How Much Do Fire Trucks Weigh – Weight & Dimensions

The different weights of a fire truck are covered in this article. We compare a fire engine’s weight to that of other vehicles and determine its empty versus full weight.

19 to 30 tons, or 38,000 to 60,000 pounds, is the weight range for fire trucks. Fire trucks still weigh between 11,500 and 14,500 pounds even when they are empty. Only vehicles like garbage trucks or tractor-trailers are heavier.

How Much Does a Fire Truck Weigh?

A fire truck typically measures 40 feet long, 12 feet tall, and 10 feet wide, as we briefly mentioned in the introduction. Even somewhat “smaller” fire trucks are 35 feet long, nine feet tall, nine feet wide.

A car that size, how much does it weigh? The weight of a fire truck ranges from 19 to 30 tons, according to the PennDOT, which oversees transportation in Pennsylvania. That is 38,000 to 60,000 pounds when expressed in pounds. As we’ll discuss, the fire truck is much lighter when empty, so we’re assuming it’s full.

How come fire trucks are so heavy? A lot of water must be transported by them. The majority of fire trucks have a minimum capacity of 500 gallons of water per trip. In addition to carrying this heavy load, fire trucks also need to have room in their cargo bays for an elevating ladder, specialized rescue tools, additional ladders, and hoses.

Let’s investigate some vehicles that fire trucks outweigh and vice versa using the PennDOT data.

The Weight of Fire Trucks Compared to Other Vehicles

Fire trucks are heavier than many other vehicles on our roads, weighing up to 60,000 pounds.

Let’s look at some typical vehicles that a fire truck can outweigh.

Cars

This shouldn’t be shocking. According to PennDOT, a typical car weighs 1.5 tons. That is about 3,000 pounds. A fire truck weighs 10 times more if it only weighs 30,000 pounds. 60,000 pound fire trucks are 20 times heavier than a car!

Standard Trucks

Not a heavy-duty pickup, a standard truck isn’t much heavier than the majority of cars on the road. The typical weight is 3 tons, or 6,000 pounds. A 60,000-pound fire truck is ten times heavier than the truck that may be parked in your driveway at this very moment.

Ambulances

Emergency vehicles include both ambulances and fire trucks, but the former is much lighter. Only 5 tons, or 10,000 pounds, make up the average ambulance. This means that an ambulance falls short when compared to a 30,000-pound fire truck by 20,000 pounds and a 60,000-pound fire truck by 50,000 pounds.

Delivery Trucks

No, we’re not referring to the delivery trucks used by UberEats or DoorDash, but rather the ones used by your neighborhood UPS or FedEx delivery person. According to PennDOT, the average weight of these trucks is 6 tons, or 12,000 pounds. Still, a 30,000-pound fire truck weighs 18,000 pounds more than that.

School Buses

A school bus can weigh up to 17 tons when it is filled with students. Given that the bus weighs 34,000 pounds, this is much more like a fire truck. The average starting weight of a fire truck is 38,000 pounds, and it has a maximum weight of 60,000 pounds, making it still heavier.

Charter Buses

The weight of a full charter bus is comparable to that of a fire truck. The number of seats on a charter bus can reach 60, and they transport adults more frequently than school buses. That explains why a charter bus weighs 40,000 pounds, or 20 tons, when it is fully loaded.

Vehicles That Outweigh Fire Trucks

Fire trucks are massively weighted machines, but they aren’t the heaviest ones on the road. Here are a few additional vehicles that weigh more than a fire truck.

Garbage Trucks

Pay attention when the trash truck passes by your street once a week to pick up garbage. According to PennDOT, this enormous vehicle weighs 25 tons when fully loaded. That equals 50,000 pounds. Not all fire trucks are heavier, though some are.

Plow Trucks

Heavy-duty vehicles like loaded plow trucks are also enormous, weighing 56,000 pounds or 28 tons. Once more, a plow truck would be heavier than a 60,000-pound fire truck, but only by about 4,000 pounds.

Cement Trucks

A fully loaded cement truck weighs 33 tons, or 66,000 pounds. As a result, it is the first car to weigh more than a fire truck that weighs 60,000 pounds. You can see why these trucks are so heavy when they are full considering that cement weighs 116 pounds per cubic foot!

