Wildland/Mini Pumper

[jruether11]

Hello, First time poster looking for a little help!

Our fire department is in a need of a new wild lands truck. Our current fleet consists of a 2000 Pumper, 2000 gallon 1983 converted Milk truck, 1979 FMC 1300 gallon tanker, 1988 Chevy 1 ton flat bed with a volume pump on the back for filling tanker, and a 1976 Pierce Dodge PowerWagon 1 ton grass truck. We average about 80-100 calls a yr. But 1 or 2 of them a year is a 20+ acre wild land fire. Our township consists of 73% Federal Forest or undeveloped land. We would like to get a truck that is capable of really helping us during the wild land fires. The truck we have looked at seems to like is something like this... http://www.gfebrushtrucks.com/brush-truck-media.php. It is a wild land truck but the guy from the manufacture said it’s considered a mini-pumper also, what are the classifications for a mini-pumper? In the grant narrative do I want to call it a mini-pumper or a wild land or both? Also the truck has military grade "everything" it seems and could be considered overboard. A truck like that runs about $150k or more. Is this to much to ask for on the grant?

The grant narrative is written but if anyone has a successful wild land or mini-pumper narrative, it would be greatly appreciated!

[onebugle]

Hello, First time poster looking for a little help!

Our fire department is in a need of a new wild lands truck. Our current fleet consists of a 2000 Pumper, 2000 gallon 1983 converted Milk truck, 1979 FMC 1300 gallon tanker, 1988 Chevy 1 ton flat bed with a volume pump on the back for filling tanker, and a 1976 Pierce Dodge PowerWagon 1 ton grass truck. We average about 80-100 calls a yr. But 1 or 2 of them a year is a 20+ acre wild land fire. Our township consists of 73% Federal Forest or undeveloped land. We would like to get a truck that is capable of really helping us during the wild land fires. The truck we have looked at seems to like is something like this... http://www.gfebrushtrucks.com/brush-truck-media.php. It is a wild land truck but the guy from the manufacture said it’s considered a mini-pumper also, what are the classifications for a mini-pumper? In the grant narrative do I want to call it a mini-pumper or a wild land or both? Also the truck has military grade "everything" it seems and could be considered overboard. A truck like that runs about $150k or more. Is this to much to ask for on the grant?

The grant narrative is written but if anyone has a successful wild land or mini-pumper narrative, it would be greatly appreciated!

The difference between the 2 types of vehicles is the NFPA standard they have to meet. A mini-pumper must meet NFPA 1901 and the wildland/brush must meet NFPA 1906. 1901 is more stringent when it comes to equipment etc. needed especially for structural.

For the narrative I would use brush or wildland vehicle. Even though its primary function will be wildland fires you can show in the narrative other benefits as well to show the vehicle will be a verastile vehicle vs. a single only function.

The AFG has a cap on vehicle costs. A brush/wildland vehicle is capped at $125,000. So any amount above that needs to be picked up by the department.

I'll send a copy of ours that was awarded in 2005.

[jruether11]

Thanks for your help, that would be great! my email is [email protected]

[bwspeer]

Another option we used was to use the grant for a tanker. We took our fill truck and added a small (180 gallons) tank and front spray bars to create a multiple use truck. We can still fill tankers and use it as a brush truck. We have on two or three occasions used streams or water holes to refill with out coming out of the woods. Works for us, may not be the best method for everybody.