No, Houston switched to Ferrara about a year and a half ago. The photos posted by Ron are the last order of 5 pumpers and 5 trucks which were ordered before the 1st Ferrara rigs and recieved after the 1st Ferra rigs. Make sense? LOL. Houston is still with Ferrara and as I understand it from Downtown will be placing another order with Ferrara for 6 pumpers, 2 trucks and 1 Haz Mat. There is currently 1 Haz Mat unit on order. This addition to another new/re-mount cascade unit of the '97 SVI bodies which are being placed on International chassis from the original Freightliner chassis.
The 5 trucks were different from the '97 and '01 models in that they are Cyclone II chassis and not the Hurricane chassis. The pumper were still on Cyclone II chassis, just considrably shorter in both wheel base and overall length.
This appears to be an ex-Dallas truck... we had several of these back in the 70's. As a matter of fact, we have one that has been at the fire shop in the surplus yard awaiting auction. If actually is not in too bad of of shape (except for the paint!)
How well are the Ferrara's holding up? In North Texas, Ferrara is not prominent.
The few FDs who've used them have had "hit or miss" luck with them. Garland (a suburb of Dallas) bought five of them several years ago and has had MAJOR mechanical issues with them. Grapevine, a suburb near DFW Int'l Airport, had one apparatus from Ferrara that was built on the wrong chassis, and Roanoke had a quint that was out of service for several months because, per the chief, Ferrara, Spartan, and the aerial people couldn't decide who was responsible for an minor electrical issue.
A few FDs have Ferrara here - Carrollton, Roanoke, Garland, and maybe one or two more.
The E\-One rigs as a whole have held up well. For the abuse some of them get, they bounce back run after run. The one I drive everyday has over 80,000 miles on it and for a '00 still runs strong and pumps like a champ.
The problem with E\-One was NOT the E\-One rigs themselves, it was the dealer service. All apparatus break, there is no 2 ways about it. All I ask, as I was taught, is that if it breaks 20 times fix it 20 times quickly and without excuse.
The Ferrara rigs are actually holding fine as well. The 11 pumpers are assigned to some very busy companies and have only had minor issues as I have been told. There is only 1 FFA pumper in SW Houston that we see and along with the 1st 11 on the East Side, have been doing well. We have one of the 7 FFA trucks and that is a slightly different story. The FFA chassis and body are nice and have been holding up good. The Smeal aerial, while doing its job and not missing a beat, is so different from out previous '01 E\-One Hurricane that the guys don't care for it. In particular the handrail height, aerial width and jack spread.
It may have already been discussed but does HFD have a Pierce tower ordered? I thought I saw it on the Siddons website as a unit in production but I can't find it now. I thought it was Tower 18.
It could have been Martins website. <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bombed.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />
Yes, there are actually 2 on order. I have been told they are at Martin Apparatus being prepared for delivery. 1 is slated for Tower Co. 18 and 1 for Tower Co. 06. Both of the current E\-One 105' towers at those companies are being reassigned to other existing Ladder Co.'s. Rumor right now is L21 and L64 are getting them. This will give Houston 5 front-line Ladder Tower Co.'s with much better distribution throughout the 625 square mile city.
The Pierce rigs are supposed to be Pierce Dash chassis with 100' ladder towers and will be DRY trucks with no pump or tank. The way they should be. LOL.
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