I bought a 1995 Ford L8000 tandem water truck and thought I'd haul it home. Anyone know what something like this weighs, ball park?
Is that with or without water?
Empty, I want to haul it home.
Does it have a steel or aluminum tank and PTO driven pump with emitters front and rear?
I’d say 16-18k unless it’s rigged up with all kinds of spray bars and controls. If it’s just an average old truck with a tank on it I bet that’s not far off.
That's what I thought as well. Thanks.
I was hoping to see an overload of the day kinda scenario on this one... definitely no more than 20k
Average bare bones tandem with 230 wheel base 15,000. Steel tank, pump and spray bars 20 to 21,000.
I remember when I bought a old fuel delivery truck to use as a water hauler. I filled it up with water...and then found out the hard way how much more water weighs than gasoline!
It seems every manager or engineer I've had to work with thinks that an oil fuel truck is just the perfect conversion to a water truck. A partial list of the problems; Suspension way too light for water. External top drop fill system or custom made plumbing to fill the tank. You have to cut holes in the plumbing or tank in order to manufacture a gravity drop spray bar that creates mud. Air operated valve to control on and off water drop. Wedge style brakes on all the old trucks I've had to work with. No axle interloc to drive through the mud you just created. Highway gears in the transmissions. Baffles in the tank are not adequate to suppress the slosh of water. The other big problem is they always put some kid in the truck that was on their first job. I'm sure there are other here that can add to my list.
Yeah-Dome it out and over load it constantly.
That’s a comprehensive summary, John C. I saw Terminal Managers toping off single axle, 2800 gallon fuel trucks as standard practice. Then, perplexed why so many broken springs, worn suspension parts and brakes. Took me awhile to figure out they were overloading them so much.
I worked with a guy who had a nasty old FL cabover fuel into water truck he had converted for fire use. He took the middle compartment where the lid is they used to top fuel, welded some pipes through it and had a big space to put his changes of clothes, spare parts, food and water, etc.
I don't think I have ever run a fuel to water conversion. Still ran plenty of ****** trucks though. The last one was for the crane gig outfit. It came over from who knows where with no instructions, and I spent days figuring it out and cleaning scale out of all the valves and nozzles. I started using it, and it had not good adjustment on the front nozzles. When I tried to explain it to a mechanic and he did not know what a victaulic was, I knew I was scroodled. No vics, no double elbow so you could point it anywhere.
Here is a prime example of a f2ck-up. I bought this Polar bare back smooth bore for the ag company I worked for along with two other bare backs. They let fire fighters use it as a tender on a forest fire, they forgot to open the vent.