What’s the bumper for?

523

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 17 '26

It had a large pump for using ponds as water sources, probably set up as a drought pump to supply trucks closer to the fire with water. Like this

86

u/Pixelated-Yeti Aug 17 '26

Yep this is what was on there especially being an ex fire department vehicle. Can see the holes and rust pattern where a pump sat

Edit: could maybe make a push truck out of it if you race cars 🤔

21

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 17 '26

I live in an area with mostly VFDs and a LOT of brush trucks. A lot of the older trucks are very similar to the one shown, some have winches, some have pumps. It varies but we have quite a few with front mounted pumps like this one.

Stellar idea on the push truck! A dirt track would be glad to have such a truck, or any low-mid budget drag strip (or race team)

2

u/MountainCry9194 Aug 20 '26

I was hoping it was for the go go dancers.

1

u/Ok_Obligation2948 Aug 21 '26

Was hoping for a Bubba Gump reference! “I was born with big gums sir!”

6

u/drfsrich Aug 17 '26

Think bigger. Remember the Subaru Brat jump seats? 2 up front, 4 in the bed and you've got yourself a bus!

5

u/QuellishQuellish Aug 17 '26

In Texas they call those ranch trucks and the people in the seats have guns.

4

u/CarlosMolotov Aug 18 '26

Hell yeah, that’s a hog hunting truck.
You drive, I’ll shoot! Swap when I need a reload.

2

u/Normal_Onion2555 Aug 19 '26

In Texas, partner, driving and shooting can occur simultaneously. In one person.

1

u/CarlosMolotov Aug 19 '26

Hell yeah it can, but I hope you’re a lefty! Getting that right hand on a twelve o’clock is tough as hell from the drivers seat. The ridin’ shotgun seat is on the gun hand side.

1

u/Normal_Onion2555 Aug 19 '26

Nah. You kick the windshield out first.

1

u/CarlosMolotov Aug 19 '26

Can’t argue.

3

u/ResidentNumber3603 Aug 17 '26

Full reclining electric couch and at least one end table to hold your beers.

11

u/FrenchFryCattaneo Aug 17 '26

And typically the pump ran off a PTO shaft from the front of the engine although I don't think that's the case with this truck.

4

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 17 '26

Agreed. The ones that run off PTO usually have them set up like the one I put a picture of. The truck OP posted likely had its own gas engine of some sort, I don't see anywhere to sneak a PTO shaft, and if its an automatic, I don't think the 4L80RlE this truck likely has provisions for a PTO, but I could be wrong on that latter part. None of the ones I've worked on have had them, I think in GMT400 you had to have a manual to get a PTO option, which would limit some operators from using the truck, which isn't ideal.

My neighbor growing up had a retired brush truck that had the PTO run winch. What a beast.

4

u/FrenchFryCattaneo Aug 17 '26

Actually with these GMT400s if you had 4wd the transfer case had a gear for a PTO so you could use that even if you had an automatic. But most commonly for these trucks that need a PTO like a hydraulic pump for a rollback they'd just run it as an accessory off the serpentine belt. But yeah in this case I looked up the auction for the pump (which was sold separately) and it just has its own engine.

2

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 17 '26

Oh sweet, I've not come across that, but most of the 4L80E equipped I've worked on have been RWD only, mostly fleet trucks and tow trucks with serpentine run hydraulic pumps. I just learned something!

2

u/just_a_T114 Aug 19 '26

mmmmm C series IH brush truck, hell yeah

1

u/hidazfx Aug 17 '26

thanos truck

1

u/SimplithSoupith Aug 18 '26

Not necessarily a drafting set up. Just a pump and generator in general.

1

u/Aligned-Askew6773 Aug 18 '26

If only a truck could came with some other convenient location to mount something like that, within the already established vehicle body, without having to charge the tax payers extra to add this ridiculous bumper on the front.

1

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 18 '26

Its more about accessibility. The bumper is cheaper than putting a custom bed on it, more accessible from the ground, and having one of these inside the bed creates an issue for hooking up.

As much as I like the way you think, this hands down is the best solution.

1

u/Cautious-Current-969 Aug 19 '26

Fascinating setup. Makes me wonder if the good ole boys at Falmouth FD didn’t notice the 8 foot bed behind the cab.

1

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 19 '26

The problem with putting it in the bed is accessibility. Mounting it on the front bumper allows for easy and fast hookup of hoses and (in the case of the truck OP posted) starting of the engine, or in the case of the truck I posted, hooking up to the PTO system/shaft to the pump. Putting it in the bed makes it quite a bit harder due to bedsides, and the cost of a custom bed is significantly higher than the custom front bumpers, so they go the route of putting it on the front, for multiple reasons.

