New Pumper Specs

[ffemtreed]

Hey, just looking for some help on specing out our new fire engine that FEMA is buying us. Just wondering if anyone would send me some examples of the specs they used when getting a new fire engine.

We are looking at getting a normal class A pumper. Nothing fancy, just something that pumps some water and carries our equipment.

Thanks for any help, you can email me at [email protected]

Jim!

[ffmedcbk1]

need to know your demo's and types of connstruction and features such as set backs. Are you staffing it with 4 or 6 or just 2 ff's.


I have alot on a rescue pumper that I am building specing. post what you need and be a little more specific in requirements such as commercial vs custom, gpm, tank size, foam, hose bed carrying and such

[ChiefDog]

Hey, just looking for some help on specing out our new fire engine that FEMA is buying us. Just wondering if anyone would send me some examples of the specs they used when getting a new fire engine.

We are looking at getting a normal class A pumper. Nothing fancy, just something that pumps some water and carries our equipment.

Thanks for any help, you can email me at [email protected]

Jim!

Look around on some of the Manufacturer sites. If you just want the format, more than one have specs of the demos they have available that you can download.

[ffemtreed]

small town population less than 10,000.

no staffing, 100% volunteer.

Construction is all type 5 balloon frame row homes 2.5 stories average about 6 feet from the curb.

we are looking at custom chassis,Comercial chassis are too hard to get around some of our small streets plus all of our operators are already familiar with having the cab over the wheels.

1500gpm pump , 1000 poly tank , a CAF system would be very desirable and we carry 1000ft 5" LDH (our coverage area is 99% hydrants) very very little chance of having to draft although its happened in the past. We are looking at 6 man cabs. Side mount pump.

any other questions ???

Thanks for all the help so far!

Jim

[bfranse]

we are looking at custom chassis, Comercial chassis are too hard to get around some of our small streets plus all of our operators are already familiar with having the cab over the wheels.

1500gpm pump , 1000 poly tank , a CAF system would be very desirable and we carry 1000ft 5" LDH (our coverage area is 99% hydrants) very very little chance of having to draft although its happened in the past. We are looking at 6 man cabs. Side mount pump.

Read NFPA 1901 twice so you might be able to remember where you read what you are looking for, as you go through the spec process. Call different manufactures to get a hold of their rep’s in your area. Have them bring out Demos. Have an open minded about the manufacturer. Consider lifetime maintenance expenses on additional equipment you add on. Try and build an apparatus that will still fill your needs in 10 years not just today. I have seen a new rig built with only a small increase in compartment space. It seems every year there is another piece of equipment that we need to carry on board. Figure out what you are going to carry and where you are going to place it on the new rig, then make sure you have room to grow.

You’ve got the basics of what you want. What about pre-connects? How many, what size & location on the rig? Ladder placement, hydraulic ladder racks are great for opening up additional compartment space but are limited on the load they can carry, can interfere with the placement of aux stationary lighting and don’t forget about the maintenance.

Consider road surface conditions. We have a lot of gravel roads that cause high way tires to wear excessively. Consider extreme weather, an air conditioner for rehab when it’s sunny, 95 and 85 humidity. Automatic tire chains are great for winter road conditions.

Scene and Aux. Lighting placement. We have a “scene” light on each side of the cab to help with trying to find addresses or initially lighting up the front of the house at night for scene safety. Not as bright as the aux lighting powered by the generator, but we don’t have to turn the generator on and climb up onto the rig and swivel the lights around. Its bad enough the siren and lights waking the neighbors up with out flooding the windows with light. We have a stationary & mobile (that can be used as is mounted to the rig) aux light on each side. With a 150’ power cord reel & distribution box with both twist lock and 110.

Sit down and make a very detailed specific must have list & a wish list for the left over funds. What ever you decide to purchase spend the extra money and do it right. Nobody wants a half-a** fire truck, not the firefighters and especially the public.

And my last comment. Measure the door she is going to be occupying BEFORE you start the specs process! A department had to replace the standard light bar with a low pro LED before their new rig would fit.

[bjlffire]

bfranse Where in Missouri are you?

FFEMTREED: We are to get our new truck this december. CAFS, 1250pump 1000 water.
We opted for Commercial chassis, side mount pump, hydr genset, lots of other goodies.

