We had a brush fire out at our BOL today. The fire dept got on it two hours after it started and it burned about 100 acres. Do you recommend or suggest a trailer with a water tank and some type of water pump for fire fighting a brush fire? Any suggestions are much appreciated.

What’s your budget? Q-TAC makes the best systems available at all forestry sizes from four wheeler to tanker to include several trailers.  If you don’t get one of theirs, they are also a good starting point for building your own.  

Water doesn’t seem heavy a gallon at a time but it adds up fast! 25 gallons is as much as most four wheelers can carry, a 50 gallon trailer is probably maxing many out.  A SxS is probably 50-60 (remember there’s 150+ pounds of tank, baffling, pump, hose, nozzles, and reel.

Beyond that don’t forget basic tools that will often defeat unintentional fires. Beaters, weed sprayer with soapy water, shovel, Pulaski, etc.

Clear brush and Blackburn.

Low budget: a sprayer tank with a good pump and nozzle, better if it's in an ATV for agility. Backing a trailer out of a tight spot while fire is bearing down on you is not easy for most people.

Moderate budget plus some fabrication abilities: make a CAFS system for an ATV etc

Higher budget: buy an off the shelf CAFS system

you'd have to get on it pretty fast to put a brushfire out with 50 gal of water

get a bulldozer to cut some breaks

1st post is right on, but don't depend on a side x side or quad for any significant fire suppression use a real truck and as big a capacity as you can tote.
Making your own is a lot cheaper but start and run the engine regularly even in the winter. It does take a bit of dedication.

The helicopters were the only thing that saved us a few years ago, I do have a large area cleared around the chalet so the cabin "might" of been spared, but it was very windy that day.
The neighboring property owner has a full size water truck, he thought we were all goners till the air drops started.

It was an arsonist in our case, starting wild fires

Hand tools and chainsaws create fire lines...  Water only puts out "localized fires" and only if you're on them with a quick response time.  Heavy machinery such as bull dozers or excavators will let you move more material and create a better line.  Beyond that keep underbrush and trees away from your homestead.

I am lucky to live in a wet/ damp environment in northern NY so it's not a huge concern for me, but I also live at my BOL so can respond quickly.  I would grab a chainsaw and a cultihoe or nupla hoe/ fire rake long b4 an ATV with water even though I have both.  Wildfire in my AO is not common so on the risk meter I don't feel the need to outfit a full-size truck with H2O capabilities.

We are out of town a ways, but have a bit of property between our family members.  my portion is smaller, but i live on the ranch, so i always get first response to any fires.  I have had several fires over the years.  The first larger fire we had, was a hay stack fire.  Now, I did have access to a water truck about  1 1/2 miles up on the hill, but our initial response was to move stuff away from it and direct attack with a single garden hose.  it took me quite a while to get up to the truck, fire it up, let the air brake pressure rise enough to disengage and respond back down the hill.  The fire department finally made it on on scene after 30 min, but took another 30 min to setup.  I had expelled my entire water truck by the time they started spraying water.  Lesson learned, if the fire is already big, you need big equipment to be effective.

Fast forward a couple of lighting strikes and small fires that started small, and i was lucky enough to see them when they started.  First one, was a basic shovel response, that sucked until family showed up with bigger equipment, but that took 45 minutes and i had it pretty well under control.  i decided I needed something better for a faster response to keep fire from spreading.  Budget was tight at the time.  i put a 55 gallon barrel in my side by side Kubota and researched a good DC pump.  i wanted the kids and wife to be able to do something easily and fast while other resources were preparing.  5.5gpm at 60 psi, DC pump that i hooked direct to the battery.  hose attached to the barrel and a garden hose will spray about 40 to 50 feet.  3 hoses will get me out to about 150 feet from the kubota, it will spray for about 20 min.  Use water wisely and its amazing at stopping the spread of fire in the grass.  your not going to put anything out like a couple of trees on fire, but stopping the spread in the grass is key.  i can show up and something that is less than 100 feet on the ground, I can keep contained and let the hot stuff burn in the center of the fire.  That buys time until the next fastes response equipment arrives on scene. wife or kids can respond immediately and start slowing things, while I ready the water trailer and respond with it.  I had about $250 into the whole setup.  next i built a water wagon on cheap.  2" trash pump with 5hp motor.  only runs about 40psi, but flows volume if needed.  Motor was pretty much free because it didnt work when i decided to use it.  new coil and a carb rebuild, new oring on the pump and it works fine.  i built a manifold that reduces continuously from 2" NPT to 1 1/2" NPT with an adapter for firehose, then a 1" NPT valve, down to a 3/4" garden hose.  It will run any of the hoses and spray about 75', i can run the 1" and split it to two garden hoses easily.  275 gallon tote and plumbed it with a recirculating valve that feeds back into the top of the tote for filling and pressure relief if not running much volume.  25ft draft hose that is 2", so i can stop and refill my wagon off any of the nearby 1000 gallon cow water troughs.  Will fill in a few minutes at that size, but on the smaller hose, I can spray for an hour.  I had about $500 into the whole setup.  This buys me all the time I need until other help arrives.  Its complicated for the wife or kids to operate however, too many valves, hard to start motor, hooking up the trailer to a pickup under stress, etc.  The Kubota setup just works easily.  Keep it full, drive to the fire and flip the switch and start spraying.  A fast response is much more valuable than a heavy slow response.  

