20260713 FyreBx Tour

[00:00:01]All right, so Firebox's one of our uh major sponsors based here in Anderson, California.

[00:00:07]And they fabricate attachments for skid steers and other uh logging equipment.

[00:00:13]Basically, it's a tank you can put on the front of your skid steer and it becomes a fire engine with a blade in. So, it's a like kind of a game changer. We've talked about it quite a bit on the channel here.

[00:00:23]But yeah, we're going to come see what they got that's new up here today in Anderson, California.

[00:00:29]>> Where is he?

[00:00:30]>> Hey, what's up, Shawn Henry? Hey, good to see you, man.

[00:00:32]>> Good to see you. It's been crazy.

[00:00:34]>> Yeah.

[00:00:35]>> Little stuff around here, huh?

[00:00:36]>> You guys are prolific making Firebox babies everywhere.

[00:00:40]>> Yeah. Yeah, they're starting We saw them in um Colorado, too, on the fires.

[00:00:45]>> Nice.

[00:00:46]>> So, we heard there's a couple Firecats that went there.

[00:00:51]This is the new brush rake. Have you heard about this?

[00:00:53]>> No.

[00:00:55]>> Okay, we looked at you take a dozer and you clear the land with the dozer, which strips the topsoil, and it puts a lot of the soil in your pile of brush.

[00:01:05]>> Yeah.

[00:01:05]>> Where you're dealing with it. So, I was out clearing land and we did some testing. So, we have Firecamp, 230 acres up at about 2,000 to 2,500 ft elevation.

[00:01:16]And we had the same uh 1-acre plots. We had two of them. And one [snorts] was They were both full of poison oak, uh heavy manzanita, and I think it's called white hawthorn.

[00:01:28]>> White thorn?

[00:01:28]>> Yeah, yeah, white thorn.

[00:01:30]And uh and so um we were clearing it with a masticator. We did 1 acre, mowed it down, looked really nice.

[00:01:37]>> Mhm.

[00:01:37]>> Okay.

[00:01:38]We did a 1-acre next to it.

[00:01:41]>> [screaming] >> We did a 1-acre next to it.

[00:01:45]Cleared it with this.

[00:01:46]A year later, the area that was 1 acre with this >> Mhm.

[00:01:51]>> still had maintained its topsoil.

[00:01:53]>> Yeah.

[00:01:54]>> It only had a 20% regrowth of the manzanita and the oak brush versus what was dosed or masticated. What was masticated, we had 100% regrowth.

[00:02:04]And it was it's thick again.

[00:02:06]>> Yeah.

[00:02:06]>> Okay. So, the beauty of this is it goes along and it grabs the the root >> Mhm.

[00:02:13]>> and then it pulls it right out of the ground.

[00:02:15]So, when you do your big piles you're going to burn, you don't have a bunch of dirt in there.

[00:02:20]It's 100% clean.

[00:02:21]>> Yeah.

[00:02:22]>> 99% clean.

[00:02:23]So, we're really excited about this product and we've been actually selling quite a few of these.

[00:02:27]>> Nice. So, this goes on a skid steer?

[00:02:29]>> Goes on a skid steer and the the way that it uh comes out right here, you can get in around trees nice and easy. You can see what you're doing. It also glides on the surface just perfectly. It doesn't jab and buck you while you're using it.

[00:02:44]>> Yeah.

[00:02:45]>> And we call this the brush box.

[00:02:47]>> Brush box.

[00:02:49]>> Then we've got our new heavy-duty trailers.

[00:02:51]These are 300-gallon units.

[00:02:54]Uh swing-away bumper.

[00:02:56]>> [snorts] >> These have off-road tires.

[00:02:59]Axleless axles. These are bulletproof, made out of 5/16 and 3/8 steel, half-inch plate on the bottom. You can actually run a choker chain through here or a choker line. You can hook this up to a high line. How many gallons is this?

[00:03:12]>> Uh 300 gallons.

[00:03:14]With your 300-ft um hose reel. It also has a place for all your fire box tools. This is really the loggers like this because it's durable.

[00:03:23]They can grab it with their skidder, they can grab it with processor or whatever and just swing it.

[00:03:27]>> Loggers are professional at breaking >> Exactly. Yeah.

