SACFS Wattle range BWC

[rescue5271]

Wattle range group now have a BWC which is working out of the Beachport fire station and a second unit will arrive sometime this coming week to be located at Coonawarra station. The truck is 22 years old holds 6800lts is 2wd and I hate to say it but it has problems that should have been fixed before it left Adealide.

 I would hope that those in TECH SERVICES come and have a look at this appliance and take on board what is wrong with it,we also really need to look at is it worth while spending so much money on a appliance that is old,slow and has faults that should have been picked up well before it was given to the group. Does TECH SERVICE'S check the workmanship or run the pump and look at the OHSW problems???

I must point out these are my views only and not those of the group or the briagde, I picked up the faults well before anyone said anything to me about the BWC.....One would hope that the second BWC is not like this one,Its a shame that these things are going on and this is now the 2nd appliance that i have seen this week that is new/second hand and has problems....

[Zippy]

whats the point of the Jelly Bean "tower" above the pump.

i agree with a lot of your points bill...its just going to cause headaches at brigade level to maintain such an old appliance.

[uniden]

So what happenned to the 20 year rule ?? The woodside appliance episode was a good example of throwing good money after bad.

[Bagyassfirey]

can you fill the tank and pump in to appliances at the same time??

[Zippy]

u suggesting could it work just like any 34? lol  Probably!  same pump and everything.

[Alan (Big Al)]

Still haven't heard about the new Mundoo BWC after the fiasco with it being overweight.
Might see it by next fire season.

[misterteddy]

two words.......held accountable

you are the weakest link.....goodbye

[Bagyassfirey]

u suggesting could it work just like any 34? lol  Probably!  same pump and everything.

na mate like when ya got the BWC hooked up to the hydrant and filling appliances from the BWC. The Eastern Eyre BW7 couldn fill its tank and fill apliances at same time when we went to lincoln.

[firegun]

i hope the group gets to use it (when any issues are resolved) to its full potential although being only 6800 Lt capacity i would have hoped it would have been 4wd to enable it to go to the units in the field, not to be restricted to hard surfaces.

[Shiner]

Does it carry a floating collar dam??

I kind of agree with the above, if it can only carry 6800litres surely it should be either a more capable 4wd to get to the appliances or have a dam so that it can set up and then shuttle water to a set point.

[rescue5271]

Does not have a collar dam,so the brigade/group is going to but one,If CFS are going to keep turning these old appliances into BWC I think they should sit down and take a long hard look at what gear should be on them. They also need to make sure that they work 100% and are roadworthy before they leave the City  its not hard to fit out a appliance and its not hard to make sure that it all works....

 This appliance and all the rest of the BWC should have I think the following.

* fire curtains for windows
* 64mm hardsuction hose, it only came with 100mm suction hose
* hose reel for crew protection
* collar dam
* portable pump
* TFT or Akron branch
* Ladder

Sure some will say its only a BWC and should only have the basics but it will be on the fireground and the crew who mann it need to have some protection...

[Darren]

This truck was the pumper at Happy Valley, was taken off the run as unroadworthy in 2006, it had severe rust in the chassis. One would assime then that they did a LOT of work to it, you might want to get someone to check that out. I don't beleive the slow bit, that truck was a rocket when we had it, but if its been sitting for 3 years then that might be a problem, we used to have to take it for regular drives to blow the carbon out, but otherwise it was fine.

Still, 22 years old, any truck at that age would be over it.

[misterteddy]

maybe you could fundraise with it by pumping out septics.....thats what it looks like it was built for. I wonder how well the "tank" will last if it nudges a tree at some stage 

Darren I'm pretty sure it would be a heap heavier now than when it was on the run at HV.....around 8000kg of new weight would have it very heavy now. Anyone got the new all up weight figures for it?

As we've said before....the CFS has a need for more water carrying capacity....but it has to be tempered with how that water gets to the fireground.....I'm much more of a fan of the delivering water to your firefighting appliance concept with proper operational off road Tankers like Mawson and Sturt...when are we going to see them produced en-masse?

No self protection (if there is I cant see it - happy to be corrected), old and in some cases inappropriate base vehicles (the HV pumper rust issues, ex Eden Hills Louis didnt even have an exhaust brake ffs) all indicate a poor choice of vehicle to base this concept on. Honestly, for this type of project (2WD water carrying capacity), then the old Milk Tanker option would be cheaper and provide a significantly better cost vs benefit result.

Short cut, poorly thought through projects always end up costing us more at some stage in the future....we have seen this time and time again..... lets hope with these we dont see the cost in people terms.

[tft]

Yes, misterteddy the only tankers that the CFS made that are any good are Mawson and Sturt ( Belair Tanker)
Ohh, they were made from brigade and group designs. Funny how firefighters came up with a good design, who would have thought of that.

It's not that hard!!!!!!

[Shiner]

Not to be contraversial, but with a truck like that I reckon it is better to have no burnover protection and personal protection line.

Why?

Well to me that means that the truck should never go into the true 'hot' zone where it could be a liability.

At least with that defined, a staging point for water supply can be set-up at an incident (as said before, a dam is pretty essential), but there is then little risk of the truck being put into situations it really should not be in - and by that I also mean in steep/slippy terrain etc where an inexperienced driver could easily get the truck into a lot of issues

[Alan J]

If appliances have to come off the fire-ground to get water, they may
as well be coming out to Booths tankers & the like. Small tankers like
this should be designed to re-supply to appliances on the fire-ground.

That said, better a small tanker that does only half the job for a few
thousand, than no tanker at all. At a guess, CFS probably got 5 of these
on the road for one third the cost of a proper tanker.  With them being
near end-of-life, there won't be the temptation to just leave them there
indefinitely.  They *have* to be replaced in 3 or 4 years.   

[wombat34]

proper operational off road Tankers like Mawson and Sturt
Didn't realise CFS made "off road BWC's". Both these were still rear wheel drive last time I checked.

[misterteddy]

proper operational off road Tankers like Mawson and Sturt
Didn't realise CFS made "off road BWC's". Both these were still rear wheel drive last time I checked.

6 x 4 drive wombat....or is it 4 x 6?.....just about anywhere u can get a 24 or 34 u will get these puppies

[Darren]

Yeah I have personally witnessed Mawson Tanker go places you wouldn't take a 34, its great off road. Same with Belair Tanker, great for mopping up, stick a branch on the outlet and pump and roll.