By Bill Adams
White hairs with too much time on their hands take the most insignificant item and blow it all to hell. Myself and another seasoned citizen were at a recent trade show passing judgement on the latest and greatest in fire truck innovations (i.e. wondering why things ain’t like they used to be). We noticed that the jacking system on a new single-axled 100-foot rear-mount quint was just like a 30-year-old quint we’re familiar with. If you can open a cab door there’s enough room to set the jacks—just like the old rig. A manufacturer’s representative, also a volunteer, said his department runs a similar piece—naturally built by the same manufacturer. He relayed responding on it when his department’s safety officer went ballistic watching him pull into a scene with the door wide open and him looking at the ground. Oh well. He probably wasn’t wearing his seat belt.
It was a mistake showing the rig’s photos to the Raisin Squad at morning coffee. Their collective comments are in italics; mine are in quotes. Can’t they come up with anything new in 30 years? “If it works, why change it?” It doesn’t matter; times have changed and they should too. Then they argued over why-in-the-hell jacks are called jacks. Stupid me, I said the younger generation calls them stabilizers and outriggers. The raisins who brought their glasses scoured the firehouse looking for magazine advertisements. One computer literate geezer checked manufacturers’ Websites on his combination phone-Internet-camera thingy. Their nonscientific research found that two manufacturers call them outriggers. Four call them stabilizers. One covered all bases calling them outriggers and stabilizers as well as tormentors. One just calls them jacks. Bear in mind, the research was plucked off of Websites, brochures, and magazine advertisements. Lord knows what manufacturers call them in their published specifications.
Photo 1, by the author, shows where one aerial manufacturer claims if you can open a cab door there’s enough room to set the jacks. Some manufacturers also use laser lights to pin-point jack locations.
The Squad had a field day. How come they don’t call’em the same thing? Is there a difference between jacks and outriggers? I thought tormentors were the guide poles on Bangor ladders. Isn’t a tormentor someone who busts your chops? They agreed that there are five styles of jacks: an H-style that extends out and down; one that drops straight down; some that angle out of the body like an A-frame ladder, some that are stored upright and fold down against the ground, and a scissors type that slides out from under the body. How come there are so many different kinds? Which one’s better? “How the hell do I know?” I didn’t think you would.
One crotchety Raisin said, They don’t tell the truth. “What?” When they advertise jack spread, they don’t say if its measured from the center line of the jacks on each side. It ain’t in any of their brochures. They just say jack spread. “So what? What difference does it make?” A lot. Some of them jacks are wider than others. They ain’t telling you exactly how much room is needed to set the rig up. You k