First, let me say that anyone that knows me, knows that I make fun of as much as I can. Fire Fighters know, I'm sure the non fire fighters don't, but we survive on it. Not only do we survive on banter, but at times we need it to save our lives. IF we take this stuff too serious, Lord knows where we will end up. It's called "Gallow's Humor". And for any of us that don't understand it, we need to check our feelings at the control tab.
That being said, Congratulations to Chief Lohr and the apparatus team. Not only do I applaude them, I give them a standing ovation. Their expertise has carried us lightyears into the future on a shoe string budget in a matter of months. In all seriousness, I am optimistic about these units. There are some extremely great ideas on them. I'll even give CAFS a try and the benefit of the doubt, until it proves me wrong.
Looking at this vehicle, from what I have seen of it, which is limited exposure, I can't see where this vehicle is going to be user friendly (in most situations). Look at the small open compartment on the rear. Also take a look on the officer's pump panel. The upper open compartments with the netting to the far left, these are where the standpipe packs are supposed to be carried. For someone who works at a company that takes a standpipe pack on every adaptive we run, and that's no BS, this is not going to be an easy task. Whomever designed the rear compartment to hold a short standpipe pack, has obviously never carried one up fifteen floors recently. They'd throw that piece of junk in the trash and get a long one faster than they could write out a transfer. Oh...wait, a long pack isn't going to fit there, is it? A raised cab....why? Not only is there no reason for us to stand up in the crew compartment, but it violates our safety policies. What's in that dead space behind the arrow boards above the compartments? I can probably keep going....
Yes, for a metropolitan area, we do run the rigs into the ground. I am responsible for the two remaining Sutphens every 3 days in the reserve fleet. You can come see first hand, I can confidently say they are not worth their weight and bubblegum, shoe string and duct tape holding them together. As for the E-Ones, when is the last time you rode on one of those from our system? I am driving one as we speak. There is a 4 inch opening between the door and the door jam, because the thing won't shut correctly. I could make the list go on and on. How come our 80 era Seagraves have over 100,000 miles on them and are the best thing we have in the fleet? Our early 90's and late 90's are just as good. Take any unit apart, take the drive train, and the chassie out of the equation, because they are all the same, and they tend to hold up no matter where you are. What components are you left with? A cab and a body. Elite is building the body. And the bodies are generally what holds up. And again, I am optimistic that they will. Go to 30 and 10. Those are Spartan cabs....ahhhahhhahhahhahha, on the top of the list of the biggest pieces of junk in this County.
I have a lot of experience in the all the geographical areas in the County and these are WAY too big. Because of our demographics, we should be building two types of engines; a rural engine with a lot of water - min. of 1000 gallons and an urban engine that's short and to the point. Why are we carrying all this junk? A wagon needs to do two functions; put water in it and get water out of it. Outside of EMS, make our special services run the calls they should be on. That's why we are running these things into the ground.
Keep in mind, I'm not an outsider criticizing my department, criticizing my department's faults.I am a member of my department criticizing my dept.'s faults.
I'm glad you spoke up. I'm glad you didn't hold your tongue anymore. That's what a FORUM is about; good conversation. I commend you for being involved. Because that's all this is. And if anyone sees it any differently, I say again, check your feelings at the control tab.
Marshall
That being said, Congratulations to Chief Lohr and the apparatus team. Not only do I applaude them, I give them a standing ovation. Their expertise has carried us lightyears into the future on a shoe string budget in a matter of months. In all seriousness, I am optimistic about these units. There are some extremely great ideas on them. I'll even give CAFS a try and the benefit of the doubt, until it proves me wrong.
Looking at this vehicle, from what I have seen of it, which is limited exposure, I can't see where this vehicle is going to be user friendly (in most situations). Look at the small open compartment on the rear. Also take a look on the officer's pump panel. The upper open compartments with the netting to the far left, these are where the standpipe packs are supposed to be carried. For someone who works at a company that takes a standpipe pack on every adaptive we run, and that's no BS, this is not going to be an easy task. Whomever designed the rear compartment to hold a short standpipe pack, has obviously never carried one up fifteen floors recently. They'd throw that piece of junk in the trash and get a long one faster than they could write out a transfer. Oh...wait, a long pack isn't going to fit there, is it? A raised cab....why? Not only is there no reason for us to stand up in the crew compartment, but it violates our safety policies. What's in that dead space behind the arrow boards above the compartments? I can probably keep going....
Yes, for a metropolitan area, we do run the rigs into the ground. I am responsible for the two remaining Sutphens every 3 days in the reserve fleet. You can come see first hand, I can confidently say they are not worth their weight and bubblegum, shoe string and duct tape holding them together. As for the E-Ones, when is the last time you rode on one of those from our system? I am driving one as we speak. There is a 4 inch opening between the door and the door jam, because the thing won't shut correctly. I could make the list go on and on. How come our 80 era Seagraves have over 100,000 miles on them and are the best thing we have in the fleet? Our early 90's and late 90's are just as good. Take any unit apart, take the drive train, and the chassie out of the equation, because they are all the same, and they tend to hold up no matter where you are. What components are you left with? A cab and a body. Elite is building the body. And the bodies are generally what holds up. And again, I am optimistic that they will. Go to 30 and 10. Those are Spartan cabs....ahhhahhhahhahhahha, on the top of the list of the biggest pieces of junk in this County.
I have a lot of experience in the all the geographical areas in the County and these are WAY too big. Because of our demographics, we should be building two types of engines; a rural engine with a lot of water - min. of 1000 gallons and an urban engine that's short and to the point. Why are we carrying all this junk? A wagon needs to do two functions; put water in it and get water out of it. Outside of EMS, make our special services run the calls they should be on. That's why we are running these things into the ground.
Keep in mind, I'm not an outsider criticizing my department, criticizing my department's faults.I am a member of my department criticizing my dept.'s faults.
I'm glad you spoke up. I'm glad you didn't hold your tongue anymore. That's what a FORUM is about; good conversation. I commend you for being involved. Because that's all this is. And if anyone sees it any differently, I say again, check your feelings at the control tab.
Marshall
A large part of my collection was purchased from a GOOD man, John Floyd. I give him FULL credit on his work, although I may miss something. Thanks John. Also Scott Mattson, Warren Jenkins, Michael Schwartzberg, and Mike Sanders. Thanks Guys.
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