V-455

Mulvane Emergency Services

1905 2015

110 Years of Volunteer Fire Service

ISO Class 3 / 5

Mulvane, Kansas

Current Weather Conditions at the Mulvane Emergency Services

Click on the pictures to enlarge!

Click here for the M.E.S. Facebook website.

Listen live to Mulvane Fire & EMS

Building of Vehicle 455

Click image to see animation

Vehicle 455 is the Duty Officers assigned vehicle. It responds to both Fire and EMS calls. It is a 2002 Ford F-250 powerstroke diesel delivered in December of 2001. All of the work done to set this unit up was done by our members.

We started by removing the middle seat cushion and building a wooden console. We build two speakers into the console under the armrest. One speaker is for a Kenwood 780 on our City Utilities VHF system and the other is for a Motorola Converta-Com on the county's 800 system. These are both secondary radios.

Next we installed an 18" Havis Shield console inside the wooden console.

Starting at the top, Motorola 800 Converta-Com, next level contains diagnostic indicator for the strobes, master emergency equipment switch, switch for second siren and a power plug. Then we have the main 450 mz radio, a Kenwood 830. Next is a Whelen (295HFSA1) siren, followed by the Kenwood 780 VHF radio. Last in the console a Havis Shield switch panel. All of the radios are controlled by the ignition switch. All of the emergency equipment is powered by the master Emergency Switch. The flip of one switch turns on all lighting and sirens. They can manually be turned off if needed. A volt meter, a 12 volt Kenwood 380 Walkie Charger and a streamlight flashlight were also added.

The electrical is all run from a board mounted behind the rear seat.

This board contains (Rt to Lt) Kenwood 830 UHF radio, Charge-Pro 10 amp automatic battery charger, Whelen UPS 690 Strobe power supply, SVP SA 400 siren, Galls multi-pattern flasher for the reverse lights, terminal strip, Fuse Blocks, Power Relays, Federal Halogen Flasher unit and a Whelen SSF2150 headlight flasher. A Ford automatic throttle controller was also installed under the dash to increase idle speed when the parking break is set.

Several of the smaller relays control ground cover lights. There are four lights under the cab doors which come on when the doors are opened. There are two more under the rear bumper which activate when the truck is put in reverse to help light up the ground as you are backing. When you set the parking brake, all six ground cover lights come on as well as the reverse lights. This is done for scene safety.

The siren speakers are mounted under the front bumper in the wheel wells. These were 100 watt CPI speakers order from Galls which were suppose to be made for this truck. After contacting CPI it was discovered that they did not make under bumper speakers for 2002 Fords. We went ahead and modified the truck and the speakers to fit.

Next we added a 42" fluorescent light down the middle of the topper for better truck bed lighting. This light and the standard incandescent light were wired into one single switch on the back by the topper latch.

As far as exterior emergency lighting, we used a Whelen 8 Strobe Edge Lightbar 9438Y. We wanted a low profile lightbar so we could still get this truck into a garage. It clears a standard 7' door by about 2". We added clear corner strobes in the front turn signals and rear backup lights. On the back we have two federal halogen flasher on the rear bumper next to the receiver hitch and we flash the backup lights. On the front we alternate the high-beam headlights.

We are now ready to start designing the bed layout of this truck. Look back for more pictures as progress continues.

Most of the emergency equipment was purchased from Sirennet.com. Their prices were usually lower than anyone else. Some items were purchased from Galls.