Ottawa Fire Services

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Looks awesome in the sun Ken, thanks for posting. How has the reflective red held up on the KMEs with your guys' horrible winters and such? I don't think I've ever seen anything like that on any other apparatus in Canada or the USA. Hope you had an easy trip home

I will answer this one for Kenny. The reflexite on the KMEs has held up well. When Kevin Poll, Paul Asmis and I presented it to management, our number one thing was safety. The research we conducted and read concluded

-to have continuous reflective material from front to back

-reflective should outline the truck

-wheel wells should be outlined so a motorist can recognize it as a vehicle and understand it may move

-no chevrons low (although we relented on the front bumper because otherwise it was cut up to much)

-the rear lights should be surrounded by a non reflective band of black tape so lights don't get "lost" in the reflexite's glow

-and NO LIME YELLOW chevrons because our gear striping is Lime yellow (we are not protecting the truck- we are protecting our firefighters!)

 

We also presented that red and white two tone paint was strictly for show, so taking the money that would be used for two tone and using it for reflective was a safer choice.

 

In terms of maintenance, we researched reflexite versus 3M, and reflexite doesnt separate when cut at seams (the 3m stuff does which is why it looks dirty after a few years at seams). The reflexite is also way more "sticky" and does not peel off.

 

We presented if you get a scratch, you can simply "paste" a new piece on (it comes in strips) as compared with sanding, priming and painting the traditional way.

 

There are two spots where we needed to make a change on the newer KMEs- climbing to the pump operator position (the reflexite was kicked repeatedly) so we made that diamond plate; the second place was where the tarp attaches (getting scuffed)

 

It appears we will continue with this premise. You cannot miss these trucks!