Fire 32 originally had a Tulsa PTO winch located under the front bumper. When I got to Alaska and got my first look at the truck, I noticed that the winch was missing. I asked the guys at the fire department if they knew what had happened to it and they said there was never a winch there. That meant the winch was removed between the time it left Happy Valley and arrived in Alaska, and whoever took it off knew what they were doing, as all the critical pieces were gone and eve the name tags on the dash were turned over. 

I began researching PTO winches and that is when I discovered the original winch was built by Tulsa and the winches were still being produced. After getting a quote on a new one, I immediately knew that was not going to be an option, as a new winch was several thousand dollars. I had purchased a couple items on ebay, so I decided I would start searching to see if I could find something there. It was a couple months before I got a hit, but sure enough, it was what I needed. The seller was in California, and before I bid on it, I made arrangements with a friend who lived in LA to pick it up if I was the successful bidder. This was my first experience in a bidding war, so I was pretty nervous going into the last few minutes before the sale ended, but in the end it was mine for $150.

I made the trip to LA to retrieve my prize and soon realized how heavy the thing was and what a challenge it was going to be to work with it. It wasn't pretty and some of the pieces were missing, but I had no intention of making it operational, so as long as the major parts were there, I was happy.

One unique feature regarding the winch on Fire 32 was what I refer to as a spool guard, a piece of bent rod that hung down from the winch mounting bracket to prevent damage to the spool if it was to strike something. In my research, I discovered that these winches were installed on many Half Track military vehicles built during world war II, and noticed the ones with winches had this guard installed. Talking with Tulsa, I found out it was not an option they offered, but something installed only on the Half Tracks. With that bit of knowledge, along with a note in a construction document that indicated that surplus winches were to be installed on the trucks, I deducted that the winch was a take-off from a Half Track. 

I built a wooden support for the winch, which got it off the ground and up where I could work on it. After getting all the grease off, I started to build the brackets to attach it to the frame rails. The frame rail extensions, along with all the photos, gave me enough clues to figure out how the winch was mounted. 

The 1/2" thick angle iron brackets, which are part of the Tulsa mounting system, were still with the winch but required cutting off some poorly fabricated mounting brackets; one of the angle pieces also required a very large hydraulic press to straighten it out. I had some 1/4" steel bent up by a local fabrication shop to form the brackets that hang down from the frame extensions and cradle the winch, and after drilling all the holes, I was able to do a test fit on the chassis. Again, with a 300 lb. winch, it was a real challenge to maneuver the winch and get it lifted up to where I could get the bolts installed without smashing myself in the process. I came up with a system that worked, but I really don't think it would get OSHA approval.

I eventually sand blasted all the components, painted them silver and reassembled the winch, where it waited to be installed, which turned out to be between the white and red paint on the truck.