[00:03:32]So, uh here we've got the new fire cat. We've got quite a few of these going out where we um get a either a 275 285 from Peterson Cat. We have them painted and then we completely go through them. We um add all the fire box products. We do fire curtains, the comms, thermal imaging.

[00:03:59]We've even got some municipal fire departments where we're adding some new features where they can run a 2 and 1/2 inch line here to a larger monitor gun and they can actually set it inside of a warehouse in a building and then they can control it from inside.

[00:04:11]It's pretty cool. So that's happening down LA County.

[00:04:15]>> Yeah, warehouse fires are the new new thing.

[00:04:19]>> So this has our new patented rear quick attach plate.

[00:04:25]Never been done. So you see the quick attach plate that normally is in the front of a skid steer. So now our rear bumper is the quick attach plate.

[00:04:32]>> Nice.

[00:04:33]>> And so we have bumpers, 100 gallon tanks, hose reels, all kinds of different implements that go back here.

[00:04:39]>> back. So how do you load it on?

[00:04:41]>> I'll show you right here.

[00:04:42]>> Okay.

[00:04:47]>> This is our new rear mount crossbeam winch.

[00:04:51]>> Uh-huh.

[00:04:52]>> So you simply pull this down, you've got a soft strap here, you hook onto it, you set it on the ground.

[00:04:57]>> Wow.

[00:04:58]>> And the cool thing about this winch up here, it's a 17,000 lb winch, it really works good for skidding logs as well.

[00:05:05]>> Yeah. Yeah, or pulling brush up a hill.

[00:05:06]>> Pulling brush up a hill. You got it up high, it really works well.

[00:05:10]So this is our new and this is a bolt-on to the CAT 26 or CAT 255, 65, 75, and 85.

[00:05:17]>> Okay. So you could basically haul around a spare implement on the back here like your blade or anything else that you would do on the front.

[00:05:23]>> Yes. And a firebox fits back here.

[00:05:26]>> You're pulling your bringing a firebox >> wraps right on around it and you have your hydraulics so you can actually function a 300 gallon firebox on the back and a 500 on the front and be rolling with 800.

[00:05:37]>> Wow.

[00:05:37]You guys are killing it, man.

[00:05:41]That's cool.

[00:05:46]>> So yeah, and then these are the new T5s.

[00:05:50]The T5s These were built bec- because in the industry uh in the compact track loader industry, everybody came out with heavier machines with more pushing force like the 285 uh CAT, the TL12 Takeuchi, the 335 John Deere, uh Case 620B, the Minotaur.

[00:06:13]So, the original fireboxes um were designed for about a 12,000-lb pushing force. These are designed for a 25,000-lb pushing force.

[00:06:23]>> Got it.

[00:06:23]>> And so, we actually built 5/16 steel, the whole bottom, the frame and everything is 5/16.

[00:06:29]And this is a replica of a D- D1 CAT dozer blade.

[00:06:32]>> Okay.

[00:06:33]>> And it's part of the tank itself.

[00:06:35]>> Yeah.

[00:06:37]This is 500-gallon tank?

[00:06:38]>> This is a 500. And what's special about these now is our original patent on the firebox was 1/3 of the weight behind the mounting plate to make it more stable.

[00:06:47]>> Yeah.

[00:06:47]>> Now, half of the weight is behind the mounting plate.

[00:06:49]>> Got it.

[00:06:50]>> Extremely stable machines when you're running a firebox.

[00:06:55]>> I like the orange here.

[00:06:57]>> Yeah, so we got the first uh Kubota 110.

[00:07:02]And we just matched it to the Kubota uh the firebox to the Kubota, and we're adding our new bumper. We have a new bumper system that matches the CAT bumper system with the quick attach plate as well.

[00:07:21]And then in here in assembly things have grown a little bit, haven't they?

[00:07:25]>> Yeah.

[00:07:27]>> So, they're working on trailers now.

[00:07:29]Um Got your hose reels back up in there, all your tools, your fuel pump, I mean water pump and everything.

[00:07:43]Plenty of room for saws.

[00:08:00]I'm liking this camera. It's pretty It's pretty awesome.

[00:08:02]>> Yeah. It's got like it's almost like a drone.

[00:08:05]>> And then uh the fuel box, you've seen the new fuel boxes?

[00:08:09]>> Yeah.

[00:08:09]>> That's going well.

[00:08:11]Uh this is for the Fecon.

