 
Lt. John Bannon sent in the latest Tip from the Bucket. He credits Walt Caber, President of the Reliance Hook & Ladder Co. 61 for the creation of this tip. They welded tabs on the ground pads (or jack plates depending on where you are from.) The tabs make it much easier to get the pads in the right place. Lt. Bannon pointed out that the pad can be slid on from the opposite direction in situations where the outrigger would have to be right up against an obstruction.
Obviously, any crew worth even being on the truck should be able to throw the pads in the right place every time, but this tip is still quite useful. In a situation when manpower is limited, or if the truck crew breaks into teams prior to the rig getting set up, the “tabbed†pads will make the setup much quicker.
Great tip. I always stand one arm’s length from the truck and drop the pad beside the foot farthest away from the truck.
I learned that with our E-One, you pull the pad, set it on edge right against the truck, roll it one length, and then lay it down… perfect spot every time.
Bob thats what we used to do, but as a Volunteer fire company we run 2nd alarm in Chester City here in PA and we find that we have to re-position. With the ground pads on there you dont have to take them off to move the truck.
Two things: 1) The handle location creates a tripping hazard. It needs to be on one side. 2) IF you intend to leave them on the jacks while driving in order to save time on the fire scene, they will fly off once you make a sharp turn and hit some innocent bystander. Overall it is not a bad idea, however, did you ever stop and think why the manufacturer of your rig didn’t have them welded on in the first place? Be careful of those homemade alterations. Think Liability.
A few things: 1) E-One welded on the handles, 2)When I mean moving around on a fire scene I don’t mean fly around the fire scene, (what I mean is if we are in a collaspe zone and need to move back some or if we need to move closer to ladder the building) 3) The handles on the plate don’t move futher then the edge of the diamond plate.
Just for the record the jack plates dont stay on the jacks, they come off and go into the holder when we are done with them if thats what joes concern was.
The pads on our TL are somewhat loose and have the ability to swivel (I dont mean spin) but they move freely to be able to match the contour of the ground its being placed onto. Will the weight of the plates swaying back and fourth cause my pads to lean to one side thus the plate sliding off the pad? Any prob’s with that as of yet?
Negative, the guy that came up with the design is and Engineer at Boeing and he made sure that the weight is spread evenly and made sure they stay level.
Great idea. Simple and effective. It’s easy to remove that tripping hazzard by always placing the handle/chains on the inside. I’d like to see them up close.
Alterations that make the job quicker and easier are always welcome. When you have competent people to make the alterations any “homemade” alteration should not simply be thrown to the side because of liability issues. It is very frustrating when I come up with an idea and it is disregarded because someone thinks that just because it is homemade that it will not be effective and may hurt someone. Homemade alterations have their place and if they were not utilized, some of the tools we have today may never have been invented.
Another suggestion for ground pads is running beads of weld on the bottom side of the ground pad to prevent the pad from moving on an icy road condition. If you have a smooth metal ground pad on an icy road there is potential for the pad to slide and the whole truck to move. Beads of weld on the bottom of the pad create a good surface-to-surface contact point to prevent this.
The idea for this at Reliance more than likly can be traced to Chester Fire Department’s Tower 82, which has had the angle iron on the jack plates since the truck was delivered in 2002. Not sure who came up with this idea but we have found that being able to put the plates on helps. The staffing of 9 Firefighters, 2 Captains and 1 Battalion Chief per shift requires members to do several jobs at once and this allows one member to be able to place the truck into service quickly.
We have tabbed aluminum pads all the way around and with our current staffing of 3 it’s the only way to fly. I agree that a good truck crew that knows their rig can usually hit it everytime but this takes all the guess work out of it. One thing about these though is that when you start adding fab work and welds to them there is more stuff to break, keep a spare around! Great suggestion on the undersided beads for traction, if done right it could also act as hard surfacing similar to loader buckets and such. Great Site! Long live firehouse fabrications! (insert disclaimer here)
I dont know how everyone else trucks are set up but our truck has a laser it shoots out and you line the dot on the ground to the X on the plate.
What year is your truck? Ours is a 1994.
At work (Lancaster City Bureau of Fire) we operate a 1990 E-One/Federal motors 95′ Tower as well. This seems like a great idea. Our typical staffing on the truck co’s is two maybe three on a good day so to fall in line with other comments I also know that anything that makes life easier with short staffing is a blessing.
We have a 2001 KME 95 foot Aerialcat.
http://www.hudsonfire.com
Bannon did you take the idea from Chester fire department tower 82?
No I did not I actually just found out that they had it from Rob Griffin. I guess thats where Walt got the idea from then.
I like the welded angle irons to support outriggers from falling out.
While on the subject of ground plates…I learned from some fellas on my shift that they are very useful for activating automatic driveway gates and arms. Simply slide the plate under the gate so that it stops on the sensor. The plate is substanstial enough to trip the sensor the same as an exiting vehicle would.
The function of the jack pad is twofold. One is to increase the footprint of the outrigger.
The other and most important is to reduce friction between the ground and the foot of the outrigger.
When you elevate the rig the truck should move up, not pushed by the outrigger. The jack pad allows this while transmitting the weight via the pad.
The same idea, although somewhat different. 😉
[IMG]http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e193/funepics/000_1548-1.jpg[/IMG]
Ah, I should have tried the direct link first.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e193/funepics/000_1548.jpg
we applied this concept to our 95′ aerialscope. not the best idea. I would agree with this concept on any other style of jack/outrigger except down jacks. everyone knows that scopes have 4 down jacks and 2 outriggers. we have found they take more time to slide them on the downjacks then just throwing the pad down. no reason to have them on a scope. just my .02$