Fire Engines Photos

and its ready for another near thirty years of good money efficient use , looking at the other photos of perfectly serviceaable rapiers/sabresthat are as well engineered as this chassis that are awaiting disposal it makes you wonder , there are stations all over rural britain that would find these an upgrade of what they are running at the moment yet the wealthier brigades sell them for nothing , a national re-use system and a different take on disposal and re-investmant in what they have , these are a quarter of a million when new yet we have no money and we sell them for peanuts to ireland/new zealand who then use them for another 18 -20 years after a light and inexpensive refurb, what are we missing ??

Added by Donny on 06 July 2014.

Donny,
a refurbishment like you see it on that Unimog is also a major investment. If one does it one must be sure that availability of spares for the truck part is certain for the expected life span. Maybe that's a reason why many trucks are rather sold off than having them refurbished. The Unimogs seem to be good candidates for such refurbish jobs. With this one everything outside the cab is new and a lot inside as well.

But I agree that a re-use system could be beneficial for both sellers and buyers.

Added by Martin Siegel on 11 July 2014.

i understand the spares. cost of this particular refurbishment but we are casting vehicles with less than 40.000 miles on the clock and having very light use at quieter stations, I also understand pumping time but I also know that there are precious few jobs these days and pumps are robust peices of equipment as are engines the same ones fitted to commercila vehical do astronomical miles and fire engines are well serviced, the appliance I am talking about could be picked and put aside for what barely amounts to a coat of paint and some decals , this is all irish and other foriegn brigades do and then use them very succesfully for many many years with no spares issues , thanks for the response and I know it will not happen but I feel strongly about this when other resources are being cut yet the obvious capital ones are not.

Added by Donny on 12 July 2014.

Donny, I'm 100% with you. It would be perfectly logic to seek stations locally that can re-use a truck before selling it off cheaply to far away stations. It can even help getting a better price. A brigade in NZ will certainly calculate shipping costs and this will influence what they are willing to pay for the engine alone. So a nation wide system, like the one you proposed should be beneficial to all parts. But I do not enough about the British fire fighting system works to even guess why it does not exist.

Added by Martin Siegel on 22 July 2014.

First, I would admit that I have not done anything remotely like a statistically valid survey of fire service apparatus' service lives around the World.

But I have seen actual practice in fire services in something like forty different countries, including most of the ones with the largest apparatus fleets.

My conclusion is that the UK fire services generally do in fact operate front line appliances for a much shorter period than any other major country. This is a mystery to me too, particularly because the vehicle chassis in the UK are the same as are used in the rest of Europe, and in many other countries. Namely IVECO, MAN, Mercedes, Volvo and Scania, plus a few DAF and Steyr trucks.

In addition, if you look at the appliances operated by many South American volunteer companies, large numbers of these are on a "second wind", after 20 or 30 years' service in Europe or North America.

As for the specific case of the Unimog, it is unique, not only in terms of capabilities, but also for its ruggedness and durability.

Added by Rob Johnson on 20 August 2014.

Please add your comments about this picture using the form below.

Comments

Your Name

Your email address - this will be shown on the page and will allow the system to notify you of further comments added to this picture.