Possible serious problem with Pierce fire apperatus!

[kf4sqb]

First off, Mods, I know this is off topic, and not at all what this board is for, but I know there are a lot of firefighters on the board, and it seems like a good place to warn of a possible serious problem. Feel free to lock this if you want, as long as its left up so it can be read.

Now, to the problem. Tuesday night, the chief and a couple of rookies with a volunteer department I'm a member of had a hydraulic hose blow out under the truck, which is a 2005 (IIRC) Pierce Contender series pumper, with a CAFS system. Luckily, this happened at a grass fire, not at a working structure fire. The cause for the blowout became obvious shortly after I crawled under the truck to take a look at it: the hose in question was poorly routed at the factory, and had, over time, fallen onto the universal joint on the output of the transmission. The u-joint had then rubbed the side of the hose to the point that the hose could no longer contain the pressure, and ruptured. I don't know for sure what model series, or what years this problem may affect, but I would suggest that if you have a Pierce pumper built in the past 5-6 years, check it out if it has any hydraulically-driven equipment on it, like air compressors, foam injection pumps, generators, etc. The hydraulic power comes from a PTO-driven hydraulic pump, mounted on the right side of the truck's transmission, toward the rear of the transmission. On the truck we have, the output (high-pressure) hose from the pump crosses over from the right side of the transmission to the left frame-rail of the truck, then goes toward the back of the truck. The hose crosses over directly above the u-joint on the transmission's output shaft. On our truck, I saw nothing that indicated that the hose was ever tied up out of the way. To compound the problem, on our truck, if the water pump is engaged, the hydraulic pump is engaged. If we had had people inside a working structure fire when the hose let go, we probably would have destroyed the hydraulic pump before we could have gotten everyone out of the structure, or the pump could have seized up and damaged the transmission, causing the pump to stop pumping. Please, if your department, or any department you know of in your area, has a newer Pierce truck with a hydraulic system on it, check this, or have it checked, as soon as possible!

[Jim202]

Not wanting to stir up anything here, and being in the fire service for over 35 years, my only comment is
why hasn't someone been under the truck before this to inspect it? In most departments, it is the
responsibility of each shift to go inspect each vehicle for any problems. This generally includes getting
on your back and scooting under each rig on a mechanics creeper. If you had anything rubbing the
drive train, it should have been found long before the problem you are telling us about.

Yes your problem may have been caused by the plant in the way the truck was constructed. However,
your daily inspections and normal service should have noticed the problem long before 3 years have passed.

Say what you want, but put the blame back in your own firehouse for not finding this issue yourself before
it became a problem. Don't act like some grandmother that doesn't even know that the oil needs to be
changed every 3 to 6 thousand miles.

Jim

First off, Mods, I know this is off topic, and not at all what this board is for, but I know there are a lot of firefighters on the board, and it seems like a good place to warn of a possible serious problem. Feel free to lock this if you want, as long as its left up so it can be read.

Now, to the problem. Tuesday night, the chief and a couple of rookies with a volunteer department I'm a member of had a hydraulic hose blow out under the truck, which is a 2005 (IIRC) Pierce Contender series pumper, with a CAFS system. Luckily, this happened at a grass fire, not at a working structure fire. The cause for the blowout became obvious shortly after I crawled under the truck to take a look at it: the hose in question was poorly routed at the factory, and had, over time, fallen onto the universal joint on the output of the transmission. The u-joint had then rubbed the side of the hose to the point that the hose could no longer contain the pressure, and ruptured. I don't know for sure what model series, or what years this problem may affect, but I would suggest that if you have a Pierce pumper built in the past 5-6 years, check it out if it has any hydraulically-driven equipment on it, like air compressors, foam injection pumps, generators, etc. The hydraulic power comes from a PTO-driven hydraulic pump, mounted on the right side of the truck's transmission, toward the rear of the transmission. On the truck we have, the output (high-pressure) hose from the pump crosses over from the right side of the transmission to the left frame-rail of the truck, then goes toward the back of the truck. The hose crosses over directly above the u-joint on the transmission's output shaft. On our truck, I saw nothing that indicated that the hose was ever tied up out of the way. To compound the problem, on our truck, if the water pump is engaged, the hydraulic pump is engaged. If we had had people inside a working structure fire when the hose let go, we probably would have destroyed the hydraulic pump before we could have gotten everyone out of the structure, or the pump could have seized up and damaged the transmission, causing the pump to stop pumping. Please, if your department, or any department you know of in your area, has a newer Pierce truck with a hydraulic system on it, check this, or have it checked, as soon as possible!

[alex]

as the OP indicated, this is not the place for this discussion.

I'll leave this up, but I'm going to lock the topic.

-Alex