Pre-Piped Aerial Ladders

[Steve 78]

After seeing the photo of Baltimore's new Seagrave Ladder Truck. It appears to me that most big city fire departments do not purchase there aerial trucks pre-piped. A good example of this is Yonkers. They purchased two beautiful Smeal rearmount aerials without the ladder being pre-piped (L72 & L73). Which I find to be kind of odd. Are the aerials in Westchester departments pre-piped or is this just away for a department to save a couple of bucks on there purchase of a truck.

Let me get some feed back please.

Baltimores New Seagrave Ladder 15

http://www.thewatchdesk.com/forum/attachme...tid=18666&stc=1

[Remember585 815]

Good question!

I don't know the whole county, but I do know of some.

Pre-piped

Briarcliff's NEW (yet to come) TL40

Chappaqua TL27

Croton TL44

Dobbs Ferry TL23

Eastchester TL17 & L16

Elmsford TL21 & L55

Greenville L4

Harrison TL24

Hartsdale TL15

Irvington L36

Larchmont TL7

Mamaroneck Town L19

Mohegan L10 & L35

Montrose TL8

Sleepy Hollow TL38

Ossining L41

Peekskill TL45

Pleasentville TL5

Purchase TL53

Tarrytown TL78

Thornwood TL1

Verplanck TL46

I may have missed a few....

Pre-piped waterway is the way to go! You don't have to fumble with a hose to feed your pipe. One question for those of you with the pipes, do they freeze??? I haven't seen or heard of any instances of this, but I am curious.

[TRUCK6018 50]

I may have missed a few....

North White Ladder 47.

Aerial towers (tower ladders, etc) will almost always have a pre piped water way as it is difficult to secure a hose to it.

With straight sticks, cost and maintinance are big factors. If the water way isn't pinned properly it could cause problems. If the water way is damaged, the whole vehicle is layed up. It doesn't take alot of time to lay out the hose to set it up. If your using the stick for access and egress, it's one less thing to get in the way.

It appears to me that most big city fire departments do not purchase there aerial trucks pre-piped. A good example of this is Yonkers.

Another is FDNY.

[mfc2257 464]

I've worked with both prepiped and non-prepiped trucks fairly extensively. For prepiped rigs one consideration is blowing of seals where the flys of the latter attach to each other on the pipe if the operator hasn't opened the drain for the pipe.

Rigs that don't have prepiped waterways, typically have a length of 3in in a VERY accessable area on the rig, so that it only requires one person to connect to the gun at the tip, roll the hose down the ladder while it's still in the bed (down position) and then let the hydraulics of the ladder do the rest of the work to elevate the hose with the ladder. If department members are trained in this scenerio as part of setting up the truck, it doesn't really add significant time to the process.

[firemn23 8]

Ardsley L-50 is prepiped

[Guest]

port chester tl2

[LCFD994 8]

West Harrison TL-9 is prepiped.

[Guest]

585....We have never had the problem with our waterway freezing on TL-45, it has 2 valves under the bucket to drain any water that is in the monitor. I also believe that there is a drain under the truck as well. I would think and hope that waterways are designed like that, instead of relying on the monitor to drain the water.

[Pudge3311 5]

Anybody know of a Tower Ladder that isnt prepiped?

[Steve 78]

Are the aerials in Westchester departments pre-piped or is this just away for a department to save a couple of bucks on there purchase of a truck.

Let me get some feed back please.

When I started this post, I was referring to Aerial Ladders.

All tower ladders are pre-piped.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

585, I've never had any problem with any pre-piped waterway freezing up. Then again it always had water moving so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure if it wasn't drained well you could run into a problem with it sitting in sub-freezing temps.

As far as the seals for the pipes, with newer seals retracting isn't as big of a problem as it previously was. As long as somewhere a drain or the monitor is open to reliever water and/or air pressure as it is being retracted. It is this reason that many manufacturers recommend leaving the monitor valve open at all times.

[bmfd231 3]

Our current L40 is not prepiped. We do have a pre-piped fog nozzel that does not extend with the ladder but on this truck we set up hose. The new TL40 will be pre-piped.

Water does not remain in prepiped waterways. You normally want to drain it out or leave the gate open before retracting the aerial or you will blow the seals

[Guest Truckie 1075]

The reason most city departments Example, FDNY, don't buy pre-piped aerials is becuase they all have tower ladders with waterways. these departments use both trucks at a fire scene and the towers will be used if a aerial master stream is needed. you want to keep your sticks as light and "junk" free at the tips as possible for better use as a rescue, Vent, and access tool. and if you do opt for a pre piped waterway on a stick, it better be pinable, and NOT pined to the tip. you want your stick set up for rescue upon arival. I see way to many sticks around with either fixed waterways on the tip. or pinned to the tip. BAD MOVE. with the waterway, all the stupid lights, the speakers, tools , gizmos & gadgets afixed to the tip, you can hardly use the truck for what it's ment for. keep it simple. ANd setting up a 3in line for aerials without a prepiped waterway is really not a big deal for the few times you might accually need it.

[TRUCK6018 50]

All tower ladders are pre-piped.

Thinking about it now, there is one manufacturer that makes a tower with out a pre-piped waterway: http://www.metz-apparatus.com/

[Pudge3311 5]

anyone around here have one or looked at getting one? looks more like a crane with a ladder and bucket if you ask me.

[EJS1810 7]

Spring Valley in Rockland has one

[Steve 78]

Truck6018, you are correct. I forgot about the Metz that Spring Valley purchased. I was told they spent a hell of alot of money on that truck and it is not really a useful truck.

[TRUCK6018 50]

My department looked at one probably close to 10 years ago and then it was in the ball park of $800,000.

[x242Steve 1]

Rye Ladder 25 is Pre-Piped, manually pinnable in rescue or water tower positions.