Smeal Picks Up LTI.......
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Smeal Picks Up LTI.......
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We toured the Kewaunee plant last year while we were doing final on our engine. They made the aerials there and shipped them in "specially designed" trailer to the aerial plant for final assembly on the chassis. The specially designed term is their explanation for them!!
I think we'll continue to see big changes in the fire apparatus industry next year. Its only a matter of time before some other big names implode...you can only live for so long while hemorrhaging your parent company.
Kent Parrish Louisville, KY 
Yesterday, I had a conversation with the Chief of the Etowah - Horse Shoe FD in North Carolina. His Department operates the last apparatus delivered from L.T.I. According to him, the only other apparatus in the factory was a tractor drawn aerial for Philadelphia that was not complete and that the PFD had already rejected, due to the demise of American LaFrance. The company, now known as L.T.C., did not yet know what would become of the TDA. Production will continue in the same factory under the new company, a division of Smeal. He also told me that L.T.C. (Smeal) had purchased, from ALF, all the equipment and machinery to build the cabs and chassis used by ALF, but that the cabs would look "somewhat different". Perhaps the Sentron will return?
With Smeal releasing their S450 and S600 at FDIC (granted, it's produced by FFA), it seems unusual that they would want to re-release the ALF cab.
Smeal's sales are strong with the Spartan cab, and I believe that some more S-series cabs will be hitting the streets in the coming months (the only one I know of is in service in Columbus, OH). I'm not sure how much ROI they'd have by putting an ALF-esque cab back on the streets, unless they want to divest themselves of Spartan chassis - something I think would be highly unlikely at this point.
Taylor Goodman
Captain - Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire Fire Chief - Huguenot VFD, Powhatan, VA Quote:Yesterday, I had a conversation with the Chief of the Etowah - Horse Shoe FD in North Carolina. His Department operates the last apparatus delivered from L.T.I. According to him, the only other apparatus in the factory was a tractor drawn aerial for Philadelphia that was not complete and that the PFD had already rejected, due to the demise of American LaFrance. The company, now known as L.T.C., did not yet know what would become of the TDA. Production will continue in the same factory under the new company, a division of Smeal. He also told me that L.T.C. (Smeal) had purchased, from ALF, all the equipment and machinery to build the cabs and chassis used by ALF, but that the cabs would look "somewhat different". Perhaps the Sentron will return?Word I heard is the TDA is going to Washington DC DCFD.  Quote:Smeal's sales are strong with the Spartan cab, and I believe that some more S-series cabs will be hitting the streets in the coming months (the only one I know of is in service in Columbus, OH). What Columbus company runs a Smeal?  Quote:With Smeal releasing their S450 and S600 at FDIC (granted, it's produced by FFA), it seems unusual that they would want to re-release the ALF cab.Besides the above points, the ALF chassis REALLY seemed to catch a lot of flak for all of their issues. There were a lotof late-model ALF chassis rigs on the used market, mostly due to issues that were never solved with the chassis. When we were shopping for a used aerial a couple years ago, there were tons of ALF chassis units compared to others because departments were unloading them. Three local departments run Eagle chassis and all have been terrible from a reliability standpoint. Countless builders that built on them before ALF pulled the plug on the body builders all said the same thing about the chassis being nothing but trouble...  Quote:I believe that some more S-series cabs will be hitting the streets in the coming months (the only one I know of is in service in Columbus, OH). That's Cleveland, Engine 22
Travis- Mill Twp. Fire Dept. Marion, IN.
Thanks for the correction, Trav - my mistake on the city.
Taylor Goodman
Captain - Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire Fire Chief - Huguenot VFD, Powhatan, VA
I spoke with our local Smeal rep recently and he stated they had tried to buy the ALF cab and all the rights to it when they bought LTI. They were unsuccessful. They very well may have gotten it when it went to auction.
Any word if they got the rights to the Cab? I saw a pic of one from awhile abck it it looked pretty sharpe.
Smeal showing off a brand new Telesquirt during an event at their plant today....
https://www.facebook.com/fireapparatus/p...=1&theater Seth Granville
My Photos: x635Photos.com Quote:Smeal showing off a brand new Telesquirt during an event at their plant today....Glad those devices are sticking around. They're versatile and seem well-designed. Quote:Besides the above points, the ALF chassis REALLY seemed to catch a lot of flak for all of their issues. There were a lotof late-model ALF chassis rigs on the used market, mostly due to issues that were never solved with the chassis. When we were shopping for a used aerial a couple years ago, there were tons of ALF chassis units compared to others because departments were unloading them. Three local departments run Eagle chassis and all have been terrible from a reliability standpoint. Countless builders that built on them before ALF pulled the plug on the body builders all said the same thing about the chassis being nothing but trouble...To add to this, three local ALF chassis users have had such frame rot issues the bodies needed to be removed from the frames and extensive replacement work needed to be done. These rigs are not that old... |
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