PTOs

[PTOguy]

Hello everyone. I'm trying learn more about PTOs (power take offs) in firefighting and was wondering if you had any input? I would appreciate if you could help me out by answering questions like the following:

Who makes your PTOs? What problems do you have with your PTOs? What limitations does your PTO have that causes problems? What's the best alternative to a PTO and why?

Let me know gripes, praises, wishes, whatever, so I can understand better what produces the best solution. Thanks in advance.

-PTOguy

[nmfire]

Used for WHAT type of apparatus?

[mtnfireguy]

And for what type of application..... winch, pump, generator?

[PTOguy]

Yes

Any apparatus, any application. I know general uses are to drive aerials, to drive outriggers, turn a generator, winches, pumps, etc. And I would like whatever input you can offer from your own experiences with these applications and any others that I may not have thought about.

As I searched through the forums to learn more, I didn't find too many specific threads dealing with PTOs so I thought I would start a general PTO discussion where people can add what they wanted and also ask what they wanted so we all could learn.

If you want me to start the discussion with a specific question, we can start with the following and see where it goes from there:

What PTO currently powers either your pumper or aerial and what problems have you experienced while using the application?

Feel free to comment on this question, add your own, or expand whichever way you want.

Thanks!

-PTOguy

[Lieutenant516]

Well we have a brush truck that has PTO. You can run it on or off. I guess the only thing about it that is a very small disadvantage is if you want to have more pressure while driving, you have to give it more gas making you move a little faster.

Ours is a 1979 Pierce Brush truck (Chevy Powerwagon converted).

[wombat]

PTO's

These can be used to drive a hydraulic pump with the hydraulic power supplied else where on the vehicle to run a hydraulic motor and eventually the water pump. Some of the vol brigades down under use a Rosenbaur hydraulic powered pump on the smaller pumper units. Hydraulic powered pumps are easy to engage and disengage and often do not require a bypass recirculation valve. Pump and roll capability depends on the truck manufacturer and the way the PTO off the gear box has been designed.

[PTOguy]

Lieutenant516

- What speed do you generally like to move forward at when pumping and rolling? And how much does your speed need to increase in order to get the different water pressure you are looking for?

Wombat

-forgive my ignorance, but are there many differences between fire engines used down under vs. fire engines in North America? I visited your fine country years back but do not remember seeing any fire engines roaming the streets.

And a general question: What situations (and how often do they come up) require the use of pump and roll?

-PTOguy

[kd7fds]

My experiance with pump and roll has been entirely in a wildland fire setting.

At the bottom end, we want to be able to idle along and deliver water at sufficient volume/pressure, no faster than the guy at the end of the hose can walk. Sometimes we want to be able to drive faster. I would guess rarely more than 10mph though.

We had a hard time meeting these requirements with any PTO driven equipment, which is why most of our brush rigs had pumps with seperate engines. However, 3 years ago we bought a new type 3 engine from Pierce that had a special ultra-low 1st gear. It had a 1000gpm pump and was geared so that we could pump about 500gpm at 100psi and move forward at 2mph. It works pretty well.

[PTOguy]

Very interesting, thank you each for your input. Here's another question for you: who performs the service on your PTO and hydraulic system, authorized dealer/service network or does anyone have in-house maintenance that handles all of this?

-PTOguy