Fireman's Friend Direct Fill Connection - Fort Loramie VFC - Engine Tender 361
By President Mark Davis
March 13, 2014
We like to share good design ideas when we come across them. The folks at Fort Loramie VFC in Shelby County, Ohio recently took deliver of a new Toyne 1,750 gpm/2,500-gallon engine-tender equipped with dual, Fireman Friend fill valves. The fill valves are NFPA 1901 compliant and are simple to use - just hook up the fill hose and start filling - there is no valve to open or close on the tender/tanker.
On January 15, 2014, during the polar vortex (-14F), FLVFC Water Supply Officer Tim Siegal reported that while operating at a large, mutual aid barn fire, many of the responding tenders had frozen direct-fill ball valves (inoperable) on the rear of the tenders. ET-361 was able to sustain their flow with one 4" and one 2.5" Fireman's Friend direct fill tank valves. The Firemans Friend valves did not freeze since the valves are located internally on the water tank.
Many thanks to Parker Browne to alerting us to this new engine/tender and to AC David P. Fornell for allowing us to use his photographs.
Fort Loramie VFC's (Ohio) new Toyne engine-tender is shown here during its pump test at the Toyne facility. The rig is equipped with a Hale QMax 1,750 gpm fire pump.
Engine-Tender 361 has two, Fireman Friend fill valves on the rear - a 2-1/2-inch and a 4-inch (outfitted with 5-inch fitting).
The engine-tender also has a 5-inch front discharge. The concept is to draft from the rear and discharge through the front when involved in large scale water pumping operations.
Using the rear intake during the pump test.
A low-level strainer is pre-connected on one of the sections of suction hose - a real time-saver.
The pump is also equipped with a Trident Automatic Air Primer.