I would like to build another water trailoer with a 500 gallon tank and one of the 2" high pressure Honda motor/pumps that are about $800.  either weld up my own tank, or look at a plastic one.  That weight will have to be dual axle however and that adds cost.  Would be nice to have a nice hose real on it, but again, it starts adding up.  The forest fire setups by the pro companies are outstanding, but they start at $8000 for my Kubota and only carry 65 to 80 gallons.  

I think this is what I’m looking for. Want to keep the whole affair under $4000.

Thank you all!

Dozers are heavy hitters for brush fires. Maybe a tractor with a disc would be a close second. Clearing out areas around the structures to make defensible space would be critical. Engines and brush trucks have not as water as you think and a very short durations of service time when they start sling water.Fire depts may not even make an attempt to protect your structures if you are covered by trees and brush. I ended up cutting into my pool pump and obtaining 150 feet of 1 inch wild land fire hose and a nozzle Got sprinklers to toss on metal roof on concrete block walls. 150 feet of garden sprinkler path in garden before the house on the wild side side of property. No trees within 100 feet of the house. 100 feet of garden hose on each side of the house with nice jet nozzles.  Buried propane tank, half house back up generator, well on that circuit, chain saws ready fuel and road flares to start back burn if it’s gonna go that way. Vehicles and tractor always above half a tank. Fire extinguishers on golf cart, tractor, lawn mower, and each vehicle one inside each side of house. Light 50 foot garden hose with nozzle tied into washing machine tap with nozzle in laundry room that has attic access that has complete access to dryer vent from wall entry to roof exit, pretty common cause of house fire No SCBA but several full face gas masks with filters.

30-year firefighter here.  

You will not have enough resources to fight a large-scale fire (brush or structure) on your own unless you win the lottery.  The key is to keep important stuff from ever catching fire.  Like others have said, make control burns each year to keep underbrush to a minimum.  Keep all of it far away from your home or other important structures or areas.  If you are going to have some water, make sure you have a way to introduce a surfactant into the water.  A 1:1000 ratio of Dawn dish soap added to water makes it far more effective, maybe tripling its extinguishing abilities.

What terrain, what is the fuel source?  Bigiron.com usually has one or 2 pickup units for sale.  I've bought 2 from them for the local VFD and we will be selling a unit soon.

What others have said; also look at some of the Australian wildfire sites (they have a lot of large scale brush fires every year and many smaller), they have a lot of good info on things like landscaping to prevent the spread, roof sprinkler systems, expedient pump systems, etc.

We did a similar thread in GD about this.  As others have said, getting fast water on the fire is key.  If it were me, I’d buy a beater pick up, put the biggest water tote on the back with either a small dc motor pump wired to the truck or maybe a small gas powered pump.  

At work, we always say, if you can’t put it out with 500 gallons, you got problems.  

I’m sure there is some basics on the intewebz on how to attack brush fires.  That might help you out too.

Thank you, I had no idea that helped.

We've had a couple grass fires threaten our place when they started to cross our short grass pasture (think lawn that needs mowing).  If the grass is no more than 3-4 inches tall, I've used a backpack leaf blower to blow out part of the fire line by walking along the flame front and blowing it back into the burned area while waiting the 30+ minutes for the fire depts to arrive.  Some spots with thicker grass I had to stomp out, and it probably would have been faster if someone followed with a hoe, shovel or wet broom to hit those hot spots.  

Obviously, a leaf blower won't work in very thick or tall grass or brush, but it was surprisingly effective in a grass fire where the flame front was less than 6 inches wide, even in a stiff breeze.  Once the fire area even in short grass is bigger than say 1/10th - 1/4 acre, you will probably need water or heavy machinery to put it out.