Good luck and Look at alot of trucks

[Catch22]

bfranse hits it pretty good. What we did was sat down and made a list of everything we needed, then what we wanted, and then prioritized it. Then we got into cost/benefit when we actually sat down and speced it out. For instance, we started with wanting a Hale 1,500, but a Waterous 1,750 was actually less. So, we took that savings and got some other things we needed. Just wish we could have pinched enough pennies to get our Q on it, but we'll deal with that later in the future.

A good salesperson (sometimes hard to find, but those are the ones I would rather give the bid to) will help out a lot on your specs and getting them where you want it. They just need a basic starting point, i.e. custom cab with seating for 6, 5 with SCBA seats, 330 cummins engine, 1,500 gpm pump with x discharges this size and x that size, 1,000 gallon tank, ladders through the tank, etc, etc. If they've got the right software, they can basically build it on their laptop in front of you and give you an idea on costs and where you can cut and how much.

I know of some departments that will get with the salesperson of their preferred manufacturer and spec out the truck and then send it to bid, basically ensuring that person will get the bid. We did the opposite, sent out just a basic bid with some leeway and picked the manufacturer, then got down and dirty on the specifics.

[Catch22]

And my last comment. Measure the door she is going to be occupying BEFORE you start the specs process! A department had to replace the standard light bar with a low pro LED before their new rig would fit.

I find this particularly amusing. I know of a department that didn't measure the depth of their bay. Ended up with the hood and part of the cab on a brand new truck sticking outside with a tarp over it until they could get a new bay built on (took over a year due to standard bureacracy). We're going to push it on the pumper/tanker we got for a grant last year and should recieve soon. About 3' clearance in length and 3-6" on bay doors.

[bfranse]

bfranse Where in Missouri are you?

FFEMTREED: We are to get our new truck this december. CAFS, 1250pump 1000 water.
We opted for Commercial chassis, side mount pump, hydr genset, lots of other goodies.

Good luck and Look at alot of trucks

South end of KC. Close enough to be considered part of the MARC & far enough away to be all volunteer. lol

A pretty new Fire Truck makes everyone feel good. With out turning this into my truck is better then your truck thread, what did you get? Our newest has the hydr genset (10Kw) too, only way to go IMO.

[bfranse]

I know of some departments that will get with the salesperson of their preferred manufacturer and spec out the truck and then send it to bid, basically ensuring that person will get the bid. We did the opposite, sent out just a basic bid with some leeway and picked the manufacturer, then got down and dirty on the specifics.

Adding to this great point, even if you know you want a truck manufactured by "X apparatus" don't let the sales rep know. Send out bid specs and let them know you are shopping. Forcing your preferred manufacturer’s SALESMAN to be a tiny bit more honest, possible saving you that little extra cash for the Q.

We ran out of funds before we got to the Q on our list too...

[LtTim556]

Adding to this great point, even if you know you want a truck manufactured by "X apparatus" don't let the sales rep know. Send out bid specs and let them know you are shopping. Forcing your preferred manufacturer’s SALESMAN to be a tiny bit more honest, possible saving you that little extra cash for the Q.

We ran out of funds before we got to the Q on our list too...

If it ain't got a "Q" then it ain't a real fire truck!!!!! (LOL) But I know where your coming from on that one. If your looking for the basic truck, a few companies have the standard cookie cutter designs that work. But then you will be wishing you had more before long.

[fire0099881]

Like I read in another post and can't remember which one, they said build for tomorrow, not just today, which is one of the best sounding things i have seen on here in a while!

[kldugas412]

New truck

Go to www.ferrarafire.com we just speced out a new truck should be delivers around Apr.-May
They are located in Holden,LA by Baton Rouge,LA

6 man
1000 gal poly tank
1250 gpm pump
330 hp
led light package
Hydralic ladder rack

And all lose Equip for $265,000

[Catch22]

If it ain't got a "Q" then it ain't a real fire truck!!!!! (LOL) But I know where your coming from on that one. If your looking for the basic truck, a few companies have the standard cookie cutter designs that work. But then you will be wishing you had more before long.

I can't argue about the Q, I love them. But, when it came between a Q and some of the other stuff, we can always put a Q on later.

One thing about most of those "cookie cutters" is that you can add to them. We actually looked into that idea on our pumper/tanker, but the company we went with did customs. We had two options, take a cookie cutter pumper and make it a 2,500 gallon tank, or take a CC tanker and add a top-mount pump and compartments. Look into all the options when you get started.