- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Messages
- 16,982
For what it's worth ...i went from LAD*108 to R*2 in '77 a few weeks after "The Blackout" when the regular R*2 Rig was the '76 Mack R Model..about a year later i had the Honor of becoming a Regular Chauf ...from time to time we had the old R*2 (walk through) '67 Mack as a spare as well as sometimes the even older only other then Rescue Spare (maybe a Mack '5? POS).... or if more than one Rescue was OOS we rode w/a Spare Pumper w/as much equipment as we could load into the empty hose beds...then after the '76 Mack we got the '82 ALF w/a Salisbury body....i liked driving the '76 R w/the engine out in front (just in case) but the '82 ALF did have a better turning radius (even though the chassis was designed for a garbage truck body it did fine IMO after getting used to some peripheral vision issues w/the front windshield pillars ) .... HM*1 later got one also as their original Rig in '84 & one of the last remaining Dept Ambulances (#2) quartered w/ENG*283 in their present Qtrs had one ....i got promoted to LT in '87 & never drove any of the later Rescue Rigs....aside from the driving aspect the quality of the Rig does come into play & i would say that as years go by the quality lessens ...just as w/a '53 ALF Tiller as compared to a much later ALF '82 Pumper....apples & oranges time wise but body quality lessens thru the years ...but that is the same w/automobiles....my first car was a hand me down '49 Packard Sedan w/3 on the tree but the sheet metal body was built like a Tank (like the earlier ALF Tillers)....when i got the '49 Packard from FF Ray F. a LAD*43 FF in my Fathers Company me as an aspiring (know it all) mechanic/body work guy thought i could pull or bang the dent out ....well not so ....the dent remained until i sold it when i went into the USMC in '64......Not to hijack the topic on new RES*RIG's but as far as new or different Rig's in general "back when" the Job rather than buying new LAD Rigs outright got some snub nose Mack flat front Tractor Trailer Cabs (used by the US Postal Service for Interstate transportation back then) & hooked them up to several older different model Tiller rigs ....a nearby neighbor of mine was a Chauf in LAD*140 & they got one ....he said "oh it's nice ...it even has a cigarette lighter in the dash" ...well awhile later after they had a job that i heard & i asked him "how was that job ?" he said ...i went to put it in PTO to raise the Aerial & the PTO knob came off in my hand.
