My favorite Fire Engine

glewis80SC · glewis80SC's Garage

My stations front line 2007 Pierce broke down, blown turbo, we are lucky to get one of the few 1996 Seagraves still in reserve. Love these engines tough, reliable no hi-tech electronics that haunt the newer ones, its even a 6 speed manual. I've been to lots of great fires while riding in one of these just had to share. Looks like we will be in it for a while too.

sc_rufctr · 07-30-2013, 11:26 AM

Wow... Nice. I bet that thing is built like a tank.

But I thought the "Pierce" fire truck was the best.

Laneco · 07-30-2013, 12:56 PM

Just to demonstrate how deep are my depths of automotive depravity...

I absolutely love vintage fire apparatus... If there's ever a show/muster near me, I'm hitting the road!

Not particular - tend to like 40's through some early 60's. If I ever came across a closed cab like the one below, I'd probably drag it home much to my long suffering husband's dismay...

Then again, the open top is also rather fetching!

angela

VINMAN · 07-30-2013, 07:29 PM

Gotta agree with Glen. Seagraves are bullet-proof. Built simple and strong. Best apparatus ever made. The trend of building these new trucks with all electric and computerized controls are nothing but a nitemare.

GWN7 · 07-30-2013, 10:14 PM

Open tops are nice....except when it's -40 or raining. Yes I drove one once.

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

What? No love for American LaFrance?

glewis80SC · glewis80SC's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by porsche4life

What? No love for American LaFrance?

Current T9, always room for a LaFrance.

glewis80SC · glewis80SC's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by GWN7

Open tops are nice....except when it's -40 or raining. Yes I drove one once.

Here a couple when the LAFD would remove the roofs, it was supposed to give you a better view when arriving on scene giving a size up and spotting the apparatus. It worked here in So. Cal. not a lot of bad weather days. What a blast those days must have been.

VINMAN · 07-31-2013, 02:32 PM

Here's one for you , Angela . This is my baby .

1929 American LaFrance. I did a lot of the restoration on it. What's sad with this truck, is that I'm pretty much the only person in my Dept that has any interest in it

Laneco · 07-31-2013, 02:37 PM

That is EXCEPTIONALLY cool - thanks for the share Vinny! Can't believe no one else in the dept. is "into" this great old engine! I LOVE IT!

angela

onlycafe · 07-31-2013, 04:22 PM

now that is a fire truck!

FLYGEEZER · 08-01-2013, 06:42 AM

Oh Yea!!!!!!! Thanks for the picture VINMAN.

Laneco · 08-01-2013, 07:03 AM

OK, I had this crazy dream last night...

One of our Pelican flock is John Walker in Seattle who owns/operates his own Porsche repair shop. He replaced headstuds on an engine of mine a few years ago, which gave me the excuse to tour his shop. Very, very cool place because Walker is into old trucks and other somewhat unusual but very interesting American iron. First time in my life I've seen a flat head V12, and he had TWO of them...

So anyway, in this dream I owned a FIRE TRUCK! Even better, Walker was somehow involved with mentoring or helping me restore it. In the dream, the truck was in his shop and he instructed me to pull the full tank. Then I did the stupidest thing in the history of the universe...

I put the floor jack under the fuel tank and lifted the whole truck, thus crushing the fuel tank. The look on John Walker's face was of such abject disgust over my stupidity that it WOKE ME UP!

Crazy!

angela

glewis80SC · glewis80SC's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by VINMAN

Here's one for you , Angela . This is my baby .

1929 American LaFrance. I did a lot of the restoration on it. What's sad with this truck, is that I'm pretty much the only person in my Dept that has any interest in it

Awesome Vinny, sorry about the lack of interest bring it on by my station we would be all over that. I bet there is no interest because its not push button easy to operate. Nice work though.