It is difficult for me, being from the old school (44 years in the fire service), to call an apparatus that transports water from a source to the fire scene a "tender." I still want to call them "tankers." But whichever term you wish to use, this vehicle is one of the most important units in your fire station, especially when your protection zone has an area not serviced with a static (river or lake) or pressurized municipal water supply.

My mentor in the fire service, the late Larry Seebruck of the Port Edwards (Wis.) Fire Department, many times told me, "When the wheels of a tanker are not turning, the vehicle is not earning its keep." What Larry meant was that the longer it takes to fill a tank with water, or the longer it takes to empty a tank of water, the slower this vehicle is in delivering the much needed commodity to assist in the extinguishment of the fire. Horsepower can only do so much to effectively reduce the time it takes to get from point A to point B. We can reduce the time for the turnaround of a water tender by using efficient methods and equipment to fill the tank and then empty it into a portable tank or reservoir.

Through the years we have seen the adaptation of a number of vehicles in the business world to serve a fire department as a tender/tanker. These adaptations include fuel trucks, milk trucks, concrete trucks and military vehicles — even cattle water tanks slid into the back of a truck. These vehicles worked, but whether they truly worked safely and efficiently is the question.

Truck manufacturers since have developed vehicles that are more powerful and stronger-built to take the load being carried, and easier to shift. The NFPA got involved with a set of guidelines that specifically addressed tankers/tenders. And the ISO began to recognize the importance of tankers/tenders and their ability to significantly affect firefighting in rural areas.

Standard contradictions

The NFPA states that as long as the gross-axle-weight rating is not exceeded, the load can be placed on the truck. This is contrary to many states and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration standards, which advocate that no more than 20,000 pounds should be carried on the front axle, no more than 19,000 pounds on a single rear axle and no more than 34,000 pounds on a tandem rear axle configuration.

However, there are many options available from truck manufacturers that allow for heaver GAWR, thus allowing for heavier gross-vehicle-weight ratings. The reason for these heavier GAWR axles is to accommodate a heavy load when the vehicle is in a turning mode and the driver has lifted the non-driving lift axle to accommodate the load — pusher (in front of the drive axles) and/or tag (in back of the drive axles). For an axle to be designated with a GAWR, several components must meet minimum requirements, including:

• Frame members
• Suspension springs
• Brake components (including linings and shoe platforms)
• Wheels (and all related components)
• Tires
• Steering components (e.g., tie rods, steering gears)

There is a major safety problem in that the fire apparatus manufacturers will build vehicles that put 31,000 pounds on a single rear axle. The concern is that each tire's footprint for an 18,000-pound GAWR rear axle is the same as for a 31,000-pound GAWR axle. Consequently, the heavier-loaded axle will not have the same stopping performance as the lighter-loaded axle. Most state departments of transportation require that a vehicle in a private or commercial application having more than 19,000 pounds on the rear axle must be supported with a tandem rear axle configuration, not a single axle.

The overall size of the vehicle — its height along with its in-motion weight, i.e., momentum — will determine how difficult it will be for the vehicle to stop in an emergency. Every year we read reports of tankers/tenders that have rolled over because the driver was unable to maintain control while negotiating a curve. These large vehicles will have a very high center of gravity to get an acceptable weight distribution to each axle, front and rear.

With most rural, volunteer and/or paid-on-call fire departments, the drivers/operators normally will not drive a tanker/tender often enough — nor any of the other vehicles in the fleet — to be familiar with every driving characteristic vehicle has. In addition, drivers are subjected to an intensified state of driving, with sirens, flashing emergency lights, radio communications, and the commands of the officer of the vehicle. Most of us are accustomed to driving our cars and maybe a pickup truck. Now, in the heat of the emergency, we expect the fire apparatus to behave and react like our personal vehicles.

There is no way a 50,000-pound vehicle can react the same as a car weighing 3,000 to 5,000 pounds. I have witnessed fire departments that have specified and built tenders with a 20,000-GAWR front axle and a 54,000-pound rear axle. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But now this department and the manufacturer of the tender body decided to put 4,000 gallons of water on this chassis. How did they expect this vehicle to be safe on the road? If this vehicle was owned by a milk hauler or other liquid hauler, they would be required to install additional axles to stabilize the load.