1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus for winding fire hose.
2. Description of the Prior Art
After a fire fighting operation, each length of fire hose must be wound up at the scene of the fire for the return trip to the fire station. At the station the hose must be unrolled and placed on drying racks and then wound up again for storage. Furthermore, safety regulations require that all fire hose be unwound and inspected at regular intervals and, of course, the hose must be rewound for storage. Virtually all of these winding operations are presently performed by the fireman manually winding the hose into a convolute roll while he is positioned on his hands and knees. Before this manual winding operation is begun, the fireman must first drain the water from the hose and arrange the hose into a straight line.
Apparatus for winding fire hose have been proposed, but because of the complexity of the designs or the nonsatisfactory results obtained, no known device has found commercial acceptance. Patent No. 3,124,321 describes a device having a gasoline engine which drives a reel about a horizontal axis through a series of sprockets, chains and gear reducers. The reel includes a large disc member from which extends a pair of tines for engaging the coupling member at one end of the hose. A hose guide adapts the device to different widths of hose. One disadvantage of this patented apparatus is that the hose is not sufficiently compressed or otherwise acted upon by the apparatus to automatically drain water from the hose; therefore, the hose must be drained as a step preparatory to winding. Another disadvantage of the patented apparatus is that with the hose being routed over only a single guide roller, the hose must still be straightened before the winding operation. Yet another disadvantage is that the reel is mounted to the side of the support frame structure thereby causing an imbalance in the device when it is loaded with the hose.
Thus, it becomes an object of the present invention to provide a simple hand-operated device for winding fire hose having means for automatically draining water from the hose, having an overall balance in both loaded and unloaded situations and not requiring the straightening of the hose before winding.