I have 2 275-gallon totes That I keep full for watering my garden and lawn and for light fire protection and use 200 feet of 3/4 inch hose attach to a jet pump that can be connect to any tank in just a minute. I am in the process of building a 600-gallon dual axle trailer to aid in moving the water the half mile from the creek to my house. I also use a 2 in 5 hp pump to fill the tanks and 100 foot of 2in hose with a fire nozzle if needed. My whole set up uses 2in quick couplers and either pump can be connected to any tank in just a minute.

We have to haul our water from town.  I use a 14K dump trailer with two tanks in it -- a 625 gal (round) and 450 gal (pickup style) tanks for a little over 1000 gals.  I fill the cisterns and then keep full tanks on the trailer in case they are needed in a hurry.  We have a 3000 gal cistern that I keep full (for the house h2o).  

I also have a couple of 200 gal pickup tanks and a 350 gal one that I keep full sitting on a car hauler trailer if needed.  I had them sitting around so figured why not....

Last year we bought a 2" Honda semi-trash pump ($550) I can hook up in a hurry.  Everything has 2" cam-lock fittings, so connections can go fast.  I have 2" discharge hose in many lengths and a 2" fire nozzle.  I played with it some last year, and my takeaway is 2" water hose gets damn heavy and hard to move when full of water!  I screwed up my knee dragging that stuff around the yard experimenting with the equipment.

We keep the grass mowed and have a 10'-12' rock garden/firebreak around the house (just decorative rocks of various types/sizes, no combustibles other than occasional weeds), so hopefully if there is a fire, there won't be enough fuel close enough to catch the house on fire.  No trees on our acreage over 5' yet, and none are close to the house, so less concerned about the roof catching fire, but I'm no expert...

On another note, can a guy add Dawn into the water tank as a surfactant before it goes through the pump, or will the foam created possibly cause cavitation?  If not a good idea, what is the preferred method to add surfactant beyond the pump?

I'm working on this now. Actually I'm working on an irrigation rig for the garden, but with the past several dry summers we've had, fire fighting is also desired.

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Put a tote on my flatbed, with a 2inch trash pump to fill it from my river.  Pump back out of tank onto garden or fire. Working on setting up the hoses, nozzles, etc, as well as a direct connection from tote outlet to pump

We have a above ground pool, 10k gallons, I bought a pump an hoses for around our house. I'm thinking of buying a second one used from FB market as a cistern/second water source for Fire just incase.

For those of you who ave some substantial set ups with tanks and trash pumps, I would suggest getting either 1 inch forestry hose, or 1 1/2 inch hose.  They flow at a lower gpm rate so you won’t waste as much water, nor will you go through it as quickly.  Not to mention it is easier and more maneuverable. As far as the old dish soap surfactant trick, YMMV.  It’s not the magic elixir, but it will provide some, if not a minute amount of help.  Just squirt it in the tank and run it through the pump.  But when the emergency is over, just run water through the pump to flush it out.  FYI, it’s gonna take a little while to clear it out.  But flushing it will lengthen the life of the pump.  Or if it did it’s job and saved your house and it’s ruined, the cost of replacing a pump is less than the cost of replacing your house.

Not much to a brush truck, basically 300-500 gallon tanks with a 3" trash pump on F-350 through F-550 sized trucks.

We're using a few military 2.5 and 5 ton trucks for even bigger brush rigs. 800-1800 gallons with offroad capability is sweet.

Ranchers in the surrounding areas of prairie grass all have their own brush fire pickup or trailers. Either retired fire trucks they bought at auction or they made their own.

I just scored a 1 1/2 inch fire hose, does anyone know the proper fitting to mate with a 2 inch trash pump?

https://kochek.com/
@loon_138

2+ 275g square totes plumbed in series, put on a trailer, and add a 2” gas powered pump.

We already have this setup at the farm for putting out liquid feed. I’ve no doubts that it would work for light fire fighting duties.

Banjo/gator lok fittings will make things easier to deploy once you get set up.

You’ll have to play around with what kind of nozzle will allow for adequate reduction without getting blown out by the pump. 550g won’t last long running wide open on 2” hoses.

ETA: if you wish to plan for a possible ongoing battle and also keep backup water supplies, I’d recommend getting something like a 2-3000 gallon poly water tank. If you do run that 550 dry and you need more, you’ll never reload it fast enough from a garden hose- that is if you still have power to run your pump.

Having enough water sitting on hand that will pump quickly might be an option. We have them because we have to fill up spray trucks. It doesn’t take very long to do up a 1000g nurse trailer. Which, is also another option rather than cobbling together totes and a trailer. Just make sure you have a vehicle that will pull it. 3/4 ton truck minimum