Out here in California all fire dozers are enclosed cab and if you look at the fire dozers that belong to LA County fire or Ventura County Fire you will see that there are actually two seats in them because one of those seats is actually for the Swamper fire dozers don't have water tanks on them out here but they do have fire curtains on them the typical Dozer they use for fire dozers out here are either a D6 cat or D 8 cat in the event that you get run over by a fire The Operators are taught to dig a trench with the Dozer then Park the Dozer where your blade is sitting on the pile of dirt that you pushed out of the trench then you leave the dozer running with the idle up you climb out of the Dozer and you're supposed to climb down in between the radiator and the blade and cover yourself with your fire shelter also known as a baked potato and they require that you flip the seat up when you do this so that way if anybody comes along later they'll know that the operator left the Dozer and is in his fire shelter down between the blade and the radiator
@@mmm365 I myself personally would prefer a cab that's enclosed they still have the screens on them it's just so that you're in an enclosed cab and you're not breathing all that crap on the outside
Lol he was spot on! Except thier called a shake& bake! Cause if you have to deploy one ! You might aswell kiss your u know what good bye! Thier ( the fire shelter) are not made for a direct hit!!! As of 18 of a 20 person crew found out on storming mt.!!
@@mmm365 well where do you think the air inside the cabin is coming from after several minutes? Outside, if you dig a hole get down in it you have the blade on one side and the dozer on the other side. your wrapped in a fire blanket, down low cleaner air, no trees can fall on U
@@seanpierce7673 we always called them a baked potato because you feel like a baked potato 😉 But yes shake n bake Because you shake it out then bake when the fire blows over you Not only Storm King but also Yarnell the Granite Mountain hotshots
Before I became a firefight/paramedic I worked for my grandfathers oilfield trucking/winch truck/pulling unit company and we would help the fire departments in various counties around us with grass/pasture fires. We would load 120 barrels of water mixed with an AFFF foam and install a spreader chute on the two year 3 inch air valves and start backing into the fire using vacuum pumps to apply positive pressure to the trailer. It would spray a fan of water 15 to 25 foot wide depending on the pressure. We had standard transport trucks loaded with 120 barrels of water and AFFF would lay water down around homes creating a fire break. We would also bring big wheel loaders, dozers and backhoes. It’s was always fun and great to be able to help others out by helping to save their homes and property which is ultimately what lead me to becoming a firefighter.
@@ironworkerfxr7105 yep, unfortunately it’s what we currently have and it seems to work. Needs to be replaced with something that works equally as well or better but I doubt that will happen. Just look at what they’ve done with weed killer and big poison over the last 25 years. It’s doesn’t kill the weeds or the bugs and I really doubt it’s much safer for us.
7:25 OMG thankyou Dresta! That extra 0.3MPH will save my life! Joking aside,has anyone ever built a dozer from tank undercarriage? Those would have genuinely useful top speeds!
I like these videos explaining the differences between more general heavy equipment and more specialized versions (military/fire department). Really interesting.
The reason they have quick access panels on everything is so they can blow the soot and ash out of their radiators easier. Usually multiple times a day
The Fire industry requires toolless serviceability, is why all the guards and covers come off without having to find a wrench. That and the air cleaner should be a special flame retardant material or have an ember screen in front of it. Other than that, you nailed it.
As an Operating Engineer for the City of NY 38 years. 28 years at Fresh Kills Landfill. I have fought many fires. Last fire I fought was at the Compost facility. By the time that we showed up. Most of the buildings were already burnt down and the fire dept had extinguished most of the fire that you could see. Problem was that hundreds of huge piles of compost (25x25 high) were still burning on the inside. The firemen could see with infrared cameras. So we used 3, Cat D6 LGP's to break opem the piles. When you break open a pile and the oxygen hits it. It instantly bursts into a huge fire. Then you use the bulldozer to spread the burning compost. So the firefights can put the fire out. To do this, they had a fire boat in the Arthur Kill waterway. From there they ran a 24" water line. From the water line they used manifolds to distribute the water to the fire fighters. Each bulldozer had 6 fire fighters to man two hoses. One to keep trained on the bulldozer and one to extinguish the fire. Giant plumes of steam rose from our dozers. The glass being too hot to touch. Five to ten foot flames all around, as you worked from one pile to the next. No extra anything was done to the dozers and after 12 hours we were done and put the dozers back on the trailers. To be transported back to our regular work area. We used them the next day. BTW if you really need a high heat dozer. Caterpillar sells them, they are called Steel Mill dozers. I would never operate an 'open cab' machine to fight a fire. Operator safety is paramont. What about smoke, cinders, and heat? IMHO buy new, tell Cat what you are going to use it for. Hire a real Operator. IUOE Local 15 Ret.
