1983 American LaFrance pumpers

[Ex-Chief]

A question for any old time MPOs out there. How many 1983 ALFs were delivered and were they any better than the '80s and '82s? Thank you kindly.

 

[wfd444]

9 of them slightly longer and white can roof at least half anyyway and they appeared to be slightly elevated in the back and tilted forward

 

[68jk09]

I was a LAD/RES Chauf. but never an ENG Chauf. & was never actually assigned to an ENG that had an '80s ALF but did work in some on & off  ....i do know they were not liked especially the earlier ones....it seemed to me that generally the busier the ENG was the less likely they wanted to keep the Rig....many when getting a good Mack as a spare opted to keep the Mack as their Rig & gave up their ALF ....i had worked in 108 when we had a '69 ALF Tiller that was great...after getting a new '74 Seagrave Tiller a year later we gave it up & took a used '68 ALF Tiller until it became totally worn out....there was big difference in quality & reliability between the late '60s ALF Tillers & the early '80s ALF Pumpers....however for that matter there was a big difference between the '53 & '56 ALF Tillers & the '60s models but i always felt the late '60s ALF Tillers were "THE RIG" (of course the '50s ones had an '85 ft Aerial but all after that had a '100 Aerial ) aside from that the real difference was sort of like between cars from the '40s vs the '80s ....lighter sheet metal ....more plastic etc, etc.....SQ*1 did have an '83 ALF Pumper ....i only covered there on & off in the late '80s/early '90s but i don't remember  complaints there.

 

[HCO]

There were 14 !983 ALF 1000gpm pumpers, all classed as 1983 even though the first one did not enter service until February 1984, with the rest all following early in 1984. In registration # order, starting with AP8301 through AP8314 they were originally assigned to Engines  38, 37, Training, 75, 96, 64, 248, 59, 201, 275, 69, 281, 303, 230. All eventually served for many years. All, except AP8303, (assigned to Training), became Reserve Engines after many years of first line service and remained as such for several more years. On October 1, 1996, AP8307, originally assigned to Engine 248  and later Reserve 513, was given to the Puerto Rico fire service by the FDNY. How they were liked  compared to the earlier ALFs, is not a proper question (by who?) as they all did serve for many years.

 

[Ex-Chief]

Sorry to wait so long with the Thank you, but I had a medical procedure done that had me OOS. Thank you, all.

 

[MT8410]

The rig assigned to E275 was involved in an accident. It later returned to service and served many years at E214. E214 traded in AP-8057, one of many companies that had a 1980 ALF did. Most were swapped for 1979 Macks.