Red Horse

Thx for posting-another dimension!

Hmnn- you DO get around!

I hear you-just the practical side of me

Jim, I never knew the history of Merk's truck-thx. Some of these fire trucksgo for unbelievable numbers. A town on Cape-to remain nameless-sold a 237 powered pumper about three years ago- friend attended the bid opening-that did not happen. Truck went to a "local". Yank the 5 speed, put a 6 speed in, shorten up WB and you would have a single axle dump for a lifetime!

B-dog thx for the history. Remember the 69 R and the MB. The MB was converted to a DPW sander-until a women blew a stop sign, hit it and it rolled over.! Don't remember the "type 45+-unless that is a American LaFrance which is the current muster truck. the current R is a Triplex-someone was thinking of its "afterlife"! give me a heads up next time you are headed for the Country Cupboard.

10-4, Apples and High taxes!

so Larry-what do you have for CCA? I'm thinking when guys I bought the truck from converted from 4 -6V with the SP switch, they "filled the battery boxes" with 4 -12 V. I don't ever remember buying trucks with a total of 4800 CCA.-and that includes tractors that had to have a hot wire for a tailgate Will do Mike.

Bulldog-here are some pix-sorry could not get it outside.

KS-but were they not also skating by on "credits" that they had? or am I confusing them with Cat?

Guys-I'm sure you are right-I'm just trying to get blood out of a stone!

Guys one other test i did. Had the wife hit the starter and my volts on Batteries dropped to around 4.

Well in the dead of winter I tried to start the B model-not even a grunt. Truck is 12 v, 4 @ 1200 CCA. But they are 10 years old! everyone tells me I'm kidding myself. In any case I took two of them out and charged them about 6 hrs-getting 12.2 v reading. The two on the other side were reading around 12.18 so I took a shot, brought the Ranger in the barn and hooked it up to that side. No luck- Headlights are bright, internal buzzer and low air red light bright but no turnover-just a "grunt". I have had intermittent problems in past with the starter not engaging but before I screw around with that opinions if I in fact 4 12 V at a little over 12 V are not enough? Seems tome 4800 CCA's even at 12V should be more than enough but I guess not? Or I'm back to starter issue.??

Hah- only a few! Thx for info- I don't even remember what the connection was that your name came up but it did have something to do with 360's or 361's that had big power-12v-71 or that big OHC Cat.

Mike- Same spoke-so on my rear I would have a 3 piece with a two piece... By the way-you must be psychic because I was down at my pal's shop in Lancaster an hour ago where Dave M keeps his Binder and his Brockway and we were talking about 360's, 361's and long nose versions to accommodate 12V-71's and your name came up!

Guys, Any reason why you can not mix 8 x 24 two piece with 8 x 24 three piece? I'm sure the answer is "no" but as always.."the devil is in the details"

KS- I do believe you said the magic words.."long term success". And as 41 Chev and H'gunner point out, we all know wht happens when the subsidies get yanked and the business model has to stand on its own two feet. OR when Paccar, International or even Ford decide propane has good volume numbers. Another Carbon Motors in the making.

B-Dog Thx for explanation on the HS grants. I wrote quite a few successful grants for use as intended and also had some very valid ones rejected-really pissed me off when the town got that truck-never heard of the Assistance to fFrefighter grants I hear you on intended use and agree-I believe we have enough "front line" capabiity and the mini would provide a good compliment to the existing fleet. I wonder if the Boston decision was a "low bid" or disatisfaction with the Navistars-the easrlier Navistsars were 4300's I think that had DT-466's but I think the later ones were Durastars with the International built "Power Stroke" . Of course the new Fords-assuming diesels will be the Ford built 6.7 Power Stroke. I'll see if I can get a picture of the R model.

Has anyone had any difficulty downloading any of KSC's videos? I can't get the Ford Cargo or the DD 5 to print.

Hah-"penis envy"-hit the nail on the head-ouch! I'm at a pals shop a while back and the paid guy comes in with towns F-350 power stroke ambulance leaking coolant. We at the time had a new 450 Power Stroke due to be delivered. I asked him what was going to become of the old truck when the new one arrived and he said .."included in the new one as a trade-stupid we should have kept it as a back uP'. I said.."well as a taxpayer I think that was the right move". He says.."you wouldn't feel that way if the new one went down and you had a heart attack". I said..."wrong- I would take my chances on mutual aid showing up at my house in their new 450 rather than relying on this "back up" that would be kept in an unheated building with the mice eating all the wiring on it". He walked away-no clue .

No argument on taking the place of a "real" engine. But in a town of 4000, we have two fairly new front line pumpers, A F'Liner tanker that we got new under a Homeland Security Grant-happy to get it as a taxpayer-just tell me the justification for getting under such a grant, a very clean R-600 pumper-old but reliable and the S-1600 I mentioned. To me the mini-pumper would make sense as a rapid response unit for car fires, brush fires etc.-againI'm not a fire fighter-but I did spend 44 years in a haz mat business and went to enough fire schools to know what you can do with a 20 lb. BC Ansul as well as a fog nozzle. What do most mini's carry? at least 200 gals of water? By the way, in terms of mutual aid we have all kinds of engines in neighboring towns that are like 5 miles from any section of town. We also have only two or three light commercial businesses. We do have a heavily traveled interstate that goes through town. As for staffing, we have one paid guy on duty, basically mon-fri, 8-4. Other than that a call department.

Well now that you mention Spartan I think one of the guys mentioned "Rosenbauer on a Spartan Chassis"-is that possible??-but you are making my point. These guys think they are getting an Oshkosh! Last year we had 130" of snow-this year easy winter-I think 40-but in anycase, I would bet money on a chain equipped 11:00R x 24.5 equipped with chains. vs one of these things with little rubber-which to me translates into less ground clearance. Then again as a taxpayer I would rather have seen my money go toward an F-550 4 x 4 mini-pumper. I know some of you "pro's" have made negative comments about mini-pumpers but they do seem to sell well. We also have an older DT-466 powered International S-1800 4 x 4. That should have sufficed for the rare need when 4 x 4 was needed. I've lived in this town for 26 years and never heard of once instance where the lack of four wheel drive led to a property loss.

Who would you believe is the brother in law of Arturo Allisoni who heads up Iveco's transmission unit

Well I learned my town has a new Rosenbauer on order- 4wd. Its not on a commercial chassis but I'm told its a typical pumper cab. All the pix I've ever seen of 4 wd pumpers on typical pumpers have very small diameter rubber-at least they look that way. we have a lot of gravel common drives and my concern is this small rubber is a formula for trouble. can just see this thing getting hung up on 12 " of heavy snow with the wheels spinning. Any thoughts from you fire pros?