The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts The Stovebolt Volunteer Fire Department truck and pump manufacture

since we all know that our cab and chassis were built by detroit what firetruck manufacture built yours and who's pump did they use and where was it built?

only one that i know built both truck and pump. bonus question who was that and they are still in business today?

the Ashton is a 51 gmc 350 series (two ton).

the builder was luverne fire apparatus, luverne minnesota.

even though the pump tag has "luverne senior pump #xxxx" attached to the pump panel, the pump was not built
by luverne

the darley pump company out of wisconsin was the pump manufacture.

disregard the link, it popped up when i submitted the post

pump features:
500 g.p.m. two stage (two impellars) centrifical.

pump shaft sealing is accomplished by a mechanical seal not adjustable rope packing

pump priming is accomplished by engine vacuum with a douple float priming system to prevent sucking water into the engine.

to keep the pump from freezing it has a exhaust jacket around the water jacket in the pump casing. it uses engine exhaust before the muffler and diverts the exhaust via a valve when needed into the pump casing and is vented out the bottom of the rear of the pump casing.

to maintain continous desired pump pressure it is maintained by a pump governor which is connected to a butterfly valve that is positioned below the throttle butterfly on the carb and intake manifold. pressure drops engine speeds up. pressure increases engine slows down. pump pressure is set at the pressure chamber next to the carb. once the desired pressure is obtained on the pump panel a valve is opened on the panel which charges the pressure chamber and is adjusted by the pump operator. to the unknown thoughts were that when they saw a hood open it was because the truck was runing hot. it was open for the operator to access the pump governor.

there is also a liquid to liquid heat exchanger that allows water being pumped to cool the engine from over heating from working hard on hot days without enough cooling from the fan alone. the heater hoses are tee'd off and that is what supplies my heat exchanger with engine coolant. my engine cooler is bolted on under the truck and takes a line off the discharge side of the pump and returns it to the suction side of the pump carrying heat from the engine coolant and is a closed system from the engines cooling system.

im amazed how the luverne engineers of the time utilized everything from the engine that it could deliver.

Well, that's a tricky question. "Back in the day", most of the "big" apparatus manufacturers made both pump and body (and heck, even the engine, until the '30s-ish). Ahrens-Fox, Mack, Seagrave, and American-LaFrance all made everything from stem to stern through the '20s and 30s. Eventually, most went to an outside engine provider, or bought the rights to a 3rd-party designed truck (American LaFrance bought and repurposed an Allison - or Lycoming? - V12, Seagrave bought and slightly modified the Pierce-Arrow v12. Mack actually stuck with their own engines right up until they stopped making fire apparatus.

Pumps were somewhat similar. Ahrens-Fox and American-LaFrance were famous for their piston and rotary gear pumps. Seagrave was the first with a centrifugal pump, all bronze. Eventually, Waterous & Hale became the predominant suppliers.

Other pump makers? Well, you mention Darley. Their champion pump was a popular front-mount through the '40s. And Darley made truck bodies and equipment as well, though I think they always used a commercial chassis. They were a large, catalog sales company from very early on (the teens, I think).

And of course, my beloved American Fire Apparatus was a division/spin-off of American-Marsh Pumps, responsible for the Barton centrifugal pumps, both front-mount and mid-ship. Their "Duplex-Multistage" pump was an ingenious design, absolutely unique in the industry. American made whole truck bodies and equipment as well, like Darley.

And yes, Darley is absolutely still in business (check out "EDarley.com"), selling equipment, pumps, and trucks.

Nope, American Fire Apparatus is NOT in business any longer (sob sob, sniffle sniffle . . . ).

Did I get it right?

-Michael

Go Darley!

As most of you know (and some have operated), My truck is W.S. Darley equipped. Darley took a '65 GMC 4000 Cab & Chassis and added a (very) plain tanker body and a front-mounted Champion 500 gpm pump.

My pump is kinda interesting (well, to me, anyway) as it was built late in WWII on the war contract, but never delivered -- it didn't leave the Darley factory in Chicago until 1952. And on the front of a '52 Ford F-600 truck built for the Quincy, ILL VFD. Quincy turned that truck in about 1962 or '63, and Darley rebuilt the pump and sold it again to Seymour, ILL VFD on the front of the truck I now own. I guess the Seymour Elementary school students didn't cough up much of their lunch money as my truck is probably the plainest, least flashy fire truck on the planet. Amish communities have fancier rigs than this It hadn't seen much use, either, as it had less than 8,000 miles on it when I bought it.

Darley is still family owned and operated (into their 2nd century). When I called, looking for a manual for my pump, I spoke to a member of the family who then pulled the file on my pump, photocopied everything in the file and sent it to me (along with the manual and a Darley hat). That's why I have the history on my pump.

From what I've seen, I guess Darley's are rare here on the East Coast? 51Ashton's is the only other one I've seen.

Regards,
John

WATEROUS, is the only fire engine pump to use ?! FACT, look in every fire station

Don't forget the Howe pump company.
They were popular in the 50's

my truck has a Hale... but its cracked, still crying about it.

mike at first i thought it was an fair and easy question until i saw your reply and realized i had asked the question the wrong way and i also over looked a few.

being from the east i mostly see hales but then they are a local east coast company.


garand boy, stop your crying where is it cracked. if its accessable it can be repaired easily. a week before i went out to minnesota to pick up the ashton the owner told me the pump must have cracked because there was a puddle of water under the truck when he pulled it out of the garage one sunny day. he show me a pic of the pump and sure enough it was cracked and i wasnt too concerned due to the location of the crack. after i saw the truck the exhaust manifold was cracked also.

while i got another manifold and while i was getting it planed with the intake i took a whole pack of j b weld and cleaned up the area of the crack on the pump with a die grinder with a wire wheel. shot a whole can of metal cleaner on it and applied the whole jb weld mix. it sat and cured a week before i got the manifolds back. from draft i can flow 575 gpm from a 10' lift using 2 21/2" hoses to my deck gun with a 13/4" tip. from a good hydrant with two 21/2" hoses feeding the truck with two hoses discharging into my gun with the 13/4" tip flowing 735 gpm with a 40 psi residual left on the hydrant.

do you know where the crack is and is it assesable?

Ok I feel alot better, I thought once it was cracked it was shot. the cracked area is easy to get to when the pump is still mounted but I think I will remove it for the repair. also What about spray welding? oh and my truck is a gmc Van Pelt

I once saw a cracked pump braised (spelling ?) and she worked afterwards well.

is the pump a front mount or a midship? mine is a midship and my crack was on the bottom of the casing next to where the bottom pump drain is located and i didnt have to remove anything to do the job.

you could have it spray welded. not being able to see the location of it myself i would try the jb weld first. it will be a lot cheaper than welding. if that didnt work then go with the weld.

my pump is a midship 500gpm(I think) I'll try JB first. I think there is more than 1 type of JB which did you use and did you V the crack?

i didnt need to v the crack because the way the casing pushed out it v'd itself. all i had to do was clean it up good for good adhesion
i sent email sent for pics.