Dump Trucks

It weighs approximately 36 tons, or 72,000 pounds, before a dump truck pulls up to the dumpster. Even the heaviest fire trucks are 8,000 pounds lighter than one of these vehicles.

Tractor Trailers

Loaded tractor trailers, according to PennDOT, are the heaviest vehicles on the road. They could weigh up to 40 tons, or 80,000 pounds. That gives it a definite advantage of 20,000 pounds over larger fire trucks.

How Much Does An Empty Fire Truck Weigh?

Always keep in mind that the fire truck’s weight range of 38,000 to 60,000 pounds is based on the assumption that it is loaded down with supplies. However, what happens if it’s empty? what is its weight then?

I appreciate your asking! A fire truck weighs between 11,500 and 14,500 pounds when it is empty, according to the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Even when empty, this is still heavier than numerous other vehicles. Here’s the breakdown of empty vehicle weights:

• Cars – 2,400 to 5,000 pounds
• Pickup trucks, minivans, or SUVs – 3,200 to 4,500 pounds
• Standard pick-up trucks or large SUVs – 4,500 to 6,000 pounds
• Step vans or minibuses – 7,650 to 8,750 pounds

Even when empty, there are many other vehicles that weigh more than fire trucks. Those include:

• Concrete and refuse trucks – 20,000 pounds
• Tractor trailers – 20,000 to 26,000 pounds

Do Fire Trucks Have to Stop at Weigh Stations?

Fire trucks aren’t just on the road in times of need. After extinguishing a fire, they must return to the fire station, and they do so at a speed consistent with the posted speed limits in the area.

A weigh station could be passed by a fire truck at some point. Heavy-duty vehicles like fleet and construction vehicles are weighed at these highway checkpoints. A truck scale at a weigh station serves as the location for vehicle weighing.

The driver can immediately start traveling if the vehicle weight is within the acceptable range. However, the driver must stop if the car needs more inspection.

Overweight cars should not be allowed back on the road because they pose a safety risk to the driver and other drivers and frequently violate state regulations. To be able to pass, the driver must lessen their load per axle.

Given all of that, is it required for a fire truck driver to stop and weigh their vehicle when they reach a weigh station, or are they free to keep going?

According to the vehicle resource Your Mechanic, many states mandate that commercial vehicles weighing at least 10,000 pounds must successfully pass a check at a weigh station. Do fire engines count as commercial vehicles?

In actuality, it doesn’t. Because of this, even though fire trucks can easily weigh more than 10,000 pounds when fully loaded, drivers are not required to use weigh stations.

What is It Like Driving a Heavy Fire Truck?

If your job as a firefighter requires you to operate one of these enormous red trucks, you will have a lot more respect for them now that you are aware of how much weight they carry. Engineers or apparatus operators (AO) are common terms used to describe fire truck drivers. Without the necessary preparation, no fire department should ever let you operate a fire truck.

The transition to commandeering a fire truck is simpler if you’ve previously operated a heavy-duty vehicle like a fleet truck or garbage truck. However, if all you’ve ever driven were pickup trucks or SUVs, your past driving history won’t be able to get you ready for what lies ahead.

Large, drawn-out vehicles are fire trucks. The truck’s long back end must be taken into account when turning it. Every action you take will require planning. You risk colliding with a curb or even other vehicles if you don’t have enough room to make a turn, for instance.

With so much mass on your firetruck, steering can be challenging, and picking up speed is also not always easy. However, fire trucks need to get somewhere quickly, so you need to work on increasing and maintaining speed.

Considering their weight of several tons, fire trucks are by no means lightweight vehicles. Fire trucks weigh more than even school buses and charter buses because they range in weight from 38,000 to 60,000 pounds. A fire engine weighs about 14,000 pounds even when empty.

Conclusion

As we’ve seen, fire engines are large, hefty automobiles. They have a maximum weight of 60,000 pounds, making them heavier than a yellow school bus.

In contrast to cement trucks and tractor trailers, which are the heaviest road vehicles, they are not the heaviest vehicle on the road.

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