During our 2012 seminar in Amenia, New York we came across an interesting dump chute design on an older, 3200-gallon tanker out of the Stanford (NY) Fire District. The side dump chutes were soft-sided; made of "dump tank-like" material. We really have not seen another set-up like this; it worked pretty well and the rig did a great job of hauling water during the 2-hour drill. The design did not ... (Full Story & Photos)

The use of suction elbows on side suction inlets is gaining popularity in those areas of the country where folks depend on drafting to support their firefighting operations. Several manufacturers make a suction elbow and we certainly recommend suction elbow use...especially when using portable dump tanks positioned in front of...or to the rear of the pumper. For the two brands that we tested back ... (Full Story & Photos)

Another simple item that can make or break a quick drafting set-up. Many of the floating suction strainer manufacturers use some type of pin or slide bar lock to secure the strainer in the float during storage. On some brands, it you forget to remove the pin or move the slide bar then there is a good chance that the strainer and float will come out of the water once the suction hose is full of water ... (Full Story & Photos)

This week we completed the installation of one of our bridge-mount dry fire hydrants on a bridge over Fall Creek in McClean, New York. The project was funded by the McLean Fire District and used our angle-mount bracket system. The lift at the bridge was pretty high (16-feet) but the water supply was abundant and usable. A 6-inch ETT brand female dry hydrant head and a 6-inch ETT stream strainer ... (Full Story & Photos)

Building on our last news story, "What's On Your Engine #14", one way to overcome the flow restriction of asmaller discharge when trying to support higher flows in an LDH line is to twin a couple of smaller lines into the larger line. A variety of appliances will work...you just need to get those lines combining into the single, larger line. The pumper shown in this photo from our 2018 seminar ... (Full Story & Photos)

Building on last week's News Story, here is a good example of getting yourself into a jam by forgetting the flow limitation of your engine's discharges. The pumpers at this event were trying to support a 1,000 gpm operation at the attack pumper using a relay pumper over a 2000-ft distance of 5-inch LDH. The source had plenty of available water....that was never the issue. Elevation change was a ... (Full Story & Photos)

There is nothing worse than trying to dig through a milk crate of adaptors in a back compartment on a rainy night trying to find the 2-1/2" to 5" adaptor. We get that. However, if you choose to carry that adaptor connected to a 2-1/2" or 3" discharge then make sure everyone knows the flow limitations of that discharge. The adapter shown in this photo provides a number of options - awesome, no digging ... (Full Story & Photos)

Nothing overly exciting hear - unless of course it doesn't work. We spoke about this issue before, when choosing to retrofit a rear dump valve/chute with a swiveling version, make sure that new chute will clear the top of your local dump tank frames. Remember that there is no standard on the height of a dump tank and there is no standard on the location of a dump chute. Many dump tanks come with ... (Full Story & Photos)