Water Truck

We used to use a water truck years ago to water the track at halftime etc. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to go back to that as it was quick and effective. Here is the link to a truck with a sprayer out on craigslist right now. Its for sale for about $4,000.

http://anchorage.craigslist.org/bfs/1974459969.html

Just a thought . . .

-Paul S.

Paul that sounds awesome!!! How big is it and how many miles on it and what year is it. And the number one question Who will work on it when it breaks down? Just asking because my husband is usually the one that gets stuck doing those kind of things.

Those are all good questions and I don't have the answers. I was just tossing the idea out for consideration. We may not want to go with this particular truck, I was just throwing it out there as an example. I would not in any way assume that your husband would be working on any truck.

I just wanted to see what people thought of the idea and then go from there.

The water truck concept worked pretty good in the past and I see it in use at the tracks down in the states. At the last track in AZ they had 3 of these things that drove completely around the track and watered it in about 10 minutes. So I was thinking it was time to bring it up again for our track.

TO WATER OUR TRACK IN 10 MIN. WOULD BE AWESOME!!! Could a water truck get around our track the way it is set up or would we have to change a few jumps? Or we could use a hose on the jumps and water the rest with the truck.
I think this is an awesome idea.

I think a water truck is a good deal for our club needs. I woudn't mind helping out keeping the truck in working order as long as we can aford the parts, DOT
annual inspections, 1099 road use tax, and so on.

Yes that sounds like a really good deal to water with a water truck instead of dragging all those hoses. Yeah and someone has to have a CDL to operate it to.

It just so happens that I do have a Class A CDL with the following endorsements, Tank- Passenger- Doubles/Tripes. Not only do you need a CDL to operate the water truck, you also need a Tank endorsement.

I think that a water truck would be awesome! And I do think that a water truck could drive all the way around the track minus the section where the whoops used to be.. and maybe we could have several groomed track practice's this year and charge at the gate to do it to help make back the cost of the water truck. as far as maintence goes on the water truck. It wont be used that much and there are several mechanics that are members of the club that are willing to help , maybe ARL should ask some of our other members to pitch in so mister Boylan can not have such a heavy load on his shoulders to bust A$$ for his children to race and for the track as well!

Dont twist this into something bad either because My family greatly appreciates everything the boylans do for our club!

There may be sections that the water truck cannot get to. In that case the dozer can make a path around that particular section and the water truck can just zoom around it. Water hoses will have to be used to reach those places, but they should be fairly few.

WOW... IT'S LIKE OLD TIMES TALKING ABOUT A WATER TRUCK...BRINGS BACK A LOT OF MEMORIES OF WHEN RALPH WAS PRESIDENT! LETS GET SOME MORE OLD SCHOOL IDEAS SUCH AS THE WATER TRUCK BACK AND GET THINGS RUNNING LIKE THEY USED TO!

Regarding the water truck discussion, I'll see if I can give a little background here. To the best of my recollection, a water truck, which has been tried numerous times over the years, has only been really effective one time. Back in the late '70's and early '80's the club contracted with a local landscaper to provide water truck services. The water truck was a 6-wheel drive with a cannon on top and a separate pump on back with a hose attachment. The landscaper showed up starting around 6 a.m. with a crew of 3 or 4 and was able to get the track in great shape by the start of practice, around 11 a.m. back in those days. They gave us a pretty good deal, provided we let them build a water hole somewhere so they could watch the mayhem. No one seemed to mind in those days. They would also stick around until halftime and touch things up if needed. Unfortunately they sold the business and we weren't able to get the same quality from the new owner. We tried a few other private trucks but had minimal success. I believe the club even had it's own truck at one point but I don't recall that it worked out too well that time. There are a number of areas on the track that are just too hard to get at with a truck unless it's equipped as the first one was and then we're back to having a crew dragging hoses around. My personal opinion is that the best route for us to pursue would be to work on getting a setup like Fairbanks and Kenai have. Of course that would require getting a long term use agreement and a pretty good up front investment but I think it would work pretty good if we could work it out. If that's not a possibility there is a chance we could make the water truck work but it would require getting one that we could draft out of the pond as the other option would be getting a hydrant permit, paying a fee, and waiting for the truck to make trips back and forth to the nearest hydrant. It would also need to have capability of pumping through hose, and getting a commitment that there would be help available for the operator. I hope this helps to shed a bit more light on this subject.