Cribbing for apparatus

[Cutty630 37]

The cribbing for our rescue is old and some of it has dissapeared over the years. I'm going to take charge of getting new wood and get some people to help me put it together. Any ideas on what type of wood to use or any other things i should consider when taking this project on....... thanks in advance for any help

[DOC22 1]

Cutty, have you given any thought to the preformed plastic cribbing? We use it almost exclusively and it works quite well. It also stores easily on the vehicles. I don't think the cost is too high, either. Just something to think about.

[mfc2257 464]

All the cribbing that we have on R-36/E-247/E-248 was made in house. Although the pre formed plastic stuff is light and apparently does the job, I find that making your own works out better because you can cut each piece for each compartment on each rig the way you want it. For example, the compartmentation on R-36 allows us to run very robust cribbing including large step blocks, 6x6's, 4x4's, long wedges and several milk crates of smaller gear. However on E248 I cut all the blocks shorter than we normal would because we were able to keep the cribbing in a compartment that offered greater flexablilty and allowed us to keep the combi tool and the cribbing all in one compartment. It would be difficult to experiment with preforms if you constantly had to order and return them while trying to find the best fit. I made a full set of cribbing for the new E-248 including 2 full sets of step blocks, 4 6x6's, 4 4x4's, 4 wedges, and a ton of 1 foot 2x4's for less than 50 dollars of lumber.

Edward Smith

Captain (2254)

Millwood Fire Company

[Remember585 815]

Make sure its a hard wood. Don't get any kind of press wood or soft woods, like pine. Step cribbing is easy to make. Get a 2"x8"x8' - should give you enough material to make a step crib. Don't limit yourself to 4x4's only - if you can fit it, I suggest getting some 6x6 as well.

Personal opinion - the plastic stuff sucks. It slides around too easy, and I have hang-ups about supporting heavy loads with the same stuff my pens are made out of.... Houses are built from wood for a reason - durability and strength.

Label all of your wood too - paint the ends to indicate what type/size it is too, so guys don't have to guess when looking for stuff. If you can, drill a hole about 1" in from the "non-working" end, and run a piece of rope in it so you have a way to grab it. You can throw a lot of cribbing on a pike pole for easy carrying, and you can hook them from under the load instead of sticking your hands in harms way.

[BFD1054 1,552]

I definately agree with Remember585 in regards to the plastic cribbing. We have alot of it on our rescue-pumper and it doesn't impress me much. As stated, it has a tendency to slide around, especially if it has been exposed to rain or fluids from the vehicle. We have also seen alot of these pieces break pretty easily. Again, the plastic stuff will work, but as anything, there are downfalls.

[mfc2257 464]

Oh yeah... When good cribbing does break after years of use and re-painting and soaking up of oils etc... It makes awesome kindling for the fire place. Think old wood cribbing is to fireplace what matchlight is to BBQ. :-P

[Guest]

We had two pieces of plastic cribbing fail on two seperate occasions. Luckily it was during training. Cracked right down the middle, and it wasnt even a substantial load, stick with wood.