As noted in many of our other stories, our travels around North America provide us with many opportunities to see a variety of ways of "doing business." When it comes to hauling water that means we get to see a wide variety of water hauling vehicles. Sometimes those rigs ar high-end custom vehicles...sometimes those rigs are very plain, homemade or locally made vehicles. Many times the use of homemade rigs is a function of financial choice...this most commonly occurs in the rural areas of North America and in those areas with limited local government financial support of fire/rescue services.

During a couple of our trips to Alabama we've had the pleasure of working with folks from the Kingdom VFD. At the time of our work there the folks operated Tanker 272, a 1,500-gallon "homemade" tanker. While it wasn't incredibly fancy, it did a pretty good job of hauling water. As with any homemade rig (and some customs as well) safety is important...everything from tank baffling to braking to suspension systems. We know little about Tanker 272 other than it started its life as an over-the-road tractor. The folks at Kingdom worked to get a tank on it with a 10-inch dump and a couple of quick fill lines (notice the cam locks). It was plain, but functional. Safety wise, not NFPA compliant but certainly not overloaded. We have no info on tank baffles. Sometimes, simple just has to work until something better comes along.