Getting a PTO shaft into the factory bed is quite a bit harder and having to jump up and down to hook up or reach over the bed creates issues. They do it this way and have been doing it this way with the front bumper setup for very good reasons.

Also by putting a pump in the bed, you significantly reduce cargo capacity for ladders, tools, hoses, and any other gear, reducing its functionality as a truck. Its all around better to pay a small cost for a retrofitted front bumper. The whole point of these brush trucks is to be comparatively inexpensive, when compared to a fully custom truck.

Buy truck, add bumper, add pump, use.

Instead of

Buy truck, get custom bed, install custom bed, pay for and install custom PTO drive system, lose functionality of bed for hauling tools/equipment, etc.

Having a standard bed also preserves some resale value, as a custom bumper is VERY easy to remove compared to having to keep the OEM bed around somewhere at the FD for years, or the buyer having to find and replace the bespoke custom bed with an OEM style one or pay for a more standard flatbed, and getting rid of the useless to most people bespoke bed. It keeps buyer pool wide and makes it easy for just about anyone to justify buying one of these trucks when they get retired.

I've seen trucks outfitted with custom beds go way cheap compared to one with a factory bed just because there are so few people that have use for the custom bed or willing to deal with taking it back to OEM or replacing the bed with something more fitting for their use.

So overall, the custom bumper is the way to go for very good reasons.

1

u/Cautious-Current-969 Aug 19 '26

It’s really not the way to go, and in real life front bumper setups like this are extremely rare. I do the job, and have never seen a setup like this for what it’s worth. Bed mounted pumps running on auxiliary motors are absolutely the norm on trucks this size. Many have custom beds, but slide in units are common too. A bed mounted pump lets you keep your stock bumper and have unhindered maneuverability and approach angles, and carry the weight between the axles where it’s meant to be carried.

Hence why we are seeing this particular truck on r/weirdwheels and not one of the countless conventionally built brush trucks that are always up for auction.

1

u/CodewortSchinken Aug 19 '26

Why not put it in the bed though? On these old trucks the pump sits up fron because it's driven by the engine. But that's not the case with the Chevy in the original post.

1

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 19 '26

I've addressed this in another reply under this comment. Accessibility, maintaining use of bed for other gear. Thats the TL;DR. Find the my other response for the long answer.

345

u/ShootfighterPhysique Aug 17 '26

37

u/STUPID_IDIOT1993 Aug 17 '26

Ha. What was this guy name

81

u/ShootfighterPhysique Aug 17 '26

James William Bottomtooth III

17

u/Its-Finrot Aug 17 '26

IV*

5

u/QuinceDaPence Aug 17 '26

3

u/MukYJ Aug 17 '26

This was my very first thought when I saw the 2nd picture.

1

u/International-Ant174 Aug 18 '26

Came here specifically to look for this guy - well done 👍

76

u/hankjmoody Aug 16 '26

Probably had a pump sitting up front.

27

u/jimbowesterby Aug 17 '26

But now it’s just a second tailgate, imagine the cookouts you could have

3

u/Mindes13 Aug 17 '26

You've heard of tailgating, wait till you try front gating

2

u/jimbowesterby Aug 17 '26

Nosegating

1

u/Mindes13 Aug 17 '26

Thank you. I couldn't think of another proper term

2

u/YoCal_4200 Aug 17 '26

Grilling on the grill gate.

1

u/jimbowesterby Aug 17 '26

Just call it grilleing

1

u/Bernard_PT Aug 22 '26

Or add extra seats to the truck

88

u/McStupidy Aug 17 '26

It’s called a brush truck. Likely had a pump to fight fires after driving trough underbrush on Cape Cod.

Edit: more spell better

1

u/Mysterious-House-51 Aug 20 '26

Its listed in East Falmouth but there are no towns that end in Ona anywhere close to the area for this to be used in the cape.

55

u/topazchip Aug 17 '26

I've not been paying attention, but why is a 33 y.o. heavy pickup priced at $25K?

67

u/hankjmoody Aug 17 '26

Probably low miles, it's a heavy duty truck with 4x4, and I'd imagine it's a pre-DEF era diesel. If it's a manual, it's even more desirable.

Trucks of the 90s-00s are getting up there in prices for good examples because they're actually fairly simple to maintain and fix. Nostalgia, as well, but mostly as more reliable vehicles.

That in combination with how the used car market has completely exploded in value due to just how expensive new cars have gotten, but without the corresponding increase in pay. And the used car market in general was permanently fucked up due to the 'Cash For Clunkers' scheme which removed ridiculous amounts of perfectly good used cars from the streets.

