According to the lead news story on the Harrisburg PA CBS station at 10 pm tonight, American LaFrance is closing the Ephrata and all other facilities including South Carolina due to an "unexpected current financial condition". Parts and service will come from a third party vendor.
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American LaFrance Closing
American LaFrance Closing
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American LaFrance Closing
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I'm only surprised at how long it took for ALF to realize it was a losing proposition.....The signs have been there for a long time - no ads, no website updates, no new deliveries, 2 bankruptcies, 3 or 4 plant moves, a couple of change of ownerships.....Sad end for a once proud name, but they haven't really been American LaFrance since they moved out of Elmira.
All of the items they left behind are going up for action, even rigs!
http://www.ourgazette.com/article/201404...89/1108/OG
A large part of my collection was purchased from a GOOD man, John Floyd. I give him FULL credit on his work, although I may miss something. Thanks John. Also Scott Mattson, Warren Jenkins, Michael Schwartzberg, and Mike Sanders. Thanks Guys.
The question is, how many departments are without a truck now, and out money in the process? I was told a month or so ago, a department in our neighboring county to the West of us had paid half down on a new engine, which would have made their second ALF... now what? They won't get that money back, that's XXXX dollars they just gave away in essence. I think that I read there were 6 trucks on the line when they closed, but it didn't specify what they were. It appears in that picture someone was getting matching engines, or they were making 2 matching demos.
Trav!
Travis- Mill Twp. Fire Dept. Marion, IN.
Quote:The question is, how many departments are without a truck now, and out money in the process? I was told a month or so ago, a department in our neighboring county to the West of us had paid half down on a new engine, which would have made their second ALF... now what? They won't get that money back, that's XXXX dollars they just gave away in essence. I think that I read there were 6 trucks on the line when they closed, but it didn't specify what they were. It appears in that picture someone was getting matching engines, or they were making 2 matching demos.That's why you have a "performance bond" requirement in your specs and contract. 
I've heard Etowah-Horse Shoe VFD in Henderson County, NC had a ALF Eagle engine on the line when they closed.
Micah Bodford
Fire Investigator City of Winston-Salem Fire Dept.
Auctioning all the hard property off probably won't be all that hard, but I wonder about the intellectual property - particularly the names and designs of LTI and Telesquirt/Snorkel. The major builders all have their own ladder lines, but it's possible that a mid-major might want to pick up some good designs with known reputations. The American LaFrance name really isn't worth much anymore, I don't think. Too many problems for too long. It's interesting that no one associated with ALF (or Patriot, or whoever the holding company was) seems to be in any way available. I would imagine that there are a lot of questions (and some very hard ones, too) that need to be answered. I do believe that anyone with any business sense at all won't try to resurrect the ALF name.
The sad reality is that the last "real" American LaFrance fire apparatus were made in Elmira, NY. Everything that came after that involved a compromise or cheapening of the product. In it's last Elmira years ALF seemed to frequently price itself out of the lucrative competitive bid market and the factory (along with the rest of the city of Elmira) experienced a devastating flood, from which they never truly required. As the American LaFrance name began it's downward spiral through different parent companies, quality and reputation suffered. While the introduction of the American LaFrance Eagle chassis brought forth a very handsome truck under what seemed like a beneficial Daimler-Chrysler-Freightliner corporate umbrella, customer service was poor and again, reliability was spotty. The smell of failure and desperation was continually in the air over the last few years, and the end was inevitable.
I agree that it will be interesting to see what becomes of the LTI and Snorkel/TeleSqurt product lines. They would certainly seem to be saleable commodities, and would make valuable additions to many manufacturer's lines. Time will tell, I suppose. In any case, it's a sad end to a once-proud name. Hopefully this time it can rest in peace.
I think Ferrara might be interested in the Aerial's since they are using smeal's now, time will tell for sure
Maybe the city of Chicago should get involved and get the rights, specs, and drawings to the Snorkel back.
Pierce will buy the snorkel line.....its about the only thing they haven't added to their line-up in recent years.
With the announcement this week about Jim Salmi leaving Spartan and going to E\-One, E\-One might be looking for the LTI aerial line.
http://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/2014/04/salmi-hired-as-e-one-director-of-aerial-product-development.html
For name sake; EONELTI... wow! lol
Travis- Mill Twp. Fire Dept. Marion, IN.
Quote:What possible reason could E-One have for buying the LTI line? Why wouldn't they? They are missing out on a huge part of the aerial marketplace currently. Just as by not offering stainless steel bodies (until recently reintroducing them) they are limiting their customer base. Pierce realized the same thing in the other direction recently and has begun to cut into the market they once had a monopoly on. Maybe it's not in the cards, but E\-One's recently "re-opened" stainless steel body facility in New York is in fairly close proximity to the LTI facility and employees.
Besides the fact that they already have the Saulsbury brand for stainless bodies, E\-One has been pushing aluminum aerial's for decades now. Why would they decide they need steel?
 Quote:Besides the fact that they already have the Saulsbury brand for stainless bodies, E-one has been pushing aluminum aerial's for decades now. Why would they decide they need steel? .... MARKET SHARE....... the same reason Pierce got into the Aluminum Construction Aerial Line... it's all about making money for the stockholders.........
Mechanical engineers build weapons, whereas civil engineers build targets.
When the man at the door said," Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms", I, naturally assumed it was a delivery!  Quote: You beat me to it with Pierce aluminum aerial comparison. Quote:For name sake; EONELTI... wow! lol Re-arrange the letters and get: ELITE? NO!
Taylor Goodman
Captain - Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire Fire Chief - Huguenot VFD, Powhatan, VA
Rumor as of yesterday is that Smeal has purchased the LTI line.
I posted that 2 days ago. The local dealer had the letter from Smeal on their Facebook page.....
Mechanical engineers build weapons, whereas civil engineers build targets.
When the man at the door said," Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms", I, naturally assumed it was a delivery! |
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