I just like the idea of Quick deployment (and yes, pre-connected) Higher volume Hose (not the pesky hosereels, glorified garden hoses..altho the pressure and volume coming out of them is getting better! ).
I don't know... I've never had any pressure/volume issues with our hosereels, but then again, the truck certainly isn't new by any means. Maybe the old plastic fantastic days were the golden age of hosereel build quality?
Why wouldn't the fowardlay work in SA, we drop the hose + man with standpipe, key etc at the cap in the street and drive forward, the 64 is laid before we even arrive. it it is a going (no not working ) job there is 1 lest task to do when you get there. It is just an idea.
Other than correcting Zippy on how to unload flaked hose. Why do you seem to be not supporting the idea?
Forward lay is going to be difficult and time consuming to get to work in SA. Firstly you have to sink the standpipe, rather than be able to drop, wrap, drive and connect. This time it takes to sink the standpipe etc etc, with the truck sitting there doing nothing is valuble time that could well be used getting into the job and doing some good. This is not to mention the distance between hydrants in certain areas can be upto hundreds of meters apart, or the fact that many of the US supply hose lines are of a very large 3"-5" diamater. What about the number of crew? Currently during the day many brigades are struggling to get 4 onto a truck, if you leave one person sitting on the side of the road sinking a hydrant, that then leaves you short a man at the job where you need them.
Don't forget in the USA they gernally use a different configuration of fire appliances to us, that means that the truck used for fire attack may not always have a large/or any on board supply of water.
The current idea of get to the job, get water ON THE FIRE and then look for a water supply is far better suited to both Australian conditions and hydrant construction, as well as the way inwhich the CFS works as a volunteer Fire Service. Once you have water on the fire, the pump operator and the second arriving appliance crew should be working their arse off to get water in to the truck. You've got a few thousand litres on board, it'll do you for a fair while.
I must have missed the apparent distinction between a "going" job and a "working" job. Please do enlighten us...
I'll support any idea, and I personally love the idea of flaked hose. What I have issues with is the attempts to shoehorn ideas into areas that they are not suited for. Zippy calls for flaked 25mm! Not only is that going to be a filtered of a thing to flake in the trays, its also useless if you aren't going to run it straight off the pump. I don't know about you but I can't ever recall a situation (in my area atleast) where you would want to run 25mm straight off the pump, rather than as an extention to a hosereel.
There is nothing wrong with bringing new ideas up, but if the idea is only born from seeing something 'cool' that a Brigade somewhere else in the world does rather than born from "How can we do this better" maybe it's not such a good idea.