The Water Can is one of the most useful, yet underutilized pieces of equipment on the fireground. A Water Can can put out a fair amount of fire in the hands of a well trained fireman. But before it can be effective, it actually needs to be removed from the rig.
How is the Can stored on your rig? Is is easily accessible, or is it stored behind other equipment. If is not easy to grab, is that one of the reasons it is not used more? Below is easy method to give you the ability to quickly grab the Can off the rig. Another benefit of this mounting solution is it frees up some room in a compartment, allowing for other equipment to be stored in its place.
The mount is simply a piece of 8 inch diameter PVC pipe bolted on the running board of the rig. The pipe was obtained from the local water utility company for free. They even placed a chamfer on the edge to give it a more finished look. (They use the chamfer when placing the pipe into a coupling.) A quick coat of paint and you’re good to go.
Carriage bolts are the hardware of choice since they have a low profile head. They are a little tricky to secure, but work best for this application.
One drawback to this style of mount is it doesn’t lend itself to being utilized with a Can strap. Most of the commercial Can straps would take up too much room in the pipe, and prevent the Can from fitting. The Can in the picture below has a simple strap that has both ends snapped on the the Can’s wall hanging bracket. It’s not the best way to secure a strap, but it’s better than not having a strap at all.
If it’s easier to grab, it may just get used more often…
Nicely done. It’ll definitely get used more if it’s in plain sight and easy to grab.
In order to accomodate a strap, you might be able to cut out about a 4″ strip top to bottom, creating a slot for the strap.
if you cut it in half vertical till about 3 inches off the bottom and attach a strap horizontal about 3/4 up you can easily fit a can strap or can holder and increase the ease of getting it off the rig while having a strap and keeping it secured.
We store ours in the SCBA spare storage on the engines. Water can in one and dry chem in the other. The two SCBA storage sleeves on the operator side have SCBA bottles in them. Chances are the driver is going to be helping you change them. On the ladders we store them in the cab beside the “Charlie” seat. Controversial I know but….storage is at a premium on the trucks.
I like the ingenuity gang but. I’d be afraid of the can freezing up here in the Boston area!
Great idea but i would cut a notch at the bottom where it rests on the diamond plate so you can hose out any debris that may collect in the bottom …
Afraid of freezing? Dump in a cup or two of auto anti freeze when re charging the can.
Great option for storage. I have been looking for different ways to carry the can while doing a search and not having much luck. Any suggestions?
Pete,
Below is a link to a short article on carrying the can. The author gives a couple different ways to carry it during search ops.
http://www.backstepfirefighter.com/2012/01/12/10484/
I carry one in my POV. So far it’s helped protect two structures at brush fires. Also makes a good portable shoe-wash for when you step in dog crap.
Great idea, but with all of the NFPA Nazis out there, we’re not even allowed to store road cones on the outside of our apparatus.