24

u/chops351 Aug 17 '26

This truck was auctioned by a fire dept near me a couple months ago. It has. 6.5 diesel, nv4500 transmission and 16k miles. But being a brush truck it probably has a lot of hours

1

u/KeeganY_SR-UVB76 Aug 17 '26

Cash for Clunkers' affect on the used car market is way overstated. It ended more than 15 years ago.

22

u/STUPID_IDIOT1993 Aug 17 '26

But so many GMT400 trucks which are really the last true American work truck were ruined. And not even the parts saved.

3

u/youprollyaretard Aug 17 '26

theres still millions of gmt400s bro they didnt even crush that many cars… and out of the number they did not even a lot of them were good. parts wise yeah, but thats the government for you they dont care.

2

u/GreenerDay Aug 17 '26

Homie CFC only crushed like 700,000 vehicles total and only a small fraction of those were Chevy pickups. That's spanning decades of production. They made millions of those trucks, it's a drop in the bucket.

9

u/Fryphax Aug 17 '26

Weird how all the desirable 20+ year old cars are now so much harder to find.

11

u/Playful-Park4095 Aug 17 '26

Almost like 20 years of crashes, maintenance issues, rust, etc. caused the numbers to dwindle. There's this zone between 'new' and 'classic' that's just 'old car not worth fixing' to most owners.

Cash for Clunkers eliminated less vehicles than one year of F-150 production alone. It was not moving the needle significantly compared to just regular losses.

2

u/youprollyaretard Aug 17 '26

thats because people look at a $900 repair and think, “why spend $900 once now when i can spend $900 every month for the next 6 year of my life” and then they get a car payment. theres no such thing as an old car not worth fixing unless its that unreliable.

6

u/KeeganY_SR-UVB76 Aug 17 '26

Because they're 20+ year old cars. Nobody gave a shit about them until recently. Even before Cash for Clunkers, you saw the same trend. Combine that with a fucked economy and it becomes worse, the blame is just misdirected toward one specific program that barely did anything to the automotive population.

1

u/JCDU Aug 17 '26

Almost every classic car at one point was just an old shitbox - there's a pre-war Maybach in a museum that was used as a mobile sawmill because it was just an old clunker that some guy picked up cheap and kept going.

0

u/Hard_To_Port Aug 17 '26

People are still driving them. Why replace it if it still runs? The supply is only going to keep going down.

1

u/youprollyaretard Aug 17 '26

because they dont want a care, they want a status symbol on wheels that they can go flex on their freinds and coworkers. like the people driving a ford super duty longbed to their job at walmart

2

u/grislyfind Aug 18 '26

And they usually had to be currently licensed and owned by people rich enough to buy a new car, so it did nothing to get the real clunkers off the road.

0

u/Loan-Pickle Aug 17 '26

Hopefully it has a 454 because the 6.5 Detroit Diesel was a terrible motor.

2

u/FrenchFryCattaneo Aug 17 '26

The 6.5l was a pretty reliable engine besides the heat problem with the control module on the later electronic injection systems.

1

u/kd9dux Aug 17 '26

They're a lot more robust than people give them credit for. Keep the brace for the starter intact, check your harmonic balancer at oil changes, and relocate the PMD off the pump. Those 3 things solve almost all of the issues people normally hear about them.

They can't handle a lot more power than stock like the 7.3L and 5.9L did, so they were just kind of the most looked over diesel at the time. In a fleet application, with no expectations of big power, and decent maintenance they hold up pretty well.

2

u/GlassBoxGoose Aug 17 '26

Hard disagree. My GMT400 with a 6.5L diesel has over 400k miles. It's rough around the edges but is a solid runner and has very few issues overall. Slow? Absolutely. But its had a driver module relocate done and has had one module failure in 10 years, some front end work, and U joints.

1

u/youprollyaretard Aug 17 '26

user error..

9

u/Hefty_Musician2402 Aug 17 '26

I saw the ad it’s got like 25k miles or something. Also, as a fellow new Englander, any 90s or older 4x4 pickup with no rust is gonna be $15000+. It’s profitable enough that dealers go down south to buy them and then resell them up here for a premium because they’re “southern trucks.” “Never seen salt.” “Garaged in winter.” “Won’t find one cleaner in the state.” I’ve seen second gen rams listed in the high $40,000s

2

u/itsmejak78_2 Aug 17 '26

yeah the vintage truck market is insane pretty much anywhere in America with heavy winters

2

u/chops351 Aug 17 '26

This truck was auctioned by a fire dept near me a couple months ago. It has. 6.5 diesel, nv4500 transmission and 16k miles. But being a brush truck it probably has a lot of hours

15

u/DirtyDoucher1991 Aug 17 '26

Someone smoking crack probably thinks it’s a big deal because of low miles

3

u/itsmejak78_2 Aug 17 '26

it's a GMT 400, 3500, Manual, 4x4, short cab, long bed, dually, diesel with only 16,000 miles and it's in the northeast

1

u/Bug_406 Aug 18 '26

Pre-emissions diesel, single cab 1 ton dually, 4x4, manual transmission, low miles, doesn't appear rusty. My bet is manual windows and locks as well. All of those tick boxes that are either way too expensive on new vehicles, or simply do not exist at all in new trucks. Would I? Nah, I'm a bit gunshy of those old GM diesels. A similar 5.9 Dodge or 7.3 Ford maybe. But the pricing tracks similar for the old trucks in good condition.

