Seagrave Marauder 2

[CooterRob]

Seagrave has the market cornered with the Steel cab. No one else is making the steel cabs,except the Spartan Fusion(no comparisons). The new Marauder 2 has improved from the Marauder.

your info is incorrect... the Spartan Furion is a "Galvanized Steel Cab" there's a difference.

Seagrave makes a solid product... they have a certain market to certain fire depts. Some like the "kool aid" some like the light side. I personally think that the Seagrave Marauder II is one of the best built cabs in the industry. Take a trip to Clintonville, WI and you'll see why. Not to mention there's a lot of history there. Seagrave only makes 2 cabs... the S/S Marauder II and the Aluminum Attacker. FWD/Seagrave just introduced the entry level FWD aluminum "Intruder" as to compete with Contender among others. With that being said they can focus their engineering on those cabs vs. some competitors nwhom have many other cabs with lots of "fluff". They also are one of few in the industry that do not use TCM "Cincinnati Cab" for their skin and cab construction. Seagrave may work for one dept. and not for another, but most depts. that own them are rarely unhappy.

[CooterRob]

I love insider sources! If that is true, then I think that Darley would be one of the last non-Rosenbauer manufacturers to use RK.

HME/Ahrens Fox uses RK... soo does Alexis Fire Apparatus out of IL.

[WoodbridgeFFII]

HME/Ahrens Fox uses RK... soo does Alexis Fire Apparatus out of IL.

Have you heard any updated news from Seagrave, if they will design & build there own 75'-100' midmount tower ladders ??

[chiefengineer11]

HME/Ahrens Fox uses RK... soo does Alexis Fire Apparatus out of IL.

As well as Toyne.

[Sandinmyboots]

Seagrave Mid-Mount and Rear Mount Platforms

Seagrave has abandoned (good idea) the RK aerials. Not that the RK Product isn't ok, as has been said on here, it just makes good business sense for a company as storied as Seagrave to make their own products.
That being said, their reason for using RK originally was that the engineering and design cost for the platforms would probably exceed $1 million dollars. Mind you, that is for ENGINEERING AND DESIGN ONLY. On top of that, you have to add in marketing and demo (at least one each of a mid and rear mount) and now you have easy, $3 mil. This kind of overhead is difficult to recover in order to be competitive when the platform market is pretty saturated with Pierce, KME, E-One, Sutphen, ALF-LTI - and the market is probably only 120 units annually. Plus, the LADDER TOWER product may erode the TOWER LADDER (AerialScope) sales, which are probably now around 40 units per year.
As for the Seagrave niche - if the Attacker (and new FWD Cab) is as tough as the Maruader, then they will have great products. The Scope is, beyond a doubt, the toughest aerial device ever invented.
Should you see Seagrave bring their own Ladder Tower to the market, it would send a strong signal that there is serious long term investment capital being put into the company. That message could be a problem to competitors.