Great content..being here in Florida see many of these with the Division of Forestry and the plow you refered to is called a Mathis Plow..they were built here at one time but family moved the entire company while I was away at college in the late 80's. Really enjoy seeing your content keep up the great work 👍🇺🇸🔧👌
Very interesting thank you, never even considered they might have specific fire dozer models - here in Australia if this sort of heavy equipment is used in fire fighting it is usually just what the locals have that gets used. Almost all of our fire services outside of the cities are volunteers with minimal government supplied equipment, they usually rely on local farmers and contractors to step up when needed. the Australian government does pay a fortune to hire your fire fighting planes in your off season, as that is generally our fire season. Unfortunately fire seasons in both countries are becoming longer and starting to overlap, so we are now having issues where the US planes are not available at the start and end of our fire season.
A pity Australia Air Force doesn't purchase our (Lockheed Martin) "MAFFS" for their 12 C-130J Fleet ... interesting accessory as it can be installed for Fire Season and then removed which allows cargo space for other missions: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_Airborne_FireFighting_System
The reason it has lubricated pins and bushing on the tracks is because with a traditional dry pin and bushing it is relying on tempering of the metal to make them last. When these machines are tracking through hot fires they can lose there temper and wear out faster
I have recommended to Dirt Perfect and LetsDig18 (both with new Excavators) to add removable "heat shields" over their forward hoses when they're doing their giant "Burn Piles"; simple .032" sheet steel would do the trick ... just remember what "Red Adair" began using back in the 60's fighting Oil Well Fires ... corrugated roof tin as a shield ... 100F temp differential !!! Thanks for the tour of the Fire Dozer ... very informative.
Spent many hours working around fire plow dozers here in Arkansas as I am with a volunteer fire department. The older dozers had a v style plow on the back with sweeps.
Very informative. I speculate that not many people, (including myself) have seen a fire dozer or even considered all the contingent factors engineered into the machine.
you did hit some of the obvious points. there are a few more. I am currently an Initial attack dozer operator in FL. currently working on my second dozer. first was a John deer 650H with a straight blade. now have a 650J with a V blade. which will be up for replacement soon,. most cycles are 20yr or 2500 hr. some go up to 3500hr. they are hard hours. current dozer working in second chain forget the number of winch cables.
forgot to mention depending on agency they could be vary well turned up. my current unit will walk out in hi gear throttle about 6.5 mph i have clock it. they are not my any means slow. i pull a plow that will do a 5" line average speed abut 2.5 tp 3 mph
Without even watching this video, I already like it because that’s a question I pondered when I was a kid living in So Cal during some of our worst fires in the 70’s !
That was a great training video on the basics of fire dozers . worked on fire equipment in Oregon like brush truck but never the dozers just the low boy setups to take em out to the fire . Thanks for the info
Awesome info, thanks! It started out so well and then your Vanna White broke the curtain... 😵💫 Great info for things that you would never think about.
Pretty cool video!! I have watched dozers fight fires but never knew there was that much difference. Thank you for making this educational as well as entertaining!!
Thanks for this educational video Clint! You and your team keep the content fresh and entertaining. I have always had an interest in heavy equipment operation but never had the opportunity to learn how to operate any equipment. I get to watch and learn things I never knew about from one of the very best!!
Excellent! Thank you guys very much from a dude disabled who has a chief babysitter who is an awesome mechanic works as a farmer For his brother who is a farmer/state representative.
