Why leave a diesel running?
 

So I am new to this forum stuff but here goes. I am a firefighter and when onscene at calls we leave our rigs running. People complain about it all the time. Most folks dont get its tough on a diesel to be constantly starting and stopping. Any points on this would be appreciated. We have a ton of electronics on our rigs, air brakes and what not. Plus we run hard to the alarm so the exhaust temps have to be high when we arrive so we cant just shut it off right away. Help me out with some more points on why to leave our engines running please. Thanks.

i previously drove tow trucks and got the same complaints, basicaly id make things up like it takes more fuel to stop and restart it, or its louder when it starts and smokes like crazy
or simply the tracking device keeps the truck/occupant safe and accounted for also helping to quicken service, which is kinda true

Lots of short cold trips are hard on any truck. Its not good to hammer on a truck when its still cold, and in the emergency field thats exactly what you would be doing if you did not leave them idling all the time.

What exactly are they complaining about? Make sure to let them know that diesels use much less fuel idling than a gas engine.

On another topie Ive heard bad stories about DPF equipped emergency vehicles......

are you talking personal rig or the fire truck?

I believe after reading his post again hes talking about the fire trucks.

I've always been told that its better to leave a diesel running all day than starting it and shutting it off all the time. It stays lubricated (it takes about 30 seconds or so for the oil to get to the top of the motor on start up), and it stays warm. With firetrucks you have all of your lights running, pumps going, and other electronics going all at one time. I suppose with emergency vehicles, and tow trucks, you have to be ready for anything. So you might as well keep it running just in case something happens.

I read an article here a while back about DPF equipped ambulances and other emergency vehicles. Seems they were causing major problems, getting clogged up because they did idle their vehicles so much. Dang EPA :td:

Why leave a diesel running?
 

I was kinda think the fact that you need it running to run pumps and everything else . Also if it's somewhere like here in west Texas fighting grassfires you leave it running so you can move from spot to spot quickly as needed

I have also heard the same thing about the dpf equipped ambulances and fire trucks having problems having to idle

Idle for days
 

Thanks for the input. People complain about the fumes or that we waste fuel or about the noise. If people actually ask us about it we tell them why. Its tough to explain about exhaust temp and turbos to folks who have already made up their mind they dont like what you are doing. Also I attempt to explain about the air brakes, which bleed if not running the engine or plugged into the compressor at the station. I try and walk them though some of the electronics like lights, radios, chargers, monitors, suction, primer pumps, thermal cam and a bunch of other stuff. They think we waste fuel but really these rig consume about a gallon a hour at idle. Most of the time I think these folks just want something to bitch about. I am supposed to put the reasons we leave our rigs running onscene onour website to help explain and was just looking for more tips, so thank you and keep em coming

Not a problem :tu: