Company Updates
September 15, 2023
Are you able to draft with any of the QTAC Units?
Water drafting is essential to any successful remote area suppression mission where water may be limited to haul with.
Published on:
September 15, 2023
If you’re asking this question, it means you’re thinking about capacity. If you’re looking to add a vehicle-mounted firefighting skid to your apparatus roster, it means you need something smaller than an engine but bigger than a garden hose. The type of skid and tank you choose often comes down to water capacity.
Below, we walk you through a few of our most popular vehicle-mounted skids, how they work, and why they might be the right fit for your unique mission.
Get into tight spaces with the QTAC 40S.
There’s a proper tool for every job, and sometimes it can seem deceptively small. In situations where there isn’t room for heavy apparatus, or larger vehicles are simply overkill, the 40-gallon QTAC 40S is just the tool to have on hand.
What it’s good for:
It’s perfect for mop-up, controlling the edge of a prescribed burn, quickly suppressing spot fires, cooling off stumps, and dealing with the effect of heat/sparks during chainsaw work or when clearing weeds or dry grass.
You can also go confidently into difficult-to-access remote areas for suppression work with the power of our medium-pressure pump, without needing the vehicle size a larger-capacity unit requires. And at less than 500 lbs. wet, the 40S gives you a lot of leeway in vehicle choice.
Pack extra payload and power with the QTAC 85HP.
Allow us to state the obvious—as job size grows, so does capacity need. While some ask us how much you can do when fighting fire with 85 gallons of water, we always answer with confidence, "Much more than you can do without it."
If your UTV can handle a unit weighing in at about 950 lbs. wet, give the 85HP some serious consideration. It offers more water capacity for larger versions of the jobs the 40S handles, and its more powerful engine and pump mean more reach and an improved ability to get water on the fire. The WATERAX Versax 6 pump puts out a maximum of 105 gpm, and can draft from any auxiliary water source.
What it’s good for:
The 85HP is perfect for mop-up. This fits the vehicle that can get into tight places that your big truck can't. If you need a wet line, or you see a finger start to creep out on the edge of the burn, get there quickly with a UTV and 85HP. Whether you’re getting water on flames or laying down a substantial application of suppressant, you’ll find the 85HP packs serious firefighting capabilities into a small, affordable package.
Load up for the long haul with the QTAC 125HP.
If you have the room and vehicle capacity for everything the 85HP does plus some, take a look at our 125HP. With the exception of water capacity, the two units are identical. The 125HP has all the benefits of the 85HP, but with 40 gallons more water at-the-ready, allowing for longer pump times.
What it’s good for:
Weighing approximately 1,400 pounds full of water, the 125 is outside the payload capacity of most UTVs, but it works perfectly in pick-up trucks. It’s an excellent solution to add firefighting capabilities to the vehicle while still leaving room to transport other equipment. The 125HP is good for small-to-large-scale prescribed burn control, grass/prairie burns, and standby for chainsaw work and weed/grass cutting. And like almost every QTAC, the 125HP can be ordered with a Scotty around-the-pump foam proportioner, which extends your ability to fight fire with a limited amount of water on hand.
Like all QTAC skids, the 125HP’s main purposes are fire prevention and the immediate extinguishing of newly-ignited fires. It’s not intended to go up against a raging wildfire, but it’s a strong defense against one getting started in the first place.
Choosing the right unit for your needs.
The first step in the skid-selection process is to analyze your current apparatus roster and look for gaps. Are there types of situations you find difficult with given your current slate of equipment? How much space is available for getting water into the areas where those situations occur? How difficult is access to those areas? How much weight can the vat the readysend into those situations handle?
There are quite a few questions that can be asked in determining which QTAC unit is best for your needs, and our trained staff is ready to understand your mission and make the right recommendation. Give us a call: we’ll help you fill out your apparatus roster with the right solutions for every scenario.