We like "deuces". Our 1960's era military 6x6s are tough and dependable, and will go places you wouldn't believe. Forestry has a good supply of them, and we can get them for free. It's a win/win situation for us.Several people have expressed interest in the fact that we build our own fire trucks. We correspond with a lot of people via the internet through forums and from contacts through this web site. These people are usually from fire departments that have enough funding to buy trucks that are already set up.
It's not that unusual to see home-made fire trucks in our area. Every fire department within a 30-mile radius of Silver City has at least one home-made truck. Most fire departments around here have several trucks that were built by their firefighters, starting with only a cab and chassis. It's fascinating to look at them. Some of them REALLY look good, rivaling a commercially built fire truck in workmanship. Others don't look so good, appearing to have been put together in a hurry without a lot of regard for esthetics. All of them, however, adequately perform the task for which they were created.
Ours are kind of in between. We try to keep them as clean and functional as we can. We want them to look decent, but we don't agonize about cosmetics, and we spend very little time on things that do not directly affect the task we need the trucks to perform. Ease of use is a high priority.
Here are some shots of Silver City Unit 301 while under construction. This isn't all that in-depth, but it shows you how we approach the task:
We started with a cab and chassis from Forestry. This truck was a ragtop. John Crane Lemco, Tulsa, OK the employer of one of our volunteers, donated the material and shop facilities to build the bed on this truck. It features a baffled 700-gallon tank.
The bed was installed in January, 2002. One of our volunteers and a couple of his co-workers fabricated the bed, then painted the truck (it was originally beige). The bed is basically a rectangular 700-gallon baffled tank with fenders and a railed step on the back. The bed is supported by two lengths of 4" square tubing which mount to the factory brackets on the frame. The tank outlet is a 2 1/2" pipe which extends from the bottom of the tank and then forward between the frame rails at the front. In this shot, the deck between the cab and bed has not yet been installed.
photo by Bill Beall, June 2002
In March, 2002, we acquired the equipment (courtesy of yet another grant) to finish this truck. We also located a hard top for it. It is rigged very similar to 302, with a couple of improvements that we've come up with. Now that 301 is in service, we will take 302 out for a while for refitting, and when they're both back in service, they'll be almost identical except for the 20,000 lb. winch on 301 (which has come in very handy on more than one occasion since we put this truck into service).
The work was done in the barn. At this point, we have removed the ragtop, mounted two hose reels, and a steel deck has been fabricated and mounted between the cab and the bed. The pump has been mounted to the deck, and a distribution manifold has been mounted to the left fender on the bed.
photo by Bill Beall, June 2002 We scavenged this hard top off of an unserviceable deuce that Keystone Fire & Rescue was preparing to send back to Forestry. It needed a little TLC, so we worked it over and painted it prior to installation.
photo by Bill Beall, June, 2002 This shot from the right side shows the plumbing from the tank to the pump. We installed a rubber hose between the elbow and the tee in order to help reduce stress. There is a strainer mounted to the pump intake, and the hand primer is mounted to the back of the cab. We originally planned to install a box for a crosslay between the cab and the pump, with a slot underneath for the tubes and wiring, but we ended up putting the hose behind the hose reels. The military gas can on the left side of the picture will supply the pump. This deck area will eventually be pretty much covered with a tool storage box.
photo by Bill Beall, June 2002 This shot from the left side shows the hydrant fill pipe and the rubber hose between the pump and the distribution manfold. Again, we installed a length of flexible hose in order to minimize stress. The tubes on the corner of the tank will allow us to monitor the water level. This pump is a 250 GPM "Class 9" pump with an 18-HP Briggs Vanguard engine. Class 9 pumps must perform at a minimum of 150 PSI at 50 GPM. With a 1/2" smooth bore nozzle, we will have about a 60 foot reach using this pump.
photo by Bill Beall, June 2002 This is the distribution manifold which was fabricated from 4" square tubing. The pump pressurizes this unit. At the left, we have the inlet to the manifold from the pump, which attaches with a camlock fitting to make it easier to disassemble should we have to remove the pump for service or repair. Along the top from left to right, we have a 2 1/2" out, a 2" camlock out, and left and right hose reels. Along the front from left to right, we have one outlet for 1 1/2" with spare 1 1/2" and 2" plugged. The valve to the right side is intended for future outlets on the rear of the truck should we decide to develop them. Caps and plugs will be added later.
photo by Bill Beall, June 2002 This is what it looks like from a slight distance. Everything on the truck can be controlled by a person standing in this area.
