Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

I've always thought that an old firetruck would make a much better RV conversion platform than an old bus. The reasoning is that a firetruck (especially a pumper truck) has a suspension that is designed to carry much more weight than a bus so you would not be as constrained in what you could build on top of it.

Jay Leno did an excellent column about how amazing fire trucks are in terms of durability.

The OP said that "fire trucks" weren't designed to drive on the highway at highway speeds, which is a bit of an over generalization. The National Forest Service for example has a number of trucks in California that are tasked with driving up and down the state to fight wild fires. They not only drive on the highway, they end up with a couple million miles on them before they are retired.

In terms of practicality (there isn't much :-) but a ladder truck has the ability to put you fairly high up somewhat "away" from the truck. (although an inexperienced operator could easily tip over their truck if they weren't careful) and they have those pretty awesome hydraulic stabilizing legs. I sketched out briefly a sort of 'circus tent' RV where the tenting was connected to a ladder truck's ladder which could then extend up and allow you to stake out a tent around it. A number of issues there, from the outgassing of the truck into your tent :-) and the ladder has a specified end load that it can move around which is often less than 500 lbs so you end can't really hoist canvas, you would get away with light nylon at best.

But in terms of interesting vehicles to own I agree with the author that there is a certain cachet there :-)

My bus/RV conversion weighs about 18 tons. It has 6 ton front axle and in the rear it has an 11 ton and an additional 6 or 8 ton axle. While a fire truck has a ridiculously strong suspension, if you used that for an RV, you would get a punishing amount of vibration and shaking. I guess you could ballast it, but you'll waste a lot of fuel hauling ballast around, in addition to being dangerously underpowered in some situations. I think that a fire truck is not a good candidate for an RV conversion, unless you have a very specific definition of "Recreation" in mind.

That is a great point about the suspension. The water doesn't care about bumps. A bit of searching lead me to this interesting page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_apparatus which supports your thesis. Since a bus is designed for riding comfort much of the suspension work is geared to that. That is something I really hadn't thought enough about.

If you significantly increase the bus's weight your going to want to change the suspension anyway. So, really it's just a question of how much of a conversion are you doing. With a bus you can just rip out the seats add a bed and a fridge and call it done as you keep the weight about the same. However if you going wild and thinking about adding your hot-tub then I think a firetruck may be a good option.

I tore so much industrial strength junk out of it. The seats? They were incredible, built to last many years of transit system abuse. Another example, a wheelchair lift that looks like it came from an aircraft carrier, and could lift an aircraft. I don't see ever re-adding that much weight. The most significant thing I've ever had was 300 gallons of potable water (and 8 companions + gear) for our last trip to BRC.

I remember a mythbusters episode where they stuck a half a ton of clay on a regular car, and it didn't affect fuel economy. So there's that.

Rewatched and they did test with the full weight and as you said no (noticeable) change with the added weight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKxEkT2H8pI#t=322s

I know that Mythbusters isn't generally hard science but you know.

Obligatory: http://xkcd.com/397/

As I recall that episode didn't test 'fuel economy' as most people think of it, but instead 'fuel economy when driving straight at a constant speed on flat ground'. This was not an error -- they were up front about it; it was more a question of controlling variables. Still, it keeps us from generalizing the weight data to actual vehicle cost of operation.

I live next door to a busy firehouse, and I've heard plenty of gripes about the perils of their newer truck vs the mid-80's pumper with 350k miles that replaced it. Based on the frequency that I see the department's backup engine next door, I tend to agree.

Basically, the new trucks are unibody and much more fragile -- it turns out that new firetruck demand is driven by smaller/volunteer departments that don't put a ton of wear on the equipment. Minor accidents and mechanical breakdowns on the newer gear are major repair incidents that require weeks of downtime.

The old trucks were basically custom cabs sitting on a truck frame. Not very comfortable, but tough enough to survive 30 years of service with 2,000+ calls a year in a northeast city.

That's the problem with durable equipment. It doesn't need to be replaced as often so the companies that make it go out of business.

Some friends of mine turned a 1963 firetruck into a 2:1 scale VW bus: http://walterthebus.org. The suspension was a key reason they went with a firetruck. A bus foundation would not have supported the 330 gallon water tank used in the onboard misting system.

Okay, that is just crazy cool.

Nice:

Accessories 330 gallon water tank for the onboard misting system Onan 4000 watt generator Air Conditioner for the sleeping/VIP room 10,000 plus led lights Safari style front window frames

I have been involved in the fire service for some time. Yes you could use that type of fire apparatus to convert to an RV but as was stated the suspension on the fire truck is ruff at the best of times (some of the newer ones with air suspension aren't horrible). The National Fire Service will rely on large brush trucks which are more like modified F350 for forest fires. While a pump will be utilized it won't be the bread and butter for them. My point being that the fire truck pumper is radically different from a brush truck.

It would be a neat one-off RV, but the cost of removing all the fire truck bits and building a living area would likely exceed just starting from a van or bus and beefing up the springs.

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