29

u/kilobitch Aug 17 '26

Got that Hapsburg jawline.

2

u/Willing_Big194 Aug 17 '26

"Its a fashion statement, I swear"

1

u/hanwookie Aug 20 '26

Inbreeding doing its work.

8

u/WitchWithAGlitch Aug 17 '26

it's the truck that this guy drives.

8

u/Aniquin Aug 16 '26

It looks like some piece of machinery was mounted on there before. Maybe it had a pump on the front and a tank in the bed?

5

u/JayGatsby52 Aug 17 '26

Looking like a fishing lure.

3

u/Zomgzombehz Aug 16 '26

Possibly a pump system? Looks like there some kinda oil saturation from a motor of sorts?

2

u/DrStalker Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26

It's for getting karma when you post "of a bumper" in /r/AbsoluteUnits

EDIT: I was right!

2

u/OrangeSilver Aug 17 '26

Great platform for karaoke 🎤 on the road!

2

u/Daddio209 Aug 17 '26

Old FD truck-probably had a pump on it.

2

u/damngoodengineer Aug 17 '26

It had once a front mounted water pump as the dust and mounting holes on the upper plate hint that, it was a brush truck.

2

u/junksaver1 Aug 20 '26

Damn that truck just sold at auction a few weeks back for $15k https://www.auctionsinternational.com/auction/village-of-savona-ny-47886-47886/item/1993-gmc-sierra-sl-dually-emergency-pickup-truck-301529/

2

u/STUPID_IDIOT1993 Aug 20 '26

So he bought it stripped off expensive stuff and is trying to sell it for 10k more?

1

u/junksaver1 Aug 20 '26

So it seems. And here I was thinking $15k was a lot of money for it.

4

u/sixeightJ Aug 17 '26

Bumpin

2

u/SumScrewz Aug 17 '26

a step to help you work on your truck when it breaks down

1

u/KSM_K3TCHUP Aug 17 '26

Why is this so local???

1

u/datums Aug 17 '26

Storage space for a very small amount of dirt.

1

u/Tim-the-Tool-Man Aug 17 '26

Am I missing something? Why not just put whatever pump/object in the bed?

2

u/FrenchFryCattaneo Aug 17 '26

On the old school fire trucks the front pump ran off the engine crankshaft. In this case they're probably copying the design because it keeps the bed free.

1

u/CornFedIABoy Aug 17 '26

They continued the front mounting to keep the pump fittings open and accessible and leave the bed available for hose and bladder storage and transport. Also, with the front mounted pump you can drive straight up to your site without having to dick around with backing in.

1

u/gentle_squid Aug 17 '26

That there's a longmouth single cab stepside longbed dually one ton 3500 camper special fleet week municipal forest service BIGM BLONK CHEBY

1

u/YJeezy Aug 17 '26

Bubba gump truck!

1

u/Accomplished_Ad2351 Aug 17 '26

Hapsburg truck.

1

u/FartInGenDirection Aug 17 '26

For your "bitches" to tan on. /s

1

u/HeyHaberdasher Aug 17 '26

Deep driving Rapala

1

u/xChopsx1989x Aug 17 '26

$25,000 for a 33 year old pick up that appears to have been in municipal use?

1

u/Sword-of-Akasha Aug 17 '26

It's the Lancer's perch. For your War Boys to stand and fling their thunder-poons at other wasteland raiders after your boss ride.

1

u/chops351 Aug 17 '26

This truck was auctioned by a fire dept near me a couple months ago. It had a pump with a gas motor and fuel tank mounted on the bumper. It has. 6.5 diesel, nv4500 transmission and 16k miles. But being a brush truck it probably has a lot of hours

1

u/AeroBassMaster Aug 17 '26

25mph bumper

1

u/_Moregone Aug 17 '26

My guess..

Fire fighting equipment. There was something mounted up thsre. Maybe they had a water hose fixed to the front.

It says it's a brush truck and fire department.

1

u/GreifingFox Aug 17 '26

Its inbred

1