DCFD Photos, old or new

[GA_Dave]

I am sorry I did mean butt ugly. Please forgive me I can't spell or do math because I am just a dumb wagon driver. And maybe they dont like them because they dont have a long handle wash brush to reach the top of the cab.

No forgiveness necessary, I was just making sure I understood you. Wagon drivers are not dumb, just often misunderstood. I know, I've been one for over 18 years, although we call ours "engines". You may be right on the long handled brushes!

I do not like them on apparatus because I see no advantage, they cost more money, they can raise the overall height considerably (the old E-ONE's that DC had), and on trucks they cut down on the scrub area of the ladder. And we don't have brushes long enough to reach em either



Now I am interested to hear why you like them

Headroom. We have 10" raised roofs with taller doors so you don't need to duck to exit the cab. We run ALS engines. All of the EMS gear is carried in a center cabinet inside the cab, against the rear wall. There is additional storage above it, all the way to the ceiling. Access to the cabinet is much easier when you don't have to stoop as much. The raised roof doesn't change the height of the apparatus. It is no higher than the AC units in front of it, nor the ground ladders on the overhead rack behind it. Our Truck is a rearmount with high compartments, so the scrub area isn't changed by the higher cab, the aerial would contact the compartments first, but the computer won't allow that to happen anyway. When we use it, it is for a water tower 99% of the time and we are generally elevated at much higher angles than those that could cause an issue. Finally, we do have long handled brushes! <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



I guess the point I am trying to make is that different FD's are just that, different. Flat top cabs may be the best thing for your FD, but not for ours.