What’s a new fire engine go for nowadays? A pumper? A hook and ladder? A standard truck?
Where does one go to buy one?
Can a “civilian” buy one?
What about the vintage trucks?
American LaFrance is the largest manufacturer of fire-fighting equipment in the U.S. (and quite possibly the world). They are owned by Freightliner.
American LaFrance has their own web page, of course: http://www.americanlafrance.com/home
That page has a museum link to http://www.americanlafrance.com/home
Freightliner also has a page devoted to a museum of fire engines they maintain. Near the bottom of the page are contacts to get information regarding restoration and such.
American LaFrance Memory Lane
(The pages are very similar, but not identical.)
Since nearly all fire engines are custom built (using a basic design, but modified for each customer’s needs), I did not find a “price list.” If American LaFrance doesn’t have base pricing on their site (and I did not see it), the best way to find prices would be to run the public records of towns which have bought them to see what they paid.
If Jeremy is posting these days, he should be able to fill in lots of information.
They are in business for the money. If you have the cash, they have the machine.
Here are 3 companies which supply fire trucks:
http://www.emergencyone.com
http://www.kovatch.com
They seem not to list prices - I imagine that each one is pretty much a custom order and the price depends on equiptment and so on.
I imagine you can buy one if you have the money. Operating it would be another question. You would certainly have to take the lights and siren off, like when you buy an old police car. Even then, I don’t know what you would have to do to register and drive it on the street.
I’ll bet you could get a clapped out old “vintage” fire truck pretty cheap. A brief check turns up a 1956 Ward LaFrance that the Appleton, Maine Fire Department was selling for the best offer over $1500:
Hello, tomndebb. Well, now you have 4 places to shop. Can we go for a spin in it when you buy one?
This local news site mentions a price of $180,000. http://www.middletown.com/wpfbnews/11_98.html
Further investigation shows that the single-digit thousands seem to be typical asking prices for Fire Departments which want to unload elderly fire trucks.
Buy used - they just don’t hold their value!
My hubby and I are volunteer firefighters.
Yes, bibliophage’s price of $180,000 is close. They can run upwards of $200,000 or so to a cool half-million, depending on what kind of extras you get. And that’s NOT including the custom paint job.
We bought a new engine about 7 or 8 years ago and it was, IIRC, $275,000. Before painting.
I want an Oshkosh though…the model I’m thinking of has a window beside the pedals so you can see when you crest the 60-degree grades it can climb :D. And it comes in that nice yellow-green color!