Front Bumper Speedlays ??

[FyredUp]

Far too many engine drivers and officers already lack the discipline or sense to pull past the house on fire. This simple tactic leaves room open for the truck and actually makes the stretch easier, but it is overlooked because we have to line the hose up with the front door.

Have a bumper line for trash and car fires. Other than that, leave hose off of the bumper. More lines on the bumper are just going to be another excuse for poor engine placement.

You don't have to like the front bumper crosslay set-up and you don't have to use it. For our situation and our tactics it works very well. We have no truck company and both of our engines carry truck equipment like fans, saws, extra hooks, and more. And the reality of the situation is that even if we pull pastthe house pulling a 200 foot bumper pre-connect is not handicapped by that positioning.

[Nozzle nut 22]

Hey if you want to back all the way up that driveway, be my guest. Kind of hard to lay hose that way, though.

[FIREMECH1]

I'm with MemphisE34a on tactics and use of the bumper lines. They should be used for quick attack, quick extinguishment of a fire. Cars, trash, etc. They should never be used as an interior line. The friction loss of using a bumper line is doubled compared to using a crosslay of the same size. JMHO.

FM1

[ffp20]

I'm with MemphisE34a on tactics and use of the bumper lines. They should be used for quick attack, quick extinguishment of a fire. Cars, trash, etc. They should never be used as an interior line. The friction loss of using a bumper line is doubled compared to using a crosslay of the same size. JMHO.

FM1

If its plumbed properly its no issue at all. Why not use hose bed preconnects if you're past the building and bumper preconnects if your parked before the building or in front of it????

[Conehead222]

Our newest 4Guys engine has dual crosslays in the bumper. The swivel is underneath-otherwise it would get in the way of stretching to one side or the other. The troughs are partly in the bumper, and partly on top- so they sit on the frame rails. The piping is between the frame members. I'm not sure what size pipe is used though.

The point about friction loss is a good one. You need to flow test them to find your needed discharge pressure.

These are our primary attack lines. 2, 1.75" 200 ft lines. The only crosslay is a 250' 2.5" preconnect. The main hosebed features a second 2.5 precon, and a 2.5 deadload leader line. We keep 2) 100' 1.75" hose packs in a compartment.

They work out pretty good. Repacking is a snap, and so is deploying- no more climbing or stretching for a hose 8' up in the air!! As crosslays, they are designed to be pulled off the side, but since they are at thigh height and the cover is a tarp, you can stretch em off the front with a bit more effort if you need to. We use 5" hose and forward lays, so working off the front makes sense for us. This engine is first due outside the village, and usually ends up nosed in the driveway, if there's no room for the quint. Both are piped for class A foam as well.

The hose troughs are fully enclosed on the bottom and sides( except for the swivel), so I don't see how couplings could hang up on the frame members? Ours are wide enough for 2 pieces of hose to lie side by side, so it's less likely for a coupling to get caught in the bed. Like any crosslay, it's best if you pull it to the side, and not against the edge. If you need to go forward, you need to go over the top.

Thanks, I can certainly see if yours are on top of the rails they would not hang up but we recently visited the Rosey plant and they had one in the plant that laid across the rails which looked to me like the couplings would hang up.
Currently we have specified 2 compartments on the front bumper, one for our 1 inch washdown/forestry and one for the 1.75 car fire/quick knockdown line which we think will work well for our tactics. The Engine also has 3 speedlays, 1-2.5, 2-1.75 so with these and the bumper line we should be good to go.
I appreciate all of your comments both pro and con! Be safe!!

[BoxAlarm187]

Far too many engine drivers and officers already lack the discipline or sense to pull past the house on fire. This simple tactic leaves room open for the truck and actually makes the stretch easier, but it is overlooked because we have to line the hose up with the front door.

How about those of us that routinely have 500'+ approaches down rural driveways, don't have a truck within 20 miles, and are typcially nosing-in to most of our occupancies? The front bumper pre-connects might not be the answer for all, but making a blanket statement about how they advocate poor engine company tactics isn't fair either.

Plumb them with 2.5" to the front bumper, no worries about the FL. How do I know? At work, we run a 2.5" front bumper discharge to a 150' 1.75" crosslay for interior attack on the small homes with about a 15' setback from the curb...and we're easily maintaining a 150gpm flow on it.

And I have to agree with the the brother about attempting lay in while backing up a 500' driveway....

[MemphisE34a]

I'll edit my setiments to include "in urban settings".

[BlitzfireSolo]

Here's a second (or third) vote for the donut roll pre-connects (nice pics, Adam!) and for 2 1/2"-3" plumbing to the bumper.

Memphis:
In addition to the other reasons mentioned (long driveways, no truck co, etc) for bumper attack lines, I'd counter your statement by saying that they're the perfect complement to a good attack line setup in the rear bed. In our district, at least half of the time the truck company is going to be responding from the opposite direction, and a lot of the streets are narrow. If we pull past the building in those situations, we're actually blocking out the truck. Having both front and rear attack lines allows the flexibility for either condition.

[RFDACM02]

Far too many engine drivers and officers already lack the discipline or sense to pull past the house on fire. This simple tactic leaves room open for the truck and actually makes the stretch easier, but it is overlooked because we have to line the hose up with the front door.

While I agree with the common misplacement issue, I'd favor a policy backed by personnel who understand and follow such basic tactics.

[ChiefKN]

We put a line on the bumper for car fires, pure and simple. We are often restricted by the NJSP on the interstate to operating in one lane or 2 lanes. So to flake out a crosslay may not work well.

For all other attacks, I don't know that I buy into the fact that a line coming off the side will set you back in your fire attack.

[FyredUp]

I'm with MemphisE34a on tactics and use of the bumper lines. They should be used for quick attack, quick extinguishment of a fire. Cars, trash, etc. They should never be used as an interior line. The friction loss of using a bumper line is doubled compared to using a crosslay of the same size. JMHO.

FM1

The friction loss is double? Absolute nonsense. The problem is not many people know how to spec piping for preconnects. We spec performance not pipe size. We set the performance for our 2 bumper lay 2 inch lines at a flow of at least 300 gpm each at no more than 20 psi friction loss. Guess what? The manufacturer exceeded our spec.

The system works very well for us and frankly since we have no truck, and both of our engines carry truck equipment, we don't need to leave room for a truck company.

[FIREMECH1]

The friction loss is double? Absolute nonsense..

Easy big guy, it was just a number to throw out there while posting. Mistake on my behalf, yes.

Is there a measurable difference from running a crosslay compared to a bumper line of the same size. YES.

FM1

[LittleJoe7197]

Our newest 4Guys engine has dual crosslays in the bumper. The swivel is underneath-otherwise it would get in the way of stretching to one side or the other. The troughs are partly in the bumper, and partly on top- so they sit on the frame rails. The piping is between the frame members. I'm not sure what size pipe is used though.

Can you post some pictures?

[ffp20]

Easy big guy, it was just a number to throw out there while posting. Mistake on my behalf, yes.

Is there a measurable difference from running a crosslay compared to a bumper line of the same size. YES.

FM1

On our units with 2 bumper preconnects, the only 90 degree bend is the swivel. the other 2 bends in the line are 45's (the one directing flow down from the valve, and the other directing the flow forward under the cab). the FL is negligible, and the gpm is slightly less than the crosslays, (less than 5 gpm difference). In other words, its plumbed right.

[Bones42]

We have a 90 on the front line which is a swivel.

All 3 of our crosslays have a 90, which is a swivel also.


I'll run the flow meter, cuz you have me curious. But I'm betting on FL difference between front and crosslays is really going to be minimal. We'll see....