Firetruck offroad lights

[thatguy2]

So I am the assistant fire chief of a small rural fire department in Kansas. I wrote some grants and we were awarded $18k to buy two remote monitors, and equip two of our brush trucks with full replacement bumpers. The surface mount LED emergency lights I bought this time last year will be easy to mount on the mesh areas of the brush guard. Anybody have any ideas for offroad lights that perhaps would just have bolts to run through the mesh and be ready to roll? The bumper will look almost identical to this

 

[Stateboy]

I would think that you might be able to use large fender washers to keep any bolt you use from slipping through the mesh screen. I may not be thinking of your mounting situation correctly but that's the first thing that comes to mind. If you're not familiar with a fender washer, they're just large diameter washers. You can find them at any hardware store or Lowe's or Home Depot.

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[thatguy2]

I would think that you might be able to use large fender washers to keep any bolt you use from slipping through the mesh screen. I may not be thinking of your mounting situation correctly but that's the first thing that comes to mind. If you're not familiar with a fender washer, they're just large diameter washers. You can find them at any hardware store or Lowe's or Home Depot.

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I am aware of fender washers. The problem we have is the way most offroad lights mount. The are designed to be mounted at a 90 degree angle to their bracket. THere is typically a large aluminum housing on the back with fins to disipate heat. Thye arent designed usually to be mounted forward facing unless they are flush mounted. THey do make these brackets which would work for a single large light if the remote monitor wasn't in the way
Amazon.com
Most mount like this. If I put the bolt through the mesh they would be facing down or up not ahead where they are useful..

 

[Stateboy]

That makes sense. I'll have to look to see what my lights look like for mounting on my Pioneer since they appear similar to the picture you have from Amazon. I'm at work right now though. Perhaps, someone else will chime in before I get a chance to take another shot at helping you sort this out.

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[JenElio]

I am aware of fender washers. The problem we have is the way most offroad lights mount. The are designed to be mounted at a 90 degree angle to their bracket. THere is typically a large aluminum housing on the back with fins to disipate heat. Thye arent designed usually to be mounted forward facing unless they are flush mounted. THey do make these brackets which would work for a single large light if the remote monitor wasn't in the way
Amazon.com
Most mount like this. If I put the bolt through the mesh they would be facing down or up not ahead where they are useful..
View attachment 415355

Those mounts most lights come with have quite a bit of adjustment, might have to flip upside down to get the desired angle. If not, something as simple as a HD piece of angle (bracket, angle iron, etc) might work if you don't want to fabricate something a little more custom.

 

[Buckshot07]

If the brush guard is built with square tubing turned like a diamond like the one in the picture, drill holes on the back facing angled surface of the tube and insert riv nuts to bolt the mounting brackets.
Put long narrow lights in the area circled.
They would then be protected by the brush guard

 

[thatguy2]

Those mounts most lights come with have quite a bit of adjustment, might have to flip upside down to get the desired angle. If not, something as simple as a HD piece of angle (bracket, angle iron, etc) might work if you don't want to fabricate something a little more custom.

Ive actually got several sets. I have been wiring in pump lights and side scene lights on all the brush trucks (previous chief was burned out and for $20 in materials and an hour of work I cant believe he never did this) so I have been playing with them and they wont do what I am hoping for. I can always drill through those uprights and mount them but trying to avoid that if possible.
Pump light I did yesterday

 

[thatguy2]

Bumpers go on tomorrow. I had to take the siren and lights off the chevy. Then I had to remove the winch and siren off the ford. These are what they look like tonight. I had already started taking the winch off when I thought "maybe I should take some before pics"

 

[thatguy2]

 

[thatguy2]

 

[thatguy2]

Between the bumper and monitor, there is over $10k hanging on the front of this truck.

 

[Red500]

Between the bumper and monitor, there is over $10k hanging on the front of this truck.
View attachment 418751

That's something that kinda surprised me when I joined the rescue squad. We just put in for a grant to buy a new set of extrication tools ( cutter, spreader, and ram) and it's over 80K for the set. I don't think people realize just how much money it takes to run a fire and/or rescue department. And most volunteer department have to raise the money them selves (at least around here).

