[Imped]

No idea but I bet that 4.7 rocks.

 

[xtremzj]

Mine? Like a raped ape. It was a custom built engine for a customer (more hp and tq and low end grunt) who couldn't afford it when done. So I bought it.

 

[rgs]

When I work at the speedway for NASCAR we are doing around 70 when we respond with crash trucks.

I would hesitate to use my personal vehicle for any work related hauling, like someone else said, insurance will find a reason not to pay. You are using an already lifted vehicle to respond quickly to an incident on a race track, you will likely drive faster than you should, which could easily spell disaster for you and your Jeep. Something to also consider with carrying liquid is that it moves, when you go to stop the car, the water will still want to keep moving making it more difficult, plus it changes the way your car handles dramatically. If the track already has a fire response vehicle than I would think they need to be equipped to handle any fire that might happen in their venue. Your club needs to review its needs with the track to ensure they can handle incidents accordingly. Like many people have said, we all have overloaded our Jeeps or other cars at one time or another, it does not make it smart or right. Good luck to you in finding a solution!

I've been known to do over 100 mph down the front straight at Mid America Motorplex in Glenwood, IA with my Jeep. You just have to know to slow down before the turns. Yes, I am very aware of how the additional weight will affect the handling. As for the insurance aspect, just like if I rolled it off a mountain side in Colorado rock crawling, if it is rolled or destroyed on track, my personal insurance will not cover it, but our club insurance will.

The Jeep has been the perfect QRV vehicle for road courses. It has been used for this purpose for many years. Since we race in the rain, and there are alot of grass/mud runoff areas, it works great to get to incidents and pull disabled race cars out.

Like everything else on a race track, normal street driving goes out the window. You have to keep your head about what you are doing. I go on a hot track with race traffic at speed. On a road course, we respond to to local incidents without a full course yellow so the race cars don't even have to slow down passing us on the way there. Where on the street do you have to negotiate 100 mph closing speeds?

The proliferation of ethanol blended fuels in racing is the reason for this new need. We recently held our first event that allowed ethanol blended fuel. We had a couple hand held Alcohol Resistant-Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AR-AFFF) extinguishers on hand and the volunteer fire department attack truck had one (along with 500 gallons of water). What we did not anticipate were two E85 powered cars showing up. We made the decision to allow them to participate and altered our response plan for any incident involving these two cars would include an immediate dispatch of the fire truck (normally we would wait for a request from the corner stations). The issue with the fire truck is how long it takes for it to negotiate the turns to get to the far end of the track. It cannot go off road and must run the course to get there. The Jeep on the other hand is much more nimble and quick (on the straights, I'm faster than some of the race cars).

 

[rgs]

I live in Grass Lake, Michigan. Our Fire/Rescue bought and outfitted a 2009 JK Rubi for just such an operation. Here it is in action:

I have seen it go LOTS of places with that setup. I doesn't even slow down over rough terrain with it. The last time i saw it was cruising across a farmers field at 40 mph to a brush fire. The jeep they used before that was a CJ6 with the V6.

Thank you!!!

Looks like they put 80 gallons on the CJ. They also put a platform on the back, which would add allot more torque moment than the weight over the axle. I won't be doing that.

Can you find out how many gallons they put on the JK? Their installation includes two hoses, most likely for grass fires. I won't have as much pumping hardware, just the pump and one hose with the aeration nozzle. I see two brooms on board but it looks like there is something besides water tank just in front of the tail gate. Do you know what else they are carrying with them?

 

[rgs]

No idea but I bet that 4.7 rocks.

Built it myself, and yes, it runs great. I did all the machine work also except for the new valve seats, and balancing.