Painted the M35A3 Today (pics)

Looks good . I hope you are going to paint the tanks .

We replace the factory 10 leaf rear springs with 12's. It makes a world of difference. Be sure you replace the auto trans fluid with Dexron 6.

very similar paint job that we did on our A3 brush truck, execpt the black on front and rims...we also painted ours in a make shift open air lean to booth....Luckily we had the primer, paint and clearcoat donated to us so that saved alot of money.

Holy crap !!! Thats some bright red paint there son !! But I was thinking a red cammo pattern ?? That would look nice ....er

MATT said:

We replace the factory 10 leaf rear springs with 12's. It makes a world of difference. Be sure you replace the auto trans fluid with Dexron 6.

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I'm pretty sure someone called Allison within the past month to discuss trans fluids, and they were specifically told Dex 6 IS NOT compatable with the trans in the A3 and will cause damage.

Now that is a man fire truck.

I like the red camo idea, even if it is a firetruck. It would definitely turn heads.

After we got our M35A3 tanker in service the pump failed. Since we obtained an M916A1 that will be much better as a tanker, we decided to turn the M35A3 into a brush truck. We removed one of the 600 gallon tanks and created a caged area at the front of the bed for personnel to stand while fighting grass fires. I feel much better about this new setup since two 600 gallons tanks on an A3 was just too much weight.

We have been spending a lot of weekends working on the A3 and we wrapped up the fabrication and sprayed some more red paint last weekend. We should have this back in service soon.

I also included a few pictures of the M916A1. That thing is a monster! When we get the A3 back in service we will start working on making this into a 3000 gallon tanker.

You are doing a good job on those trucks.

Alredneck said:

Ah man give the guy some slack! We all should know by now " Global Warming is a MYTH " its all part of a really big cycle. THe .gov just wants to make money off it and its easier to scare the people with GW theories! The paint aint doin nothin but getting folks a quick high, but unfortunely these guys are wearing respirators!


THe Big RED DEUCE! is looking pretty good! Who doesnt like red heads?
I have a few in my ( OD Green's ) collection! Now paint them tanks!

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Besides, not all paints are so deadly- you don't paint a commercial building in a booth!

M35A3 Brush Truck On First Run

We finally finished our M35A3 brush truck and put it in service a few days ago. Today I took it on its first call. We had a house fire. We were able to contain the fire to one room but there was extensive smoke damage throughout the rest of the house. Very sad for a family right before Christmas. They do have insurance and no one was at home so everyone is safe. We used the M35A3 as water support for the Engine from our nearby city which responded with us. We had the city department and two volunteer departments respond.

The truck worked great and handles much better with one 600 gallon tank instead of two.

Here are a few pictures:

M35A3 Brush Trucks

Two M35A3 Brush trucks in action on a wildland fire today. Three other departments came to help and one brought their A3 brush truck. This is the first wildland fire that our A3 has been on and it did great.

Proabably a good thing you removed one of the 600-gallon totes. Those are not baffled and are known to be "top heavy".

We use low-profile plastic baffled tanks on our two A2's.



This picture was posted on here a while back of a roll-over of a fire deuce with two of those totes on it, I think it was in Oklahoma:

The 600 gallon fuel pods that we have are baffled but yes they do make the truck top heavy. The truck handles much better with just one.

Where did you get your poly tanks and how many gallons are they? Those are nice looking trucks you have.

SEAFIRE said:

Proabably a good thing you removed one of the 600-gallon totes. Those are not baffled and are known to be "top heavy".

We use low-profile plastic baffled tanks on our two A2's.
View attachment 456511View attachment 456512


This picture was posted on here a while back of a roll-over of a fire deuce with two of those totes on it, I think it was in Oklahoma:
View attachment 456510

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Happyland1410 said:

The 600 gallon fuel pods that we have are baffled but yes they do make the truck top heavy. The truck handles much better with just one.
Where did you get your poly tanks and how many gallons are they? Those are nice looking trucks you have.

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My bad, didn't know those totes were baffled, the ones I've seen on two converted fire deuces down here were not baffled.

The 500-gallon tank with the two hose reels was given to us, it was originally mounted on a trailer used by a local chemical plant.

The larger "black" tank was custom made for us by Plas-Mac of Wellington TX: http://www.firetrucktanks.com/index.html