 

[thatguy2]

That's something that kinda surprised me when I joined the rescue squad. We just put in for a grant to buy a new set of extrication tools ( cutter, spreader, and ram) and it's over 80K for the set. I don't think people realize just how much money it takes to run a fire and/or rescue department. And most volunteer department have to raise the money them selves (at least around here).

I just put in for a grant for a new Tender (you guys probably applied for the same one, AFG). It's for $475,000. Our current tender is a 1990 converted dump truck with 212k miles on it. We know it's a long shot, but you miss all the shots you don't take. I worked for 10 months gathering demographics and statistics, etc for our area. We also put in for 10 sets of structural gear, and 7 sets of wildland gear. We have people in structural gear from the year 2000. I don't have a set of my own. I share with another volunteer at our other station 5 miles away. I've been first due to a structure fire 3 times and had to wait on gear to arrive. We have one person that we have nothing to fit them so we borrowed some from another dept.

 

[thatguy2]

This is our rescue truck just above the extrication equipment. The truck is an 07 with 8000 miles on it. The box is from 1974. A new box is 70,200 not including any lighting or removing the old box and mounting a new one. I have duct tape over it till we figure out what we are gonna do.

 

[thatguy2]

Did a little training tonight. This will be awesome when we are by ourselves on a grass fire. Even if you have a partner you can mobile attack seatbelted in.

Our FD is 2 stations, 10 trucks, and 24 volunteers. We run between 100 and 150 calls a year almost evenly split between fire and medical. We do get tax money and last year our budget was $72, 568. Insurance takes ~$12k right off the top. We spent $9k repair repairing trucks last year. By Jan 10th this year we were at $6300 (our yearly repair budget is $5k).
This website has pictures of our trucks

Lyon County Fire District 5 – KansasFireTrucks.com

kansasfiretrucks.com

 

[TxDoc]

Did a little training tonight. This will be awesome when we are by ourselves on a grass fire. Even if you have a partner you can mobile attack seatbelted in.
View attachment 418937
Our FD is 2 stations, 10 trucks, and 24 volunteers. We run between 100 and 150 calls a year almost evenly split between fire and medical. We do get tax money and last year our budget was $72, 568. Insurance takes ~$12k right off the top. We spent $9k repair repairing trucks last year. By Jan 10th this year we were at $6300 (our yearly repair budget is $5k).
This website has pictures of our trucks

Lyon County Fire District 5 – KansasFireTrucks.com

kansasfiretrucks.com

Love these vehicles. I'm a quarter mile from VFD. Can't miss when they respond to any call.

Just curious....for grass fires, do y'all add Dawn dishwashing liquid to your water prep?

Thanks for sharing the photos and info.

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[thatguy2]

Love these vehicles. I'm a quarter mile from VFD. Can't miss when they respond to any call.

Just curious....for grass fires, do y'all add Dawn dishwashing liquid to your water prep?

Thanks for sharing the photos and info.

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We use a wetting agent that not only breaks the surface tension of the water but keeps the pump internals lubed. It's biodegradable and PFAS free. It also doesn't foam the tank as bad as dish soap when you have it on recirc.
Our fire district is 105 sq miles with about 1300 residents. Add in our auto aid overlap and you can double the sq miles. We also do alot of mutual aid as well.

 

[TxDoc]

Thank you, Thatguy2, I got a free continuing education experience from you

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[thatguy2]

Finished up the 2nd of 2 grants this morning. We meet red flag warning criteria from 1300-1700 today so 2 of us are at the station in case something pops. We also have a couple other volunteers available that would be a few minutes behind us. There were several area landowners burning this morning. We will see how well they did mopping up when the humidity hits the upper teens to low 20s with wind gusts to 40 mph in a bit.

 

[thatguy2]

First grass fire of the year today. We were automatic aid and sent 3 brush trucks with 4 firefighters to assist. Landowners lawnmower caught fire and spread to his pasture and burned 7 to 10 acres before we caught it. We are in very high fire danger for the time being.