red garbage truck looks like fire engine

When a school bus is loaded with kids, the big yellow vehicle weighs 17 tons. That’s still 18,000 pounds less than a 30,000-pound fire truck. PennDOT says these trucks are 6 tons on average or approximately 12,000 pounds. No, we’re not talking about the UberEats or DoorDash delivery truck, but the kinds of trucks that your local UPS or FedEx delivery person drives. That makes an ambulance 20,000 pounds short compared to a 30,000-pound fire truck and 50,000 pounds deficient when stacked against a 60,000-pound fire truck. An average ambulance only clocks in at 5 tons, which is 10,000 pounds. Ambulancesīoth fire trucks and ambulances are considered emergency vehicles, but one is a lot lighter than the other. That makes a 60,000-pound fire truck 10 times heavier than the truck that might be parked in your driveway right now. The average weight is 3 tons or 6,000 pounds. Fire trucks that are 60,000 pounds are 20 times heavier than a car! Standard TrucksĪ standard truck, not a heavy-duty pickup, is hardly heavier than most cars on the road. If a fire truck is only 30,000 pounds, then it weighs 10 times more.

A standard car weighs 1.5 tons, PennDOT notes. Using the data from PennDOT, let’s explore some vehicles that fire trucks outweigh as well as vice-versa. Besides this heavy load, fire trucks also must have cargo space for an elevating ladder, special rescue equipment, other ladders, and hoses. Most fire trucks can transport at least 500 gallons of water at a time. Why are fire trucks so weighty? They have to carry a lot of water. We’re assuming the fire truck is full, as it’s a lot lighter when empty, as we’ll talk about.

When converted into pounds, that’s 38,000 to 60,000 pounds. How much does a vehicle of that size weigh? According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation or PennDOT, the average fire truck weighs 19 to 30 tons. Even somewhat “smaller” fire trucks are 35 feet long, nine feet tall, nine feet wide.

What Is It Like Driving a Heavy Fire Truck?Īs we touched on in the intro, the average dimensions of a fire truck are 40 feet long, 12 feet tall, and 10 feet wide.

Do Fire Trucks Have to Stop at Weigh Stations?.

How Much Does an Empty Fire Truck Weigh?.

Red garbage truck looks like fire engine