Fire Trucks

This challenge will require the teams to build a vehicle capable of extinguishing fires. In the ten hour time limit, the teams will be building fire trucks that must extinguish three different kinds of fires. The first is a dumpster/garbage fire. Next they will have to put out a 1988 Lincoln Town Car and finally, a "towering inferno" consisting of a stack of wooden pallets. The team who completes all of the tasks first wins. If either team should run out of water, they will have to drive all the way back to the start to refill their tanks.
 

Hackett wants to build what amounts to a giant fire extinguisher. An air compressor will pump air into a tank and pressurize it. This tank will be connected to a second tank which holds the water. The compressed air will force the water out under pressure. This will provide a really good stream of water that should put of the fires quite easily. However, it require two tanks, two sets of valves...just a whole lot of parts. The other downside is that this design will pump out a lot of water quickly. This could cause them to have to refill more often than Col Dick.
 
Col Dick just wants a "simple" pumper truck. A truck with water tanks will hold 2 engines on the bed. One engine will be connected to the other and power it. The powered engine will have a tree of valves on the top of the pistons. The natural action of the engine pistons is to pump (oil) so Col Dick wants to take advantage of this action. It's not ridiculously complicated but does it sound familiar? It should because its the same design Col Dick used to defeat The NERDS in the Series 3 final (Fire Boats). It should produce a steady, yet puny stream.
 

 
 
The Red Team
One, Liam and Jason
The Blue Team
Ray, Gevin and Major
 
 
Hackett's Fire Engine
Col Dick's Engine Pumper No1
 
 
green band is a video glitch
Hackett deems this will be a perfect
tank for holding lots of water
This freezer, while water tight, won't
cut the mustard with the Colonel
 
 
A half ton truck should make a
good base for Hackett's design
This badly smoking van will suit 
the Colonel, once it loses the back
 
 
Hackett's team are cracking along
with this air compressor
The blue's have also found a pump
in this old engine, sans a few parts
 
 
And, this engine will turn over the
other engine, creating a pump
An inlet and outlet must be cut into
the propane tank for filling and spraying
 
 
Hackett give the Colonel a bunch of
check valves, necessary equipment
Once this pipe gets squashed some,
it will make an excellent nozzle
 
 
Hackett's back-up plan is a
bucket on a stick for dumping
water right on the fire
A differential will allow the blues to
gear down their engine to regulate
the flow from their pump
 
 
The water tank goes in
Blue's complex valve tree
 
 
The Blue's Pumper/Tanker
Hackett's High Pressure Truck
next set of images
 

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