Hose tower for new station

[mcwops]

Good morning everyone. I am a long time lurker, but new member.

I have a question, and am hoping to find an answer quickly. We are in final design for a new station at the airport where I work. Our new building has a hose tower, and we are trying to find a system that will allow hoses to be hoisted from the ground. The only one I can find online is from Tiger http://tigerhosetower.com/product.htm . This one is much bigger (and more expensive) than we really had in mind. Our thoughts were a rack suspended by cable and pulley, that could be controlled from the ground.

What do other departments do?

[FWDbuff]

First off, WHY?????

Wasted money. That's all a hose tower is. We learned our lesson. We wish we knew then what we know now, and would have sunken the money wasted into more bunkroom and storage space.

If you want to wash and dry lines, why not just flake them out on the floor? If space is a concern, just accordian them next to the rigs. Do you really want to waste a pile of money that could very well be used somewhere else for something more useful???

It's probably been 10 years or more since we have hung any hose in the tower (which by the way is now used by the Engineering Staff to store all the oil, greases, spare parts, battery charger, pressure washer, yadda yadda yadda.....) Our tower has a platform at the top. One or two members would go up there, and operate the winch which is mounted to a beam at the top.

[mcwops]

Space in not an issue with our design. This is to be a federally funded facility by the FAA. Their guidelines provide space for hose drying, and our choices were a tower or a room with a mechanical dryer. We opted to hang hose over the expense of acquiring, operating, and maintaining a dryer. The cost of the tower is minimal, as it is just a space incorporated into the overall design of the building.

[CaptOldTimer]

If you must have some incorporated into the new house for the hose, forget the mechanical dryers, aka, pizza ovens, and go with the hose tower.

We have towers and yes we use the rubber like covered LDH and hand lines which don't require drying.

Having said that we use the tower to keep additional hose line hanging instead of roll and racked. We do exchange out the hose on a semi basis and more often if the really get soiled where they have to be scrubbed. We hang them to get a good drying.

[RFD21C]

If you must have some incorporated into the new house for the hose, forget the mechanical dryers, aka, pizza ovens, and go with the hose tower.

We have towers and yes we use the rubber like covered LDH and hand lines which don't require drying.

Having said that we use the tower to keep additional hose line hanging instead of roll and racked. We do exchange out the hose on a semi basis and more often if the really get soiled where they have to be scrubbed. We hang them to get a good drying.

used it the last day i worked.

To the OP. in regards to hose towers it is not a complicated over engineered process. We have a ladder that goes up to a platform at the top. The hose is hung over bars. Simpily drape the hose over a bar. To hoist the hose we just have a rope going through a pulley. tie it around the coupling and hoist.

[JayDudley]

Hose Tower

RFD...You beat me to it. We had the same type system as it is low cost and easy to use.

[kuh shise]

Our hose tower (1936 construction) still has the original arrangement for hanging hose, although we dry all our hose in a hose dryer due to the ease of use. Each pipe (axle) appears to be constructed of 2" schedule 80 pipe, although I'm sure it wasn't called that in 1936. Slipped over these pipes (5) are large spools about 8 inches in width with 6" drums. There are 10 spools on each pipe axle. The drums have outside wings about 10" in diameter to contain the hose as it is pulled over the spool. The center of the drum has a groove about 1" across and about 3/4" deep cut into the spool. A 1/2" rope is run through this groove for each spool and the rope is braided into a continuous loop. There is a short piece of 1/2" rope (about 3 ft. long) braided into this running line and it has a loop braided into the end. When you hang hose in the tower, this small loop is turned inside-out forming a choker that gets slipped over the coupling. The rope is used to pull the hose up and over the spool. The rope runs in the groove and thus centers the hose in the spool as it climbs over the top. Keep the last part of the hose section longer and tie the rope off to a cleat on the wall. When lowering the hose after drying besure to reverse the process as a coupling dropped from 30 feet causes a violent reaction when you get hit.

[mcwops]

Here is a drawing of what I had in mind for our hose rack. The idea is the entire rack can be lowered to load and unload the hose, saving climbing the ladder. Being a small airport department, we don't use mass quantities of hose, usually only 200 feet, so we don't need large capacity.

[nameless]

use a noose to secure the rope to the coupling.

[tree68]

Here is a drawing of what I had in mind for our hose rack. The idea is the entire rack can be lowered to load and unload the hose, saving climbing the ladder. Being a small airport department, we don't use mass quantities of hose, usually only 200 feet, so we don't need large capacity.

If you're not using a lot of hose, my opinion would be that the electric winch is overkill. A rope and pulley system would probably be more than sufficient, and is low-tech. If the rope breaks you just string up a new one.

If you feel you need power, put in a rope system and include a windlass that can then be used for any of the ropes...

I'm all for not having to climb the ladder, though.

[zzyyzx]

One of our stations (headquarters) has a hose tower. It's about 25-30 feet tall. Maybe 10x10 room. Has a basic metal ladder in one corner that takes you to a catwalk near the top. There's a winch at the top with controls at the bottom and top. The winch has a large metal hook with about a 2 foot length of chain on it. We lower it down, secure all the hose at once and then raise it up. There's maybe 8 rungs on the wall made from 2 inch tubular steel about 2 feet long. The hose is draped over it until it dries. Then we usually just let the hose fall to the ground (couplings are inches from the ground) and roll it again. This one gets used sometimes. Some stations bring their hose here, wash it, hang it and take dry hose as a replacement. Mostly, the room just has a bunch of landscaping equipment and junk that doesn't fit anywhere else. Where it's located, not really much else we could do with the space, so I guess it's alright but not really needed if the space could be better utilized.

Another station has a similar concept (minus the catwalk) going through the middle of the bay. We have to use pike poles to move the hose from the winch to the rung. This one doesn't ever get used except to hang out stuff someone forgets and leaves out.

All the other stations just flake the hose up and down the sides of the bay or in empty bays.

[MemphisE34a]

use a noose to secure the rope to the coupling.

bahahahahaha!!!!

[MemphisE34a]

Our hose towers have an interior ladder that goes to a platform at the top as a work area with a knee wall to keep you from falling.

Beyond the knee wall are several sections of iron are evenly spaced about every 8-10 inches. There are several blocks of wood that are notched to fit over and between the iron channels. There is a couple of horse chain hoist attached to the ceiling.

Fold the hose in half, loop the chain about 2-3 feet below the middle bend. Raise hose, put wooden block through loop in hose, lower chain until wooden block fits securely on the iron. Viola.

I will try to post a pic or two in the next couple of days.

[sklump]

We have a rack that is pretty close to mcwops design only the winch is mounted to the beam at the roof. It works very well.

[voyager9]

Our hose tower has a platform but is set up so that you rarely need to use it.

The winch is mounted at the top in the center of the tower, but the controls are wired to the bottom. We have a 8' pipe attached to the winch with short sections of prussic-size rope attached every foot or so. We can lower the whole assembly and quickly hang 8 sections to it. Fold the hose in half, run the prussic under the fold and back on to itself.

We also have simplified versions of the above for when a single line needs to be dried. We have a few pulleys mounted along the top of the tower against the wall. A line runs from the bottom to each pulley and back. Attach a length of hose to the line (the same as above) then manually run the line/hose up to the top and tie off..

That said, we rarely use the tower to actually dry hose. I think there is a confined space simulator set up in their now..