10/12/2026
We’ve received a lot of questions about our hose tender since sharing the news that the membership voted to bring it back! Warning this post is definitely for the fire buffs as it’s longer than normal!
The 1986 Mack RM6864x was delivered to Mortlake in 1987 by Darley, and it was purpose-built to do one job: lay large-diameter hose efficiently over long distances while allowing firefighters to focus on other critical fireground operations.
Here are some of the details that make this truck special:
- Power and Drivetrain: Built on a four-wheel-drive Mack chassis, it features a Mack EM6285 285-horsepower diesel engine paired with a manual transmission. The conventional cab seated two firefighters, or three if you squeezed!
- Pumping Capacity: The truck is equipped with a 1,500-gallon-per-minute, single-stage Darley Champion LDM pump. A 700-gallon steel water tank was installed forward of the pump to help with weight distribution. Using only the 30' 6" pre-connected front suction it would flow 1400-gpm at 10' draft; if the second 30' suction was connected to the steamer inlet it would flow 1800-gpm which was typical Darley Champion pump performance.
- Large-Diameter Hose Reel: Built by Sturtevant, the hydraulically operated reel carries approximately 4,600 feet of five-inch large-diameter hose. 400 additional feet was stored in a small covered hose bed above the cross-body compartment.
- The hose was primarily loaded in 200-foot yellow sections, with 100-foot red sections positioned halfway through the reel and near the core. These red sections served as visual indicators, helping the driver estimate how much hose had been deployed and how much remained by watching the rear-facing camera.
- Built for the Job: The driver could operate the reel’s hydraulic controls from inside the cab. The first several hundred feet of hose were powered off at the scene to establish an anchor, allowing the truck to continue pulling hose from the reel as it moved away. At sharp turns, the driver relied on the camera to monitor the hose deployment.
- Suction Equipment: The truck carried a 30-foot, six-inch preconnected “squirrel tail” suction line, along with an additional 30-foot section of six-inch suction hose strapped to the top of the hose bed.
- A Unique Priming System: One of the truck’s most impressive features was its hydraulic-driven primary primer, a pump typically used on septic tank trucks. It could prime a single 30-foot suction with a 10-foot lift in just 10 seconds. The backup electric primer took well over a minute to accomplish the same task.
Because the truck’s hose reel was hydraulically operated, it could deploy thousands of feet of hose while requiring fewer personnel to manage the operation, allowing additional firefighters to be assigned to other valuable fireground tasks.
And this truck has certainly put in the work.
In November 2023, during the Ballouville Mill Fire, Hose Tender 190 pumped continuously for 14½ hours, beginning at 2:00 a.m. That’s a remarkable shift for a truck that has been serving our community for nearly forty years. Mack Trucks
