My Fire Departments Deuce

[pyrogod117]

Hi guys. My name is Kevin. I'm 18, a member of 2 first aid squads and my volunteer fire department. I have a fascination with deuces and their ability to go through pretty much whatever they need to, haul a ton of stuff, and look sweet while doing it. I believe my fire department is #4 busiest in the county, but not positive. It's a huge department with a lot of trucks, one of which is the deuce below.

I believe its an M35A2 with a winch. (Sorry the photos aren't great. There isn't much room with all the extra gear laying around -- excess 5", some turnout gear, etc -- and I just took them with my phone.) This thing is an absolute tank. It takes such a beating every time it's used for brush fires. They use it to push over trees and get to wherever they want. Without power steering it seems to take everyone quite a bit of effort to turn it. The brush cage around it was added by 2 of our members.

 

[deuceman51]

Lol, talk about one up armored deuce!!!!!!!!

 

[peecook]

that is a great looking fire truck

 

[pyrogod117]

deuceman51 - Yes it is. Hence why we make our own trails through the woods. And you look like you have enough trucks to wage a small war.

peecook - Take a look at the pic below of our brand new 2009 $1 million limo. Bet you'll still stay the deuce is nicer

 

[jbingvtx]

I've never seen an exoskeleton on a deuce before....I would stay out of its way

 

[pyrogod117]

Lol. Well, I can tell you that where I live in NJ the traffic is absolutely horrendous, but it's worse in the summer. It's bumper to bumper and people cut you off all the time. The average following distance is a car length if you're lucky.

In the deuce, we leave 5-6 car lengths ahead of us, and nobody even ATTEMPTS to pull out in front of us. We also have the problem where people make a quick left in front of you a lot, but in the deuce, regardless of how much room they have, they just sit and wait.


The Downside
This thing tops out at about 45mph wide open in 5th gear. (Don't think it's supposed to go this slow, but then again you have probably 4,000 lbs of water and other gear, plus the brush guards, probably at least 5,000 lbs extra)
It's so loud that you CAN NOT hear the person driving, even when you're yelling at them from 2 feet away.

Most of the people at the department hate the deuce because they say it's a total POS. If it ever gets stuck when there is a brush fire, they are going to leave it there and let it burn

 

[wvhillbilly]

Looks very much like the brush fire deuces that are used in Texas. Add a front mount pump and a 1000 gal. steel tank in the bed and THEN you'll have a fire truck!!!!

 

[pyrogod117]

I believe this one is 300 gal. My department doesn't care about this truck. They wouldn't waste the time or money to put a 1,000 gal. tank in. It doesn't get enough use. Just at the major brush fires.

 

[roscoe]

I believe this one is 300 gal. My department doesn't care about this truck. They wouldn't waste the time or money to put a 1,000 gal. tank in. It doesn't get enough use. Just at the major brush fires.

Why not offer to take it off their hands for maybee a grand. Couldn't hurt to ask? I think thats one cool truck.

 

[pyrogod117]

It is cool, but I doubt they'd sell it. And I'm still a probie so they would just laugh at me.

 

[srodocker]

offer!!! i would! wish the fire dept around here had one...but i did fine a 900 series tractor behind one still have to call them

 

[FireFighterHill]

Nice Pierce Quint, I didnt know they went for 1 mil! Is there alot of extras on the truck?

 

[pyrogod117]

It's a 100 ft with the Arrow XT Cab. 515hp Detroit 60 Series but it sounds like chit because of some new thing for EPA that like reburns the exhaust. You don't see any smoke even when you floor it. It's a 6" Dump for exhaust.

Umm... 5" master stream can be fed by it's own line at 2000 GPM while the pumps run the hand lines totally separate... Although we made it clear from the start we will not be using this truck to pump anything. Just the master stream. I guess there are some extras... not entirely sure. I just know its 54 ft bucket to bumper, weighs 75,000 lbs, and when you're doing 55mph you'd think you're doing about 25. And is just barely fits inside the station, but they're making a bigger door for it.

 

[deuceman51]

Pyrogod, yes sometimes even my own national guard unit is un-nerved by the fact that I have more equipment than they do, lol.

 

[pyrogod117]

I would be too. Don't be surprised when they start calling you during a disaster.

 

[FireFighterHill]

HEHE driving HUGE trucks fast is such an adrenaline rush. The Oshkosh striker in my avatar, its governed to 70mph but it gets there fast and its such a rush to drive it that fast down the runway.

 

[CrazyF]

Very cool! You Jersey boys seem to like them for fire trucks, I think Sea Bright has one too.

 

[pyrogod117]

Yeah we use deuces and fords for brush trucks. They work though. The last major fire we had here was in summer 2007 we only managed to lose like 2,000 acres. Before that it was in June of 2002 and it went a few days and burned a lot. I forgot how much.

 

[pyrogod117]

HEHE driving HUGE trucks fast is such an adrenaline rush. The Oshkosh striker in my avatar, its governed to 70mph but it gets there fast and its such a rush to drive it that fast down the runway.

So are you strictly an ARFF guy? Or what exactly do you do? And what airport?

 

[SEAFIRE]

Cool truck,

Looks very much like the brush fire deuces that are used in Texas

Yes it does, There are a lot of similar rigged deuces here in Texas, including the two we have.

This thing tops out at about 45mph wide open in 5th gear. (Don't think it's supposed to go this slow, but then again you have probably 4,000 lbs of water and other gear, plus the brush guards, probably at least 5,000 lbs extra)

One of ours has a 1200-gallon tank and it gets up to 55mph, our 2nd one has a 500-gallon tank and easily gets up to 60mph+, after we installed a turbo and bypassed the FDC.

It's so loud that you CAN NOT hear the person driving, even when you're yelling at them from 2 feet away.

We re-routed the exhaust on both of ours M35A1 style with a muffler, we can actually talk on the radio and hear each other talk now.

Stick around this forum and you will learn a LOT about your truck, you need to find out what model/year it is. This Forum has been a godsend to our department, if you can't find the answer by searching, ask, and you will more than likely get an answer.