Photo by Bill Beall, June 2002 Hard top, siren, and simple beacon mounted. The beacon and the siren were donations from Lawrence Creek Fire Department dating back to before we were were operational. The beacon was originally mounted on 401 (Tanker 1), and the siren was used on Squad 1. The siren was manufactured by Tulsa Siren Company, which is no longer in business. It's about the size of a Federal Q and sounds very similar, although lower pitched than a Q.
Besides saving us some cabbage that would have been spent on a lightbar and electronic siren, we thought it would be kind of cool to put these back in use on 301, giving it kind of a "retro" look. Heck, after all, the truck IS a 60's model, right?
Come to think of it, five of our trucks are 60's models.
The 12 Volt System photos by Bill Beall, October 2002 Now for the good part. We installed a 12-volt alternator on this truck. If you're looking at this with interest, I don't have to explain why. We took a piece of 2" angle iron and cut a couple of slots in it for the studs on the front cover of the engine (this is a Continental Multifuel). We took some other scrap metal we had laying around and fabricated a "U" bracket for the alternator mount. We eyeballed it before we welded it up to line up the pulley on the alternator with the FRONT belt on the engine. We replaced the front belt with a 51" (I think) belt. Front belt can be slacked and tightened by the tension adjustement on the 24 volt generator on the right side of the engine, meaning that you don't have to provide for tension adjust at the alternator, although a bracket at the top can be fabricated to fit the bolts that mount the air compressor.
We added a battery to the battery box (the box will barely hold three automotive-sized batteries - we use the Wal Mart 950-amp $69.95 specials with the 3-year replacement warranty), and ran the 12 volt output from the battery through a 40-amp breaker, which we mounted under the passenger door. The breaker tripped when we engaged the old siren, so we ran the siren around the breaker and installed a fusible link to that circuit.
Speaking of the siren, it is switched by two floor switches, either of which will complete the ground (earth, to those of you in the UK) to a continuous-duty solenoid mounted on the right front fender. Supply power comes from the battery to the solenoid, and from the solenoid to the siren.
We bought an inexpensive fuse block from the local auto parts store and mounted it on the bracket underneath the glove box. The 40-amp breaker supplies the fuse block, which supplies the beacons, radio, pump engine starter and hose reels.
All the wiring in the cab is nicely tucked away and secured, which is a surprisingly pleasant departure from the usual for us. The radio and beacon wiring runs under the center roof brace at the top, down the back of the cab, under the floor, and up and through the firewall behind the glove box (yes, we had to drill a hole). The wiring from the fuse block under the glove box runs forward through the firewall and down and back under the cab to wherever it goes from there.
The result is a very clean (figuratively speaking) cab.
Oh yeah. Headphones are a Good Idea for use in deuces. These trucks are LOUD. Most radios either use an extension speaker, or have a jack on the back for an extensions speaker that can be switched from the panel on the front of the radio. If you have a speaker switch, plug the headphones (mono scanner headphones from Radio Shack work well) into the jack and switch to the headphones. If you only have one jack on the back, and it is occupied by the only radio speaker, get a stereo "Y" adapter cable from our friends at Radio Shack, and plug your speaker into one leg, and the headphones into the other. We've done it both ways.
With two people in the truck, the passenger can monitor the radio. If working a grass or brush fire on the move, the driver can wear the cans to hear the IC, or to communicate with a crew member via his handheld.Important: When putting on the headphones, de-squelch the radio, turn the volume down, put on the headphones, and bring the volume from up to where you want it to be, then squelch the noise. This will minimize bleeding from the ears.
