Olunteer fire departments

Some may remember I recently bought a retired pumper truck (on a ?64 Ford F600 chassis) to put a bale bed on and make a chore truck out of.
It has been very well cared for a runs like a top with no leaks or odd sounds. When I bought it the thing had just over 2200 miles. Total.

I kept thinking about that mileage and just couldn?t believe it penciled out to replace the truck. I know that it is old, but nothing is worn on it and
parts are still readily available. When I picked it up it was in one of the volunteer?s barns. He said he sure hated to see it go because they liked
the pump on it so much better than their new truck because it primed easier and was more powerful.

Here our VFD has a pumper truck as well although I?ve never seen it. They just use pickups with bumper mounted sprayers and backpack
blowers to put out field fires, which is about all they see. It brings me to my question. Are departments required to replace machines due to age
regardless of wear and use? When I drove school buses we couldn?t run them past 19 years unless we had special situation permission from
the state. This seems like a time a county ought to get that permission.

I got the title in the mail the other day. It had been retitled in 1991 when districts were reorganized. It had 1667 actual miles then. In the
following 27 years she got about 600 more. That is just amazing to me - it?s like a little old lady story with a Ford Falcon as the car...

First out has to be under fifteen years old. Other trucks can be older units. My brother is in a VFD in SoDak. They were running a 1948 Ford when I was last up there. Thing would start in any weather. New unit was a 2015 that was in need of constant attention.

Answer is YES. So stupid that a perfectly running piece of equipment must be disposable. Big brother at work. Big corporate, local dealerships, pockets of political hacks, etc.
Please take care of her and drain everything in the winter. You can also have your new toy and them on the running boards as you drive it in the local parade!!

THE ANSWER IS NO!!! Towns/cities/Fire departments can keep running the old truck just as long as they want to. The decision is made by the VOTERS, or town council, or board of aldermen, whatever is the form of government. A fire department may convince the body that there are standards which is true. The NFPA is the body that researches the standards and updates them every year. The NFPA is supported and financed by the insurance companies with the objective of reducing claims. Virtually every standard in the huge NFPA book ends with verbiage to the effect that "or whatever the Fire Chief sees fit". The NFPA standards have teeth in them due to the fact that insurance companies, though they keep their rates as low as they can in order to be able to sell policies, don't want excessive exposure to big payouts. So they "rate" fire departments based on standard criteria. The most important is the existence of a hydrant system. Next is whether the department has full time members or not. Next is how far a structure is from the fire station. Next is what is in the station for trucks. NFPA RECOMMENDS that trucks be no more than 25 years old. If the townspeople would rather pay the insurance company than the truck builder, that is their choice. They can choose to keep running the fifties vintage truck, and pay higher insurance premiums. It is simple market economics.

Around this area the get rid of them when the chrome gets dull,,then buy a newer Fancier one with even more chrome on it,,actual performance has nothing to do with it...

I take it you have not got a new title in your name because of the title issue date. When you apply for a new title in your name make sure you tell them it is actual miles. Because it is over 10 years old they might mark the miles as exempt and not actual.

In our town our trucks are on a replacement schedule by how many years we have had them. Some people have older trucks but back then the chrome was better........
On thing to keep in mind is the apparatus, they sit with water in them all the time, in 1964 they didn't have poly tanks so ther is a good chance it could fail at any given time. Our tanker which is a 1991 has a poly tank but this summer the valve manifold rotted out and fell apart. Luckily this happened while we where washing out barns for the local fair and not on the fire ground. Also it comes down to are parts still available for the apparatus which in a throw away world is becoming harder.
We replaced our 72 pumper a few years back with a new one that seats 5 people, in a time when people don't volenteers for much any more it works out better to have a whole crew first on scene so you can safely and effectively start to fight a fire. By NFPa standards you have to have an operator, 2 man entry team and a 2 man team at the door if things go bad to help retrieve the first team. So we replace on a schedule so the fire association can budget for it and we can give our district the protection everyone deserves.

That is true--NFPA recommendations have a lot of influence on equipment--just last year one of out pumpers got replaced--it was the most trouble free engine we ever had-but was 25 years old-got sold to a midwest FD for less than $50K--replaced with a $460K engine---our fire district has too much money but the tax payers keep on passing the budget. we now have 3 ambulances,3 pumpers,1 tanker,a ladder truck, rescue truck,fire police truck and a chiefs car for each of the 3 chiefs

Here in Georgia volunteer and manned fire department are rated by ISO. There are three main parts to the rating. Your 911 call system, your water system hydrants or tankers and your equipment and training. Equipment gets fairly envoled and as the requirements for trucks can change over time and make a perfectly good truck useless in maintaining the current ISO rating. Yes it can look like a rip off but its what it takes to stay in the game.

ISO rating are from 1 to 10. Ours is a 4.5 and we are very proud of our volunteers.

