Where do your department’s firefighters head when they need to pull hose—the front, sides, or rear of the engine? Some fire departments are giving their crews a choice of those locations, and their preferences and reasoning for the location of hose handlines vary across the country.
Aaron Zak, fire suppression product specialist lead for Pierce Manufacturing, says that the typical layout on engines is a preconnect in an extended front bumper, crosslays with two 1¾-inch lines and one 2½-inch line above a side-mount pump, and a 2½-inch or 3-inch preconnect at the rear for a blitz line. “But, there are always exceptions,” Zak notes. “We recently built a side-mount pumper for the Clark County (WA) Fire Department with a 1,750-gallon per minute (gpm) pump and 600-gallon water tank that had all handlines coming off the rear of the truck and none at the front or center of the rig.”
A single hosewell in an extended front bumper continues to be very popular, Zak says. “Some departments choose to carry a full-width crosslay in front,” he notes, “while others go with two 1¾-inch lines up there because of how easy they are to deploy and reload. Probably the oddest preconnect we’ve done is a 1¾-inch line in the running board on the driver’s side of an engine.”
Justin Howell, sales territory manager for Sutphen Corp., says fire departments have been asking Sutphen for more rear discharges on engines. “Sometimes they eliminate the traditional crosslays above the pump panel and go with four to six discharges at the rear of the pumper,” Howell says. “A lot of them want to eliminate having firefighters step up on the running board to pull hoselines out of crosslays.”
1 This side-mount pumper built by Pierce Manufacturing has triple speedlays with removable trays between the cab and the pump. (Photo 1 courtesy of Pierce Manufacturing Inc.)
2 This full-width rear bumper crosslay is built into the rear step on a pumper made by SVI Trucks. (Photo 2 courtesy of SVI Trucks.)
3 The Friendswood (TX) Volunteer Fire Department had Spartan ER put speedlays on its new side-mount pumper. (Photo 3 courtesy of Spartan ER.)
While many fire departments spec a 1-inch booster line hose reel in a pumper’s rear compartment, Howell says one department went with a different location. “They had us plumb in a discharge to a hose reel in the L3 compartment on their pumper,” he says, “because they wanted the rear compartment clear for other equipment.”
Joe Lichtscheidl, director of inside sales for Rosenbauer America, thinks full-width double crosslays in a front bumper are gaining traction in the fire service. “That location makes it very easy to approach a fire from either side of the pumper,” he points out. “We’ve also put in double full-width crosslays in rear bumpers, which departments tell us have proven to be very functional and easy to deploy.”
Lichtscheidl notes that many departments that choose speedlays for their engines, instead of crosslays, are outfitting them with removable trays. “We’re seeing a trend in that direction, and most departments get additional trays to keep loaded at the station, so hose replacement in the speedlay is quick and easy.”
Chris Shannon, salesman for SVI Trucks, says, “We have seen pretty much everything in the placement of preconnects on engines. Having preconnects on all ends of an engine is very important to a lot of fire departments. Crosslays above the pump panel are still pretty popular, as are hose wells in the front bumper that can hold 100 to 150 feet of 1¾-inch hose.”
Shannon adds that SVI has done full-width crosslays in a front bumper where the ends of the trays are open to make it easier to deploy off the sides. “We’ve even put the discharge on the curbside outside of the bumper instead of inside the tray so the department can deploy the full hose load and doesn’t lose the use of about six feet of hose that would be inside the tray with a center discharge.”
4 This rear-mount pumper built by 4 Guys Fire Trucks has all its preconnects situated at the rear of the rig. The operator’s panel is in the vehicle’s L3 compartment. (Photo 4 courtesy of 4 Guys Fire Trucks.)
5 W.S. Darley & Company built this top-mount pumper for the Anson (WI) Fire Department with two speedlays in trays in a compartment behind the cab. (Photo 5 courtesy of W.S. Darley & Company.)
6 Cornwall (ON) Fire Services had Fort Garry Fire Trucks build this pumper with two speedlays in front of the side-mount pump and three 2½-inch preconnected lines at the rear. (Photo 6 courtesy of Fort Garry Fire Trucks.)
Casey Swenson, supervisor of plumbing engineering for Spartan Emergency Response (ER), says the vast majority of engines Spartan ER has built have either crosslays or speedlays, plus a front bumper preconnect. “We aren’t seeing preconnects out of the hosebed anymore,” Swenson notes, “with departments going with rear discharges instead. We also have done double full-width crosslays on the tailboard, but that kind of assembly sits above the tailboard and takes up space from the rear compartment.”
Mark Brenneman, assistant sales manager for 4 Guys Fire Trucks, says the standard double-stack crosslays above a side-mount pump panel are what most departments choose for their engines. “Sometimes a department wants the crosslay lower to the ground and goes with a single stack,” Brenneman points out. “With top-mount pumpers, we’ll put in two or three speedlays at the front of the pump panel, but the challenge is that every preconnect means another pipe under the panel, which sometimes means a wider panel that adds to the vehicle’s wheelbase.”
4 Guys has installed double full-width crosslays in both front bumpers and rear tailboards, Brenneman says. “We can put a discharge anywhere we can get a pipe to,” he observes. “For one customer, we built a rear-mount pumper that had the operator’s panel in the left rear compartment and five speedlays in trays off the back of the engine.”
Robert Pike, corporate services manager for Fort Garry Fire Trucks, says Fort Garry built a pumper for the Little Harbor (NS) Fire Department with a full-width compartment in the front bumper holding two 150-foot 1¾-inch hoselines and three preconnects at the front of the hosebed—two 1¾-inch and one 2½-inch. For Cornwall (ON) Fire Services, he says, Fort Garry built a rescue-pumper that has two 1¾-inch speedlays in trays at the front of the side-mount pump and two 250-foot preconnects of 2½-inch hose tipped with Task Force Tips Metro II nozzles and one 200-foot 2½-inch hose preconnect with a TFT Blitzfire monitor at the rear of the rig.
Garret Yohnk, manufacturing engineer for W.S. Darley & Company, says Darley built a top-mount pumper on an International chassis for the Anson (WI) Fire Department. “The pumper has two speedlays, each with 200 feet of 1¾-inch hose in trays, in a compartment behind the cab; a preconnected 2½-inch line at the tail of the rig; and a booster reel with 1-inch hose in the rear compartment,” Yohnk notes. “That’s a typical layout, although a lot of fire departments like to add trash lines in hose wells in the front bumper because they are easy to grab and quick to deploy.”
Joe Messmer, president of Summit Fire Apparatus, says Summit is seeing a lot of 2½-inch preconnects at the rear of pumpers, usually tipped with TFT Blitzfire or similar monitors. “We’ve done the discharges at both the front of the hosebed and at the tail of the vehicle,” he says. “We’re also seeing a lot of speedlays with hose trays at the side of side-mount pumps. Firefighters like them because they’re low to the ground and easy to deploy.”
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist, the author of three novels and five nonfiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board. He served 22 years with the Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including in the position of chief.
