One man's junk is another's $$$

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M

medic

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Bradford, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
This guy bought this truck at auction from the City of Bradford for $2,000. We couldn't give this truck away because the ladder will no longer pass certification for fire use. We were lucky to get $2,000 out of it. Last night, one of the local police officers told me he saw one of our old trucks on ebay. He thought it was the ladder that we just sold a few weeks ago. So, when I got home I got on ebay and started looking. Sure enough, there it was with a buy it now price of $7,995. I doubt he will get that much for it because these trucks are everywhere and not really all that rare, but even if he gets $3000, that'll cover his costs and put some cash in his pocket.

I guess I should've bought it
dunno.gif
I could've had it six months ago for $1,000.

ebay auction link
 
Heck, it isn't even broken in yet either! It would be an awesome daily driver as well as cruising to the beach. Need to pick up some 20 foot long lumber from the big orange store? Nooo problem!

...NOW I get it...Flames!
 
This is something I really never understood. Sure technology and preferred methods evolve over time. For example the old "having 4 firefighters standing off of the back of the old firetruck" routine faded as enough of them played superman off the back ..and surely there are better pumps and this and that.


..but was there no way to have this thing retro fitted at a fraction of the cost of a whole new rig? Somehow, given the price of these things, and the "spare no expense" orientation of the builders of these things, I would say that they have a good deal to say about what the "new certs" are.


That thing is worth more in scrap than it was at the price it was offered at.
 
Unfortunatly, this truck was taken out of service because the ladder was no longer considered safe. It wouldn't pass the tests that are required of a ladder to remain in service. The milage on this truck is also misleading. You have to consider that this truck amost never left the city and the majority of the hours on the engine are while the vehicle is not moving.

Also, I can't provide an actual price to update this truck, but if this truck was refurbished to meet today's standards it would be quite costly and you would still have a 1970 truck when you are done. I would dare to say that buying a new truck would be at least similar in price or maybe even cheaper. I can't begin to list the saftey issues that there are with a truck of this age. Two big issues right away are the unsafe ladder and the open cab.
 
quote:
Originally posted by medic:
Unfortunatly, this truck was taken out of service because the ladder was no longer considered safe. It wouldn't pass the tests that are required of a ladder to remain in service. The milage on this truck is also misleading. You have to consider that this truck amost never left the city and the majority of the hours on the engine are while the vehicle is not moving.

Also, I can't provide an actual price to update this truck, but if this truck was refurbished to meet today's standards it would be quite costly and you would still have a 1970 truck when you are done. I would dare to say that buying a new truck would be at least similar in price or maybe even cheaper. I can't begin to list the saftey issues that there are with a truck of this age. Two big issues right away are the unsafe ladder and the open cab.
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And meanwhile the rest of the world successfully fights fires with way older trucks than this
frown.gif


I know in our area there is always competition among all the companies to see who can buy the biggest badest fire trucks.
frown.gif
 
I'm mystified as to why the Kirkland, WA Fire Dept. around the corner seems to frequently send out a huge ladder truck on EMT calls. Seems like a waste. There are no skyscrapers around here, and the regular ambulance/van would seem to work better than the big firetruck.
 
"And meanwhile the rest of the world successfully fights fires with way older trucks than this"
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Yes, but they don't have lawyers chasing the trucks and ambulances.
 
quote:
Originally posted by MarkC:
I'm mystified as to why the Kirkland, WA Fire Dept. around the corner seems to frequently send out a huge ladder truck on EMT calls. Seems like a waste. There are no skyscrapers around here, and the regular ambulance/van would seem to work better than the big firetruck.
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Man, this is such a misunderstood occurance. Does the fire department have ambulances, or are they provided by a third party "hospital, private, etc"?

I work for a very large and very busy fire department near Atlanta Ga. We respond a fire apparatus on all calls classified as b,c,or d in a 911 triage system (rated A-D). These are usually chest pain, difficulty breathing, trauma's, cardiac arrests, etc. The reasons? Several actually. 1) Manpower: You cannot work a cardiac arrest or serious call with one person in the back and one driving. Plus the removal of the patients from residences takes more than 2 people. The most sick and fattest people generally request 3rd+ floor apartments or 2+ story houses and tend to go to the top floor bedroom before they die/get sick. Also, it takes a minimum of four people to adequately and safely remove an injured person from an automobile. 2) Training: We run paramedics on most fire apparatus. We have 40 pieces of fire apparatus and 18 ambulances. With almost 100k calls a year, the fire apparatus is almost always there sooner than the ambulance. We carry everything the ambulance does minus the stretcher.

As to the refurb of the aerial. I would venture to say that it would cost in the neighborhood of $300k to have this truck brought up to the applicable NFPA regulations. A 75' midmount Sutphen stick quint cost's about $600k. The current American Lafrance would be similar, but Sutphen is the only manufacturer of a 75' MIDMOUNT stick currently.
 
Sounds kinda dangerous to have an open cab when the vehicle's intended use is to be 75 feet under possible falling objects. I'd prefer to have a bulldozer ROPS/puncture resistant cage around me.

Even so, our old rural firehall would welcome that pictured firetruck. Our firetruck is a used gas engine army truck with a water tank on the back! It's so bad on gas that they can't drive it to the gas station and back since they wouldn't have any fuel to go to an emergency. It's a total beater but so be it, atleast the thing is close to the settlement. It's way faster for everybody to get to it by car instead of actually driving it any distance. The volunteers are all at work 20 minutes or further away.

Steve
 
Fire equipment, like ambulances, go through very expensive evolutions. The hardware is expensive and typically proprietory ..the coach work is totally custom on custom frames $$$ ..and they're obsolete in not too many years. I think that there must have been a lull in fire equipment sales for one of the manufacturers ..one of our recycling trucks suspiciously looks like it has a cab that should be on a fire truck. Wide ..low..and too much "fancy" for a commercial money maker.

The latest inovation that I've seen is "all wheel steering" being offered on newer firetrucks ..with selectable in-phase and out of phase modes allowing the rig to "crab walk" if need be.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Allan:
I think that there must have been a lull in fire equipment sales for one of the manufacturers ..one of our recycling trucks suspiciously looks like it has a cab that should be on a fire truck. Wide ..low..and too much "fancy" for a commercial money maker.
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Well, considering that Diamler Chrysler, Frieghtliner, Mercedes, and American LaFrance are all the same company, it is possible. The new Seagraves fire truck cab looks alot like the American LaFrance cab that came out a few years back - I'm not sure what is going on there
dunno.gif
 
quote:
Originally posted by Scooby:
The most sick and fattest people generally request 3rd+ floor apartments or 2+ story houses and tend to go to the top floor bedroom before they die/get sick.
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Sad, but true.
lol.gif
 
quote:
Originally posted by medic:
I wish that was the case. Up until 1976, every truck we had was an open cab.
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WOW! Was there some sort of functonal reason for that or did they "just not think of it"? (I know that isn't the case but I'm grasping for the rest of the story here...)

That is just so hard to imagine...must have been colder than you know what in the winter...
 
Some wierdo might buy it so he can be in parades with all the high school cheerleaders.

Or perhaps there is an export market... Mexico, Russia....
 
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