I wonder if some of this stuff doesn't depend on the state you live in. I know here in NY I looked into organizing a small volunteer fire company. Unless I had access to a couple million $$$ it's simply impossible. No way a 15 or 25 year old truck would do. I don't recall the exact number but it seems to me it was like 10 years old or newer and it may have been less than that. You had to have a crap load of radios and radio equipment, turn out gear couldn't be more than a few years old, air packs the same, etc., etc. And that didn't even cover the ridiculous training requirements. Call me old fashioned, but I'd lots rather see something like our old 1954 IHC gasoline fire truck actually show up at a fire in a few minutes as opposed to waiting 1/2 an hour for the brand new half million dollar super pumper to show up to hose down the foundation.

I try to keep a 300 gallon cube at least half or more full spring, summer and fall. At least I can put out small grass fires. If I had a place to keep it, I'd find an old pumper with at least a 500 gallon tank and keep it here for "Good Samaritan" use. These ridiculous laws are going to kill people. They've already cost a lot of people their homes and belongings locally. But don't tell that to the blue light heroes that want to get newer, fancier, bigger chrome than the next company down the road! You never heard such self serving whining in your life!

Interestingly enough, the tank on this truck is
copper.

Kind of like a fuel delivery truck. There's usually a whole bunch more hours on the engine vs miles on the drive train because they sit there running the pump.

Bret you have to start somewhere. Our
fire department got organized in 1970. An
old army 6x6 with a 1200 gal fuel body with
a irrigation pump hooked to the pto.
Primitive. For 25 years we didn't know
what ISO meant or how it could save on
insurance premiums. We saved houses. I
was 16 years old and drove the truck to the
first fire. Lost one saved two that day.
Now county tax dollars HELP buy equipment.
Its a big step. But the payoff will be
worth it in the future.

Nice find!!!!

If it was only getting 22 miles a year (including parades?) over the last 27 years, there might be a good a reason they didn't want to keep it anymore.

I would check how badly the rear springs are sagging under a full load. Sitting for 54 years with a full load of water may have weakened them over time.

(quoted from post at 13:11:54 08/26/18) Bret you have to start somewhere. Our
fire department got organized in 1970. An
old army 6x6 with a 1200 gal fuel body with
a irrigation pump hooked to the pto.
Primitive. For 25 years we didn't know
what ISO meant or how it could save on
insurance premiums. We saved houses. I
was 16 years old and drove the truck to the
first fire. Lost one saved two that day.
Now county tax dollars HELP buy equipment.
Its a big step. But the payoff will be
worth it in the future.

Click to expand...

The problem is we can't even afford to begin to start!

i see you nothing about ISO or the fire service.do you have any idea what what your Depts. ISO rating is

(quoted from post at 19:19:16 08/26/18) i see you nothing about ISO or the fire service.do you have any idea what what your Depts. ISO rating is

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Ware you directing that at? I was a volunteer fireman and EMT back in the late 70's/early 80's. Don't know or care what our local co's ISO rating is. What I care about is peoples lives and property thats endangered by requiring rural volunteer co's to meet the same standards as urban professionals. I also see the "mines bigger" game being played with taxpayer dollars. It's wrong IMO.

(quoted from post at 17:19:16 08/26/18) i see you nothing about ISO or the fire service.do you have any idea what what your Depts. ISO rating is

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Our little local dept didn't have a ISO rating until within the last few years.
We where finally able to get the necessary equipment and paper work done to have them come in and give us a rating.
They told us even a class 9 rating could save home owners 10% or more on their coverage.
That was a rip! My insurance bill went down $7, that's one tenth of a percent off my yearly bill.

I feel like it was a waste of dept time and money.

(quoted from post at 15:31:13 08/26/18)

(quoted from post at 19:19:16 08/26/18) i see you nothing about ISO or the fire service.do you have any idea what what your Depts. ISO rating is

Click to expand...

Ware you directing that at? I was a volunteer fireman and EMT back in the late 70's/early 80's. Don't know or care what our local co's ISO rating is. What I care about is peoples lives and property thats endangered by requiring rural volunteer co's to meet the same standards as urban professionals. I also see the "mines bigger" game being played with taxpayer dollars. It's wrong IMO.

Click to expand...

Bret, I can't tell who it is to or what he is intending to say.

(quoted from post at 21:47:35 08/26/18)

(quoted from post at 17:19:16 08/26/18) i see you nothing about ISO or the fire service.do you have any idea what what your Depts. ISO rating is

Click to expand...

Our little local dept didn't have a ISO rating until within the last few years.
We where finally able to get the necessary equipment and paper work done to have them come in and give us a rating.
They told us even a class 9 rating could save home owners 10% or more on their coverage.
That was a rip! My insurance bill went down $7, that's one tenth of a percent off my yearly bill.

I feel like it was a waste of dept time and money.

Click to expand...

Yup, and how much money was spent to save you $7.00? What are the yearly costs to keep the rating? We deal with this stuff all the time in local gov't. Regulations say you have to have programs or policies that make sense in an urban setting, but are never used or needed in a rural setting. That's my beef. Big brother has his fingers in everything now, no matter how little sense it makes. In this specific case, the interest in "safety" of one group outweighs the safety of another! Doesn't make much sense.

You do not have to replace NFPA standards are just recommendation. Most of my fire departments engines are from the 80?s. Whoever had that engine must have hardly ever gotten any calls.