Trucks Get Crane to Lift Ladder Pipe
After equipping several of its aerial ladder trucks with expensive, remotecontrol ladder pipes, the Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Fire Department apparatus division designed and built a handy boom that is mounted on the apparatus so that one fire fighter can handle the heavy master stream device safely and with ease.
Under the direction of District Chief Melchior Koehl, superintendent of apparatus, the repair shops developed and fabricated the davit-type truck booms from scrap stock lying around the shop.
The mast and 7-foot boom was made from 3-inch steel pipe. A 2-inch truck throwout bearing was used for the pivot. A short length of steel cable and a standard snap fastener completed the basic bill of materials.
“Our new ladder pipes cost several thousand dollars each,” Koehl explained. “They also weighed about 150 pounds. Part of the problem is the height of the aerial ladder tips above the road on some of our later-model ladder trucks. The pipes were awkward to handle and attach, and we were afraid one might be dropped. So we designed an on-board crane to take the muscle work out of preparing for ladder pipe operation.”
On the fireground, one fire fighter can easily hook up the boom cable and detach the remote-control ladder pipe from its mounting bracket at the rear of the apparatus. He then swings the boom through a 180-degree arc to the tip of the aerial ladder. The pipe is clamped into place and the ladder is ready for water tower operation.
Photo by Walt McCall
