Fire truck MX shop finds a $2 solution to a $3,000 problem

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Russ Jackson
  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  A brand new circuit board for a McChord Field Airport Rescue Fire Fighting truck costs more than $3,000 to replace, regardless of why it has malfunctioned. When McChord Field fire truck maintainers were faced with replacing one of their own, they dug a little deeper into the issue and discovered a $2 solution.

The dashboard panel on one of McChord Field's ARFF trucks began displaying a compartment open light in error. Maintainers were able to trace the issue to the power distribution panel in the cab of the truck and discovered a transistor had failed.

"We called the company who manufactures the truck and they gave us a quote of $2,998, plus shipping to replace the entire circuit card," said Nick DeLeon, 627th Logistics Readiness Squadron heavy mobile equipment mechanic leader. "We're not trained in circuit cards but can identify that the problem originated from the card at which point we would typically just replace it."

DeLeon has worked with McChord's avionics shop in the past and decided to run the circuit card by them in order to gain more in depth knowledge about the card. Together, they traced the compartment open light error down to a single failed transistor within the circuit card.

"A quick trip up to a local electronics store and $2 later we had a fixed fire truck," DeLeon said. "This is the second transistor that we've replaced like this and so far we've saved the Air Force more than $6,000. We have never replaced a circuit card because of this issue."

DeLeon's next step is to upload the fix in to the Joint Deficiency Reporting System.

JDRS provides a common, seamless solution for deficiency reporting and resolution management across the aeronautical enterprise.

DeLeon spoke with a local company that deals with the exact same trucks, except they belong to The Boeing Company and Seattle Tacoma International Airport. They had seen the same problems but until DeLeon called them, had not discovered a solution that did not involve completely replacing the $3,000 circuit card.

To replace a transistor, Airman 1st Class Tyler Hill, 627th LRS fire truck maintenance journeyman took the circuit card and the new transistor to Staff Sgt. Jesse Thorn, 62nd Maintenance Squadron intermediate section craftsman at the avionics shop. Thorn had the part replaced in less than an hour allowing the fire truck to be back up and running before the end of the day.

"We work on line replaceable units that come off the C-17 aircrafts. We can work on electronics and circuit cards, kind of like this one," said Thorn. "The last one of these we fixed was for a dollar or two."

If the fire truck maintenance Airmen decided to replace the entire circuit card, the truck would be out of commission for up to two months.

With the limited amount of fire trucks on McChord Field, one going down for maintenance would mean that a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy could no longer land here. If another truck went down, it would begin to affect the C-17 Globemaster III mission.

DeLeon, Hill, Thorn and Airmen from both the fire truck maintenance shop and the avionics shop worked together to find a solution of great ingenuity, which will save the Air Force $3,000 every time the problem arises.