My Work Truck.....

Ain't got anything to brag on here at the house so I'll brag on my continueing project truck at work. Started off as a military surplus turn in, 1986 Chevy 3/4 Ton with a 1.25 Ton drive train. First thing was we shatched the bed off and built a custom flatbed. Then we built the tank on a sskid frame so if we needed to pump water at one place for an extended period of time we just unscrew 5 bolts and the pump, tank, and hose real will come off as a unit. After we got the pump and reel mounted and plumbed, then we added a 3" body lift to the cab and stuck on a set of 36" swampers. Next was the 12K lb. warn winch on the step bumper. All along ya have the little stuff to get installed, light bar, radio, siren, exterior work lights, and the list goes on and on. The thing this truck has over all the new quick responce trucks we have is that I ain't scared to ding it up. Collaps a fender, go to the bone yard, take off another one on a truck going to auction, throw it on, prime and paint. Fully equiped with all the fire fighting equipment, which is expencive stuff, we probably ain't got $15K in the whole set-up. We're trying to save those tax dollars.

So without further adue, here she is.............

Here's a look from the front......

And the real work end.

Oh yea, that tank holds 250gal of F-500 foam loaded water, and the pump is the same that they put on the duece-n-a-half brush trucks. For the firefighters on here, it's got 100' of 2.5 soft hose for hydrant fill, 200ft. of 1.5 attack hose preconnected, and 200ft. or 1" on the booster reel. Got all the forestry nozzles and fittings in one tool box, and hand tools in the other, including a 1/4 mile of 3/4" for running mutliple attack lines, and all the hardware to make them work. Give me a water source and I'm set.

Can ya tell I'm pretty proud of the gal. Took her on a big incident last year over in the Midway/Darien area, performed flawlessly. I'll put her up against any other truck we have in our fleet, except for top end speed and AC coolness, notice the windows are down.

Nick T

Nick.......

Looks like a work horse bud!!!!!!!!!!

I imagine that thang will go anywhere you need it to......

man that thing is nice and the best part is that the gov. pays for it. Mine cost a little more though. Try a $340,000 Pierce. I would much rather have the $15,000 rig.

yup

that thing is sweet! we got a Pierce Pumper in the city and e-one cyclones in the county. i wish the city(un-named) would come off with the $$$$$ to get an old surplus like that for a brush truck. you should post it on firehouse.com !

Thats nice lookin can you give me some pointers --I been workin on mine for awhile now I got a long way to go here is a pic

Man?

Where did you find that pic?

That's sweet Nick.........I like that I can tell you put a lot of hours in it......I would ask if they come in camo............
HHH

Birdgetter, when it came to us it was camo, still has a little of the origional paint around the bottom in back of the cab. That thing was but ugly then. Goob, 2 words, GRANT MONEY. All ya have to do is get your procurement officer to start scouring surplus and find one in decent shape, then apply for the grants and get ya a share of the $$. I don't think the State has but our time and a little paint invested in this'en. Our county has 3 built on a simular chassie but they aren't as off-road as we made ours, but their's are still some sharp lookin trucks. I'll see if I can hussle up a pic of one of theirs soon. Rapid Fire, the mainstay of the Commission is the tractors/truck suppression units at a combined cost of around $120K each but with the water quality regs in place now I'm seein in the near future we'll be gettin more into the water handling end of things. The tractor is more effecient but what does Gov't and effeciency have in common? Tim, ya should have seen me on the coast last year over around Darien, pullin trucks out and puttin that thing in places with folks sayin "you'll never make it through there." What's fun is seeing all those new F350's being confined to the roads and us with the real trucks just driving on by and straight into the meat of things. To be honest with ya, that thing supprised me a time or 2.

Thanks for the compliments. Next is on to the creature comforts and rehabing the interior. Just got to wait 'til after the first of July so they'll turn me some more money loose.

Nick T

that's a heck of a sweet-lookin fire truck

Thats a nice looking truck. Lets hope the dollars you saved are not wasted since you did a good job in saving them. Great work.