video and pics of our 5 ton fighting fire

About a week ago, we were called to help several fire departments on a couple of large wildland fires near Morgan, Texas. We teamed up with a dozer crew from Texas Forest service and one of the guys had a video camera. Due to terrain, they specifically asked for 6x6 firefighting equipment on this particular fire. As we followed the dozer, the ground man was snapping pics and video taping. The video is of me taking the truck off the back of a large tank dam. The dozer had cut a path for us to go down. And from behing the steering wheel, the grade appeared to be alot steeper than what is depicted from the video.

Everything worked out great. We broke a airtank drain valve off just prior to this video but a cedar limb stick came in handy to plug the hole.

Special thanks to Billy Burch of Texas Forest Service for the pictures and video


Enjoy..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fHe_wLXxr4

Nice! Glad to see it working for ya. Does she go on many runs?

Good looking pics and nice commentary on the video! What type of foam system do you use and at what application rate?

You can just dump a bottle of cheap dish soap in the tank, it works good and its cheap.

Great to see the 5-ton hard at work Chad I enjoyed the commentary on the Youtube clip too.

Cool!!!!!

These are such great trucks-so versatile.

Equally at home hauling beans and bullets, flood refugees, fighting fires and hauling mulch for homeowners.

What can green do for you?!

Good to see all your hard work at use! Did I see some small animal in the foreground of the video? What was that?

You just recently finished putting that truck together, didn't you? Looks right at home!

I love this truck. It hasnt done us wrong yet. And as far as fire calls go, yes, she goes out fairly often. And if I am at the station, it definately goes. These younger guys like to take the 1 tons because they have more road speed and can get there faster but when traveling 8 or 10 miles, theres not much time difference in 75 MPH and 55 MPH. Once at the fire, everyone want to jump on this truck..lol. And the 5 ton last soooooo much longer on water than the 1 tons. I have no complaints at all with this truck.

Our foam proportioner is a "FoamFlo" made by Cascade. It has a small dial on it and you basically turn it to low, medium, or high for flow. It is not a very elaborate system but they are very dependable and affordable when it comes to foam systems. And they are very basic and easy to clean. They cost about $400 and if you dont have a foam proportioner, do like Jason said and dump some Dawn dish soap in the tank. it works well too.

And as far as the animal goes, I thought the same thing when i first saw it. It is actually a thistle weed bud that is blowing as Billy is walking towards the truck. Gives it the appearance that something is running away.

And the truck has been in service for almost a year. This is definately my favorite truck of our fleet and most of the guys at the station have given it the name.. "Chads Truck" Don't know why .. Could it be that i spent every waking hour for 8 months building it??


Thanks for the comments guys. Y'all have a good day

Chad

Thanks for sharing the pics and the vid. It's great to see our MV's in action and especially when the duty is something along this line aint it. We're blessed to have these vehicles.

Re: RE: video and pics of our 5 ton fighting fire

alphadeltaromeo said:

Thanks for sharing the pics and the vid. It's great to see our MV's in action and especially when the duty is something along this line aint it. We're blessed to have these vehicles.

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Yes sir !! This truck has very much been a blessing to our department as well as our community. I forgot to mention that at the same fire as pictured above, we had to pull the forest service dozer out of a sinkhole. Now I probably wouldnt believe it if I hadn't done it myself, but it did. Originally, our water tanks were empty when we started pulling and it just spun all 10 wheels. So we went and topped off from a tanker, which added about 10,000 lbs to the truck, and went back and did it again. It took some really hard pullin' in low range 1 and several attepts, but it finally did it. We used a BIG 50' chain and luckily had some really hard ground to pull from. I wish that Billy had been taping it but he was operating the dozer. But here is the picture of it..

RE: Re: RE: video and pics of our 5 ton fighting fire

What kind of pump are you using, we are curently looking at similar setups and cant fig out what pump to go with (that we can afford)

Re: RE: Re: RE: video and pics of our 5 ton fighting fire

docthrush said:

What kind of pump are you using, we are curently looking at similar setups and cant fig out what pump to go with (that we can afford)

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Hale HPX200

Uh yea...thats one stuck dozer Looks kinda small though, what model would that be?? Super looking 5 ton and great work on putting out the fires.

The dozer was a Case 1150 to the best of my recollection. Not too big, not too small, but just right.

Here is mine being warmed up for use at the Woodward Dream Cruise

Nice looking truck !! I bet that thing will flow some water

Wow Great post and picts I am really glad to see your truck out there working protecting the community and a big thanks to all you firefighters. Don't worry about the one ton guys all in a hurry like you said nothing beats showing up on time with the tools, water and equipment to get the job done.

That M530 is awesome can you post some more picts?

ptg530C said:

Here is mine being warmed up for use at the Woodward Dream Cruise

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You should register for Motor Muster at Greenfield Village. We usually have a pretty good showing of MVs and your firetruck would be great addition.

WOW! Does it really get warm enough to wear shorts up there? Haha.