Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite - View Single Post - Firefighting Deuce from Happyland, Oklahoma

Happyland1410 · 07-25-2009, 10:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1958 M274

Our department has two 1,200 gallon A3 tankers configured similar to your A2. They replaced our A2s a couple years ago. Personally, I don’t like them. They are overloaded and feel extremely unstable on the hilly and curvy mountain roads with the super singles. Since you have your CTIS already disabled, be sure to keep the tires aired up to max pressure (85 PSI on the Michelin 14.5R20 XL radials if I remember) once you get the truck built. We started out running them at the recommended 55 PSI, but soon discovered that wasn’t enough…

I know rural departments often have to work with what you can get, but if you could acquire a 5 ton to build your tanker I would highly recommend it. Most around here are built on 809 series trucks and carry 2,000 gallons. More water and a much more stable truck.

Thanks for the first hand info! I wondered about the stability of the tall sidewalls on those singles. We are also in the process of building a 3000 gallon tanker out of a 1976 Kenworth dump truck we had donated to us. When we get the Kenworth in service we are talking about just keeping one 600 gallon tank on the A3 and making it a heavy duty brush truck.