I worked behind a fire cat in early '80s a D8 it was just a regular dozzer. Only recent addition was ROP protection. Cat skinner was a beast! Falling 4 foot plus thick old growth fir with 3 short passes and could control direction. Our job was to put him out if he picked up burning debris on tracks or something. 5 of us with shovels and indian piss tanks. I'm up in BC and at that time when a fire broke out a forestry guy and four RCMP head to the bar and its fight fire or go to jail. It was a blast, hard but a blast. 3rd day the Martin Mars came by. Good thing damn thing was crowning out. We got surrounded once doing manual fire break and they radio'd us an told us to lie flat on the ground. They dropped and the tail end hit us. Felt like l got body slamed by King Kong we got up and ran back out. I know to this generation this may sound incredible but back then it was just part of working in the bush. Anyone who grew up in a city can't be expected to understand. As a boy the town l was from was surrounded on 3 sides by fire in old growth to boot. 4th side was the ocean. The fathers got on their roofs to put out cinders the kids patrolled the neighborhood putting out cinders. 3rd day two Martin Mars came in and put it out in 4 hours. As long as l live I'll never forget watching those monsters just above the trees a quarter mile away bombing the crap out of that brush fire. These days everyone runs away and lets their crap burn. Pussys run westcoasters stand and fight slaves die on their knees men die sword in hand. I plan to sit next to Odin. Step aside he cried many men didn't some men died. Edit: if you ever find yourself having to defend your home from a forest fire, here's a few pointers from someone who has. 1: remove any bushes from the houses perimeter 2: fill everything with water you can, garbage cans, buckets, have time? Buy a kids pool bigger the better 3: most houses are lost due to embers catching the roof on fire. (Shingles of any kind are a scam sold by people who install them. In 79' we installed an enameled steel roof on our two cabins in nootka sound 40+ years later, and it still looks like the day we installed it. Steel doesn't burn at wood fire temps. Measure both sides of your roof if buying steel roofing there never the same.) Once you've stockpiled water it's up on your roof with a hose and soak it down. Then its simply a matter of putting out embers. Have a bucket on a rope so you don't have to come down for water if you loose water pressure a kid makes a good ground guy to fill bucket or wife. Keep a cool head on outside even if your terrified nobody ever did anything worth while in a panic. Wear a wet cloth around your head/face keeps you cool and is a decent filter. 4: united we stand divided we fall. Talk to neighbors make a battle plan and help each other. I know sometimes this is strange for city folk but key. If one house is lost on your block it triples the chance of losing yours. 5:Eat! Your gonna plow through 5000 calories in the coming hours equipment doesn't run on a empty tank neither can you. The adrenaline is killing your appetite. Your gonna be more alive in the coming hours than you've ever been. Fear is a mind killer just keep fighting but be aware of the surroundings and adjust accordingly. When it's over and you've beaten the monster, look around, the people still with you are people you can count on, remember them. Careful, dangerous situations cause adrenaline and adrenaline is very addictive. I was diagnosed as addicted to adrenaline early in my teens (in juvie, l was a sh#t disturber) l've chased the adrenaline rush my whole life. Don't let society take away our ability to make adrenaline.
I honestly never even thought about the fact that a fire dozer would even exist. Makes perfect sense in hindsight now. As always very interesting stuff
I know in east texas our dozers are enclosed, the forest service had a snag break off and land on the roof which sent embers into a void in between the engine compartment and cab and was a pain to put out.
Excellent info Curtis. Gotta be grateful for the operators of these things. Especially if they ever have to use the fire curtains and that tiny water extinguisher.
I can a fire line with a d6, it was just a normal construction one, the ash pluged up all rads and its a pain in the ass to clean them out with all the pannels bolted in the wway
Those are ground pounders best freind! And yes their torky little buggers! And you would be amazed with that much water how much fire you can put out with that tip
Thanks Clinton first time I was explained the difference Probably holds up pretty good There’s a guy here I E TN that hauls a John Deere around on a truck that is a fire dozer
I got trolled once for complaining to Chris at Letsdig18 for his use of the Volvo excavator to stoke burn piles. He doesn't have any fire sleeves on the hydraulics and even admitted to a damaged line at the bucket from fire damage. Thanks for showing the fire dozer and the great comments on uses and features. If I ever need a refurb'd dozer...I'm calling C&C !
I seem to recall seeing a few of these getting unloaded new back in the early 90's. Grousers on the tracks was about double the height of the standard, and they had spray bars and nozzles to a mounted tank. These were like D9 size machines but still, they were beasts. Big diagonal plow blades with a breaker point on the leading edge. Huge heavy-duty/rough terrain single bottom with double serrated disks trailing for really rolling a fire line. Watched training for the fire crews as they plowed what amounted to a road through some wma land that had partly burned a few months prior. The 'fire lane' eventually turned into the only access road to the back of the wma land which made it much easier to hunt, so you wouldn't have to park on the side of a state highway the walk a mile across a windrowed clearcut just to reach the edge of the woods.
While I love your videos and narrating, I have been around long enough to where the honeymoon is about over. I will always be here watchin you do stuff, but, we need a challenge, Im talking D11T rebuild!! :)
Like always good videos, I think most fire dozers have reversible fan, do you know if this dozer has it, I didn’t get a good look at the dash so I couldn’t tell….. you guys always have awesome videos.
