Good to see this interest in apparatus, it seems the folks in the field don’t get much say in what they are given. I fully agree that type 3’s are to big but the chassis height and size are not changeable, type 6’s are back to limited GVW and loading to near 100%. As situation vary the needs vary as well and only one tool has some severe limitations but on the flip side you get some big efficiencies by using one model, look at the success of South West Airlines, all 737’s. My original point is that with different slightly more expensive build type we can add more water without increasing size, or the other option is decrease size and maintain 500 gallons. If you see Marin County Type 3’s (a number of others us similar speck) you can see the body build is slightly lower, tank is much lower, 4" narrower, I don’t recall how much shorter in WB and Length but slightly more compartment and hose bed cubic footage compared to the 34’s. This was accomplished using an internal steel inverted wet side “T” tank. Not a new idea, just modification of an old idea that worked well for decades.
2 Likes