[00:08:13]This is a custom build we did for the new Fecon 150. That's a rear tank. And then I'll show you the really cool thing that we're really excited about. So, this one we're getting ready to take out to fire camp. We're really excited about this.

[00:08:27]I'm going to be working with uh a company out of uh Redding.

[00:08:32]John, a friend of mine's got two uh D5s.

[00:08:37]And we're going to be doing true um proper cats.

[00:08:45]So, we just got the patent on the front tank.

[00:08:49]>> Mhm.

[00:08:50]>> So, now the front tank is a fully functional dozer blade.

[00:08:55]>> Yeah.

[00:08:56]>> 350 on the front and 350 in the back.

[00:08:58]>> That's amazing.

[00:09:00]>> And you have all your six-way functions with your dozer.

[00:09:05]Your monitor gun, we just finished this.

[00:09:09]We're going to be doing a bunch of filming. So, you got your monitor gun here.

[00:09:12]>> Mhm.

[00:09:13]>> Everything's controlled from inside the cab.

[00:09:16]You can do uh direct attack with these guys right here. You can also do your control everything with your monitor gun. You can switch from which tank you're taking water from.

[00:09:26]So, um I didn't like the idea of having a monitor gun on the back just cuz I hate when I'm operating looking back.

[00:09:34]>> Yeah.

[00:09:34]>> And so, we just said, "No, let's just make it standard." So, we actually have a a valve in here that switches from front to rear. And I can grab my water for my monitor gun there.

[00:09:44]Everything's protected, full articulation, full six-way blade. Um so another feature with this is you can actually hydroseed with the front and the rear as well.

[00:09:53]>> Wow.

[00:09:55]Guys are killing it.

[00:09:57]>> And then what's really cool is the >> What model cat is this?

[00:10:01]>> This is the Cat D1, which is the the D3 through the D1 are now the same model.

[00:10:07]>> Okay.

[00:10:08]>> You got to check this out.

[00:10:16]So let me sneak in there.

[00:10:23]So when you're running the machine, we had to figure out a way, how do you control everything so it's right there by you? I can flip this switch that goes from front to rear tank.

[00:10:34]And then I can control my monitor gun from right here.

[00:10:39]I can also add this feature to where [snorts] I could if I want to change my nozzle, I could change my nozzle to a fan spray or a jet stream. And then right here, this turns on my pump.

[00:10:54]So while I'm operating, I can run my pump right here.

[00:10:59]The way Cat did did it, we couldn't break into this to have a switch to activate it. So "Okay, let's just make an arm that goes over >> Yeah.

[00:11:07]>> that's very comfortable when you're operating and now I can do anything I need to.

[00:11:11]>> Here, move that uh deck gun around.

[00:11:15]>> Okay.

[00:11:27]>> That's vision.

[00:11:28]>> Isn't that cool?

[00:11:29]>> You're like a kid in a candy store.

[00:11:30]>> Yeah.

[00:11:31]>> [laughter] >> It's really cool the things that we're coming up with now.

[00:11:35]I mean, just trying to, you know, match the OEM as much as possible.

[00:11:39]>> Yeah.

[00:11:41]So, it's always nice to come up and see what these guys have got going on.

[00:11:45]Up here at Firebox, um these guys are innovators. Um I think I really like their design. I feel like they they got this um Sean Henry's got a background in actually in landscape design.

[00:11:57]And he's just been designing things his whole life. So, uh I like his style. I like the way he puts stuff together. I like his colors.

[00:12:04]Like the durability of the stuff they make. Uh we've been using this stuff on prescribed burns and just beating the hell out of it. And um which is important when you're in the kind of fire or logging business. They're basically the business of um pushing things to the limit.

[00:12:19]So, uh glad to get a chance to come see what these guys are doing. Um One of the main reasons it was to go up and thank Sean for buying me this nice new uh DJI Osmo camera.

[00:12:29]And uh it works great. So, appreciate the partnership. Uh if you are in the market for uh fire-related equipment, should check these guys out.

[00:12:38]And also, they've got uh a lot of insight on the contracting, federal contracting side. On uh they've done a lot of legwork to get these machines kind of typed and um into the national contracting systems with the feds. So, if you have questions about that or how you might be able to sign up specific types of equipment from them with the feds for firefighting, give them a call.

[00:12:59]You can find them at the web link here.

[00:13:02]Thanks, Firebox.

[00:13:08]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.