southern firetruck jasper ga

[toolhog]

Hi all, looks like were going to get a grant for a 3000 gallon pumper/tanker can anyone tell me anything about southern firetrucks? as far as i know there are none here in ohio, i been working with different manufactures no one seems to be able to bet there pricing, and the ones that do only have half of the equipment we asked for, any input?

[NewJerseyFFII]

Try taking a look at the KME Fire Apparatus web site , they build a great MACK/KME tanker at a very fair price $$.

[steverfd]

We purchased a smeal aerial through these guys. Great to work with. A nieghboring county has 3 wet side tankers made by them. No problem at all from anyone. We have had a few groups look at them. City of Rogersville Alabama has a 3000 gallon tanker that they are pleased with. I have personally been to the factory and would not hesitate at all to make a purchase from them. The workmanship is really great, and priced right.


The KME Thing is another ball game totally, Our Ex Chief Sells KME now, He retired with 25 + years. We have two 1998 KME's we bought one commercial and one custom chassis. In 2004 we did not even consider KME for the aerial based on our experiences with the pumpers. The custom is continually at the shop for electrical problems, The commercial has to numerous problems to list.

We are a small department with a 1500 annual call volume so its not running them to death that is causing this.

We are looking at replacing to front line engines that are 8 years old. But are financed for 15 years. That sucks.

To sum up the KME Customer service we recieved. 3 months after unit was placed in service we were doing engine checks on Friday which requires the cab to be raised. When we went to lower the cab it would not lower. So we called the dealer, He sent a tech down. Well after messing with it for a couple hours he gave up and called the plant. The engineer went through everything and still could not figure out what was wrong. He finally told him that the lift had exceeded its life expectany and was obviously overwieght and needed to be upgraded.


Our experience has been KME stands for Keeping Mechanics Employed or K Mart Engineered.

[westtexas]

Try www.firetanker.com This is for Red Diamond Fire out of Spartanburg, SC. If I was in your position, I would look at other places. I say this from previous experiences. Just my opinion.