This ladder tower will probably be a disappointment if it's meant to act as a water tower, especially replacing a Snorkel. We had a 95' mid mount Pierce platform assigned to my company and I was astonished at how bad the low angle ability was off the sides. Essentially to do what they are doing in the picture, there was an area of maybe 5-8 degrees of rotation off either side that you could lower the aerial below horizontal. It also took a long distance between the basket and the truck to sit it on the ground. Some of it was due to the design of the torque box and outriggers simply being in the way. Part of it was the collision avoidance system was pretty crude (this may have been improved on since our 06' model but I don't know). The 360 degree arc was divided up in to a few zones and then each zone had lower elevation limits. Since the zones were rather large, there were positions that the ladder could physically go into but wasn't allowed to because one edge of the zone contained an obstacle. Pretty frustrating.
Comparing it to previous experience with an LTI 93 and an Aerialscope, it sucked. Not doing much "sidewalk sweep" action unless you are positioned perfectly and need to do so in a very narrow area. We also had a 100' Pierce rear mount and it was much more useful in this respect (and others). Prior to the ascendant stuff being released, I felt this was far and away the worst aerial in Pierce's lineup. I hope they have better luck with it than we did with ours.
Comparing it to previous experience with an LTI 93 and an Aerialscope, it sucked. Not doing much "sidewalk sweep" action unless you are positioned perfectly and need to do so in a very narrow area. We also had a 100' Pierce rear mount and it was much more useful in this respect (and others). Prior to the ascendant stuff being released, I felt this was far and away the worst aerial in Pierce's lineup. I hope they have better luck with it than we did with ours.
Facebook
Google
Reddit
Twitter