Fire Engines Photos

The left side cart usually holds eight or sometimes nine 2O metre lengths of 70 mm hose. This is known as B hose in Germany, to distinguish it from LDH - called A hose - and 52mm, or C hose which is commonly deployed as first attack hose. With Storz couplings, this cart can be deployed in several different ways, but is most commonly used to set into a distant hydrant, or supply one or more hose lines far away from the pumper location or - less often - to relay water between pumpers.

In France, which is the other European country to use hose carts, it is usual for each pumper to have two, each carrying a total of ten 60 meter lengths of preconnected 65 mm hose. Usually these are set up with one for hydrant connection and the other for longer attack lines. The single German cart probably reflects the fact that German hydrants tend to be around 10O meters apart, while in France they can be 200 metres between them. Further afield, Japanese firefighters use a wide variety of hose carts on both single and dual axles, including large battery powered ride on carts. These are normally stored within the rear body of the pumper, which is invariably a mid mounted pump configuration.


Added by Rob Johnson on 01 October 2025.

I have to correct this typo. German B hose is actually 75 mm, which is one reason why hose carriers in Germany did not usually have LDH on board until the Hytrans system was adopted. Until then, A hose mostly referenced hard suction, and B hose was used for water relay layouts.

Added by Rob Johnson on 03 October 2025.

Please add your comments about this picture using the form below.

Comments

Your Name

Your email address - this will be shown on the page and will allow the system to notify you of further comments added to this picture.