since this time we have purchased 6"X6" bases for use on asphalt and keep them in the poly bin.

We need to purchase some Jeep rollbar handles to put on the struts to aid in carrying them. The 12"X12" bases are for soft dirt and ironically the 1" pickets fit perfectly through the 1-1/16" holes in the bases.

[volff1170]

LittleJoe,

Those are some impressive pictures of the tool boards. We are in the process of spec'ing out a rescue and have been trying to find good pics of how to have things mounted and such. It looks like you have everything worked out well on that rig. Who is the manufacturer of the truck, and does your fire department have a website so I can look at more pics of the truck? Thanks in advance...

[BlitzfireSolo]

Foam inserts?

Not to hijack, but...

We're currently storing our Paratech struts in an under-body tray, but they're not mounted at all and so are subject to bouncing around. Does anybody know of a good source for the type of "foam inserts" that come in a sheet a few inches thick, and can be cut to accommodate whatever equipment you want to drop into it? Can't think of a better way to describe the stuff.

P.S. - Little Joe - awesome job on the equipment mounting. Did you guys do it yourselves?

[LittleJoe7197]

Toolboards work out pretty well for struts as long as you have the height needed. Our toolboard compartment on our new rescue engine holds what used to be in three compartments on the engine we replaced as well as a lot of other things.

[LittleJoe7197]

We mounted our Paratech struts vertically using Paratech clips. We originally used a PAC strap to go around both, but when hooked both struts would be pulled together and when released you needed to control both struts so one would not fall on your head.

The poly bin contains 2-6X6 strut bases for use on pavement, 2-"V" heads, 2-pointed heads, 4-1"X10' self contained ratchet straps, and 2-2"X30' self contained ratchet straps.

The opposite side of the toolboard holds 2-60" and 2-40" AMKUS rams.

[ejfeicht]

Thanks for all the ideas folks. We where able to come up with a vertical design which should work out for us and we are currently awaiting parts from a local fabrication shop. Once we have everything installed I will post photos.

[NFDE6]

Vertical mount for R-42's on a pull out vertical tool board worked great for us. Crimson made the brackets and pockets to put the struts in. Not a great photo but you will see them standing up on the right side of the compt.

[RoofTopTrucky]

we put ours on both sides of a vertivle pull out tool board, worked quite well

[neiowa]

Paratech struts store nicely in vertical position in spring clips (as they are round in shape).

[GFPD2005]

Vertical storage of Rescue 42 struts. The other strut is behind the first. Quick Fist holders to secure them.


Scroll down and you will find the picture on the first page

http://www.firehouse.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112412

[Rescue101]

Both ambulances carry them. Since the engine has a (very basic) set of tools it also has one.

Not worth the time to put on. Makes as much sense as trying to contain a hand grenade with a tuppyware bowl. T.C.

[chiefengineer11]

CE11,

I see now that we're not the only dept using the Holmatro secunet as you have one mounted on the door of that compartment.

Both ambulances carry them. Since the engine has a (very basic) set of tools it also has one.