Darley’s Chief Engineer, Wayne Hable, and Chief Marketing Officer, Kimberly Brown, talk about extending the life of pumps and asset life management.
If you don’t have time to listen to the conversation, below are 3 key takeaways.
Kimberly Brown (KB): What are we seeing and hearing from our customers today?
Wayne Hable (WH): We’re seeing customers working to prolong the life of their trucks. We’re talking with customers about replacement parts, replacement pumps for their trucks, and connecting fire departments with used/refurbished truck partners.
KB: What do you do to extend the life of your pump assuming it’s in good working order right now?
WH: Service testing your fire truck every year. A service test is running the pump at the NFPA-required performance points for set periods of time. I recommend that everyone schedule yearly service test on your fire truck. When you are done with the service test, examine the used oil from the pump transmission. That is a telltale sign of the condition of your pump. If the used oil looks just like liquid oil, that’s good.
If your used oil has metal debris in it that looks like fingernail clipping-sized metal chunks in the oil pan, you have issues going on in your pump transmission. Your pump needs to be taken out of service and needs to be repaired as soon as you can.
KB: Do you have an interesting tip or trick when it comes to working with pumps?
WH: The basic trick that I do with the fire truck is shut off all the discharges and connect it to a hydrant to see if it is watertight. Connect it to a hydrant and see if it leaks.
