considering this trailer...

[CoyPatton]

Do a bit of math!
Water weight is just shy of 8.5lbs per gallon.
For simple math I will use 8lbs/gallon
400 gallons
8
——————
3200 lbs
(Yes it is low by almost 200lbs)
But you now have 300lbs for everything else using your 3500lbs guess at weight capacity.
Everything else is your pump, plumbing, hoses, and trailer frame weight (mist folks fail to include this one, but it is in the axle!)
Bottom line even using your axle capacity, you are way overloaded, then you are on rough terrain, which is hard on trailers.
I suggest looking for a 12k to 14k equipment trailer, even if it needs to be rebuilt, you have a much better base to carry 1000 gallons

 

[thistlemagnate]

400 gallons of water is about 3,300 pounds. Be extremely careful of the balance point of the tank so it is tung heavy. I would pop for a two axel trailer minimum.

B. John

A half empty tank can be worse than a full one, sloshing to the back when you accelerate (edit: or go up a hill), to the side when you corner. Figure out your worst case balance point.

When I was about 16 I had a summer job with a local farmer. Had me follow him over the county roads as he tore around at 60mph, me in a pickup with a half full 55 gallon drum of fuel. He thought it was really funny watching me try to steer that thing. I had no idea where he was going, figured I had to keep up. Now some 50 years smarter, I'd just pull over and wait for him to find me. He paid by the hour.

 

[composter55]

My solution would be to build a trailer with a pump and equipment on the front, but create a slide on and off bed for 275 salon totes. Maybe a tilt mechanism? Idea is to have multiple totes already filled
(I'd use roof runoff), so you could swap tanks instead of waiting to refill. Also have pump set up
so you could get fellow resident to haul backup feed tanks on their pickups or trailers. Always thought
forest fires could be better fought by getting residents/hunters, etc to use their trucks to haul water
to the pumps...or helicopters than the time it takes them to find and refill from nature.

 

[ning]

My solution would be to build a trailer with a pump and equipment on the front, but create a slide on and off bed for 275 salon totes. Maybe a tilt mechanism? Idea is to have multiple totes already filled
(I'd use roof runoff), so you could swap tanks instead of waiting to refill. Also have pump set up
so you could get fellow resident to haul backup feed tanks on their pickups or trailers. Always thought
forest fires could be better fought by getting residents/hunters, etc to use their trucks to haul water
to the pumps...or helicopters than the time it takes them to find and refill from nature.

I considered the idea of swapping full totes, but given my past experience, the tractor probably won't be pulling the trailer as it's really useful for cutting lines in the meadow - 50% of fire approach direction to my house, and the direction that I'm most likely going to be effective to actually put out a fire, is from the meadow (which I do mow at the end of spring). In the other direction the neighbors have significant trees & brush across the road separating our properties; if a raging fire comes from there, I'm not likely to try to fight it directly but will concentrate on wetting down my property & house instead - after the house is evacuated and until I GTFO.

In the recent past, my neighbor decided to remove blackberry brambles in the meadow using fire (this was "before fire season" mmmhmmmm except it's fire season here any time that the vegetation isn't saturated), and I was nearby and was able to scrape some lines as well as push a bramble that was on fire at the far end away from an almost adjoining bramble to avert further spread. The tractor's useful here on its own.

Instead, my 4x4 truck will be pulling it, likely piloted by my son (unless he's elsewhere... lots of things have to line up for a successful fight against fire) while I manage the tractor work.

Pros of swapping totes: Don't have to wait for refill. Sounds fantastic!

Cons of swapping totes:

• Return trailer to location of full tote storage/refill location
• Return tractor to location of full tote storage/refill location (as noted above, tractor is probably not pulling the trailer)
• If tractor is pulling the trailer, the trailer needs to be disconnected from the tractor and stabilized (M200A1 trailer has rear stands, plus the wheels need to be chocked).
• Disconnect empty tote(s) from pump
• Detach empty tote(s) from trailer itself
• Have to have significant counterweight on back of tractor even to pick up a 250g tote (~2150 pounds).
• Tractor has to have enough loader capacity - my loader has a lift capacity (to full height) of 2100 pounds, so even a full 250g tote is going to be close (especially considering the weight of the forks is part of that capacity - I'm not sure I could actually pick up a full 250g tote), and a 275g or larger will be out of the question.
• Use tractor to perform the swap (or at least to put full totes onto the trailer since I can probably just grab the empties off of the trailer more quickly than lining up the forks etc)
• Attach new full tote(s) to trailer
• Connect new full tote(s) to pump

We've got ready access to open water on half of my property, and refilling the trailer's tank - totes or otherwise - will involve something like

1. Move trailer to water source
2. Toss refill hose (with strainer) into pond or irrigation canal
3. Flip lever(s)* near pump to suck from refill hose instead of tank
4. Flip lever(s)* near pump to push to tank instead of "fire hose"
5. Turn on pump
6. Undo #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

I suspect it would be quicker to refill the tank directly than to swap totes, and less prone to accident as well.

*: Precise details TBD

 

[bcp]

You could set up a tote-to-tote refill, too, instead of a tote swap. Maybe have some placed at different places on the property. Pump transfer or gravity fill.

Bruce

 

[ning]

You could set up a tote-to-tote refill, too, instead of a tote swap. Maybe have some placed at different places on the property. Pump transfer or gravity fill.

Bruce

That's a good idea!

 

[hslogger]

Around here in western Oregon, all the farmers have flatbed truck with a big skid tank and all the trimmings to make a quick attack.Some have some are tandem axle jobs with two or three thousand gallon tanks. Some are dedicated but most are temporary for summer harvest season.

Buddaymine in Lower Lake CA has a seventies USFS Dodge with a five hundred gallon tank, v4 Wisconsin. The other rig is a GMC eighteen footer with a larger tank and a Honda. Trucks are great as long as you treat them as a USEABLE rig and not some POS sitting in the bushes. When you want fire protection, you want it RTFN. Both his rigs get used regularly ie exercised. He fills from a RRcar holding tank up on a hill with gravity refill.

He went through the Rocky Fire in 2015 and only had the Dodge and Calfire air drops. You can't go cheap on fire protection.

 

[Martin Roper]

I've been thinking of building a fire tank/pump/hose trailer for firefighting for a while and I just ran across this trailer for sale somewhat locally.

The question is, how to determine a likely capacity of this trailer's axles? I see 6 lugs, but from the pic (the ad says nothing) I can't see much more - the brake drums look pretty small. 3500 pound capacity axle?

My thought is probably cut off the risers that held the pickup bed and weld some cross members directly to the round tube such that the flatbed is as low as can be (probably limited to the height of the tongue tube, unless we cut that back a foot and tie it to a new crossmember there). I'm able to do some welding (up to 3/16" mild steel with the current mig rig, but I'm willing to upgrade to weld heavier stuff if I find the appropriate project that requires it (oh no! don't make me buy a better welder!)).

Given that my use would be entirely low speed and very local (ie, pulled my tractor or my truck on my land or immediately adjacent), how tight would you stick to the capacity?
View attachment 714475

Looks typical of a fuel cube trailer to me and the cube bolted on would be part of the strength so it would only be deigned to carry 1000 litres but would probably carry a lot more if only on your property but there could be the time you just want to "pop down the road with it". May be not.