FDNY Pumpers awarded to KME

BCR said:
I think everyone would be happy if they turn out to be a rig that well serves the brothers and has minimal to down time and functions as it is designed to. I think what has a lot of people concerned is one being how long it is taking the rigs that will head .....
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I think you hit the nail on the head.  There's always concern when something new that hasn't been proven goes into service.  As you point out it happened with the Ferrara sticks and even the rescue for that matter, there were an awful lot of initial problems they could've easily been worked out if only one or 2 there been put in service for a year before the entire order was completed.  The same thing even happened with the early Seagraves etc.

The same thing even happened when the first generation of trucks came in after the Mack's were being replaced.  Everyone figured the new trucks would be junk compared to the previous generation and in some ways they were.  Not saying that the KME will be junk, not saying they will be good, just saying they will be very different and need to be proven.
 
after carefully looking all the photos over and in particularly the rear area I notice no rear LDH discharge or inlet on the right rear below the hose bed as on the present rigs. Wonder if this is a change in specs or an oversight by KME.  What do you think Lieu? Find it strange.
 
I saw the rig today .... Pretty much identical to the 2008 and newer seagraves with minor differences !! They basically copied the seagrave spec
 
auxlteng225 said:
Thanks Lieu.  I saw it but it looked like some kind of rear step for hose bed access.
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It looks differnt because there isn't one of those 45 degree elbows on it yet
 
the majority of the people bashing/complaining probably never worked on a KME.
All manufactors have problems there are plenty of new seagraves and ferraras seating in the FDNY shops.
Im sure there is a reason why Boston and chicago dumped pierce; i know a dept. in delaware has two pierce cf squads that are falling apart already; that where delivered alittle over a year ago.
And no i dont work for KME but my dept has them and they work fine.
 
I don't have a dog in this fight, the department I work for is nowhere near the demographics of New York, and we are all Pierce with mix results.  Some rigs are very reliable, and a few are not.  Sptruckie, maybe if you gave an overview of your department (urban, suburban, number of engines trucks etc.) there would be a better idea of where your point of view on KME is coming from. 

Does anyone know if they are going to put a KME on the road to test it with different companies, or will they begin to manufacture the order of 91 with no road testing.  I know I was in New York last month and some of the houses I visited in the Bronx had spares that were in very bad condition.  I only hope for the members of FDNY's safety that the new engines come in soon, perform well, and are reliable.
 
Engine 56 aka CTS rig will be in service in about a month.  CTS will run the rig and see how things go, some might say this is not a real test but look at this way.
CTS rigs are pumping multiple times a day, doing all the water evolution's and being driving by people who have not driving before. Then you have the officers and members of CTS who are experienced members who can evaluate the rig. Now as far as long term lasting of the rig doing 5K runs, well we won't know until we start driving these up and down the hills and all over the city.
 
While you are certainly correct in stating that CTS rigs run lots of pump evolutions per day and are operated by inexperienced personnel they certainly won't see the abuse that a front-line engine company will.  Inexperienced operators were not push the trucks to the limit like inexperienced chauffeur would.  They would be better off giving it to one of the very active in companies for a month of use than sending it to CTS.  Just look at the first Ferrara ladders, they did okay at CTS but experienced major issues in the first couple of weeks of actual service.
 
Gut feeling is this rig is as stated for CTS and training of companies receiving the KME's, hearing around end of march or early april 4 to 6 rigs a month being delivered and put in field, contract is for 91 units and like the ferarra's changes will happen mid build. Remember many engines have outdated apparatus and need replacement asap. Again these rigs are built to FDNY specs not seagrave,ferarra or kme, so the working parts (engines,pumps and transmission) are in existing rigs used by FDNY, it will be the craftsman ship that determines success, with some tweeking if needed.
 
Is this the same rig that was labeled Engine 56 or is this a second rig ?
 
The KME order has been changed to 97 pumpers and is now a four year contract.....I totally agree that it is not the same having the KME assigned to the CTS instead of a front line unit....Hopefully there won't be a issue in the future....
 
AuxWarYearsCapt said:
The KME order has been changed to 97 pumpers and is now a four year contract.....I totally agree that it is not the same having the KME assigned to the CTS instead of a front line unit....Hopefully there won't be a issue in the future....
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While we all certainly hope that these units work well and hold up under the demands of service in New York they are certainly putting a lot of eggs in one basket!  If the units have problems and spend a lot of time OS like the Ferrera ladders have is going to be hard to find enough spares to fill in for every company!  I also find it strange that they extended the contract and added more pumpers before the 1st one even went in service.  I don't believe every single one of the contracts run for 4 years if they are doing it here for a unproven provider of equipment.
 
For some reason the diamond plate under the headlights looks really goofy? Out of place, or looks like the older trucks that have the diamond plate to cover dents and rust.
 
AuxWarYearsCapt said:
The KME order has been changed to 97 pumpers and is now a four year contract.....I totally agree that it is not the same having the KME assigned to the CTS instead of a front line unit....Hopefully there won't be a issue in the future....
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The first unit is going to CTS because the previous CTS unit was damaged during use for Sandy Operations.  Without that unit, CTS doesn't have a rig with the newer pump panel and Pro-pressure governor to teach Engine Chauffeur School.  They'll also use that unit to begin in service training for the companies that will be receiving the new rigs.  For companies with 2002-03 engines, this is big change.
 
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