Where is everyone #5

They followed their pilot cars. And their pilot cars were on holiday. You would think that by that stage of the game, they’d know better, but I reckon not.

 

Good to here that someone is making sense and ordering them to actually work. Had a 7500 GMC with a 750 Darley. It was a first responder two man truck. Cascade bottles, jaws, winch. Not a first line engine, but the darn thing could do it. So once fema and the state got into play they gave us no credit for it because we were rual and in there eyes 750gpm pumper was not up to the job. Now were it shined was it could pump and roll and was light enough to go out for field and forrest fires. They said you can't relay pump with a 750, to a 1250 and meet there requirements. I still call #########.

 

He might have had a bid run. But the open board guys ran full hours or to closest terminal without going far over hours. They had some guys they let run wild too.

 

Serious question for the younger, more technologically advanced members — what do you do with at least 15 years worth of old cell phones and are they worth anything?

 

We're going away from 2 stage pumps back to just single stage. A 2 stage will pull a draft way faster, if operated correctly.

For others who may not be familiar with pumps, here's a quick and dirty breakdown. A single stage pump has 1 impeller and a 2 stage pump has 2.
In a single stage pump, water comes in through the suction, or intake side, goes through the impeller where it is pressurized and is discharged through a discharge valve.

In a 2 stage pump, the water can be directed through the impellers either in a series mode (into one impeller, then into the second before being discharged), or as a parallel mode (into both impellers simultaneously).
The series, or pressure setting, is a higher pressure/lower volume set up. This is used where lower amounts of water are sufficient, but you may need the pressure to penetrate into the burning pile. Think silage pit, hay bale or barn full of hay type fire, something that will take a few days to burn out on it's own no matter how much water you put on it. Another scenario would be a house fire in one or two rooms. Something that can be put out with around 1,000 gallons.
Conversely, the parallel, or volume setting, is a lower pressure/higher volume set up. This would be used on a large commercial type building where you need more water at less pressure. Something that will take 10,000+ gallons and you need a lot of water in a short amount of time.
The Rule of Thumb for determining pressure vs volume is 50% of the rated pump capacity. There's some other considerations, but this was the main one.
If you have a 1500 gpm pump and the total of your discharge volume was 600 gpm, you would stay in series or pressure mode. If your total discharge volume was 1,200 gpm, you would be in parallel or volume mode.
Engine speed is roughly 30-35% different for the same discharge psi in pressure vs volume.

Hopefully this wasn't too boring.

 

You can do it, but if they don't change the rules up, how are their buddies supposed to sell new fire trucks?

 

"But, but, but my pilot car is supposed to know where he's going and lead me."
The stories from 2 of my friends still in the wind energy sector, about the drivers that are being hired now, are almost unbelievable. If I didn't know their word was good, I wouldn't believe some of the stuff they've told me. Guys who had no idea how to start the pony motor to break down, or even how to break down an rgn, so they could load support equipment. One guy who didn't realize the extra axle chained on his trailer was his 4th, so he could move nacelles. The list goes on.

 

Uncle Joe was a card carrying teamster his entire career.

After he retired from Don Ward he went OTR.

Team trucking in a cabover Freightliner for NW Transport out of the main Denver terminal. 55 mph all over the country. He and his partner would switch places every five hours.

I never had to deal with a logbook before 03. But from what he told me every time they changed the rules it got worse.

My biggest beef is that the people making the rules never have to live with them. It's all about the money.

 

Can’t sleep — got us one hell of a light show going on

 

About got my rocks off on this one