Budweiser John
Platinum Member
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
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.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
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.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.