This from Martin Nowak:
Completion or Delivery Date: 2013-12-31
Series: Aerial Model:100′ Rearmount Platform Chassis: Spartan Gladiator
Specifications: 100′ Rear Mount Platform Harrison 10.0kw Generator Roll Up Doors Aluminum Body
Spartan ERV photo
New engine for McHenry Township FPD. Pierce composite
New ambulance for Park Forest. Foster Coach photo
#1 by danny on January 11, 2014 - 11:59 AM
ill submit the photo to here but e242 and e245 are both in the spare yard at fleet
#2 by Sebastian on January 11, 2014 - 10:17 AM
Cfd has separation anxiety with their rigs.,
#3 by Eric on January 11, 2014 - 9:24 AM
There is still a Hendrickson in the the spare pool? I haven’t seen one of those out at a fire in forever.
#4 by danny on January 11, 2014 - 1:15 AM
all this talk of CFD spares i just saw the other day e-245 is still in the spare pool now thats a workhorse i think its a 1982 hendrickson e one 110 foot stick
#5 by The DH on January 11, 2014 - 12:31 AM
Rusty, did you ever think that E-One was the lowest bidder that actually met the spec? Rosenbauer and Ferrara may have bid lower but their design may not have met the spec to OP’s liking. I am going to guess that because of the low overpasses and strict height requirements that they were pretty specific in the spec…
#6 by rusty on January 10, 2014 - 8:51 PM
DMC Rosenbauer was the cheapest in Oak Park. E-One was the 2nd highest bidder.. The committee wanted the E-One. Rosenbauer came in at like 798 for a rear-mount platform on a Commander Chassis. The next lowest was Ferrara at 850 for a Rear-Mount on a Inferno Chassis. E-One came in at 865 and Spartan ERV was in at like 890. I just figured I would tell the facts of the actual bid-process in Oak Park. They bought what they wanted not the lowest responsive bidder.
#7 by John H on January 10, 2014 - 10:18 AM
For an order the size (and prestige) of Chicago’s, these companies have a lot of room in terms of how they bid…
#8 by Bill Post on January 9, 2014 - 11:09 PM
Bill is Truck 18 running with a spare rig? They received the last of the Pierce Trucks before Chicago started getting Spartan Erv Trucks and they were amongst the last 3 Pierce Trucks delivered in 2006.
As far as Engine 50 goes they actually were using a newer 1998 short wheel base HME Luverne until about 3 years ago however there might be some behind the scenes politics going on because the HME Engines ( as I mentioned before) are not very popular. Most of the HME Engines are on slow companies with a few exceptions like Engines 59 ,102 and 121.
#9 by NJ on January 9, 2014 - 9:17 PM
Sebastian,
We had ambo, with the doors falling off, wheels coming off on runs etc. Until they had an expose on TV, after Ambo 55 died while transporting a gunshot victim, new ambo’s were on the back burner, with the flame and pilot out. With so much publicity, they had no choice, but went on the cheap with Wheeled Coach Type III to replace Type I Ford Braun. The new rigs will not last half as long as the Brauns did/do.
#10 by Bill on January 9, 2014 - 8:32 PM
Eng 50 and the truck quartered with them have for as long as I know had the oldest rig in the fleet. IS there a story behind this?
#11 by Sebastian on January 9, 2014 - 7:39 PM
Hey CFD can always go with kme like new york and boston….
#12 by NJ on January 9, 2014 - 6:20 PM
Speaking of the new ambo’s ordered, anyone know when the delivery date start is for them? The current rigs are going down the crapper fast.
#13 by DMc77 on January 9, 2014 - 5:45 PM
Bill – we had E-One, Ferrara, Spartan ERV amd Rosenbauer. I don’t recall the exact price spread but E-One was at the bottom and Spartan-ERV was at the top.
#14 by Bill Post on January 9, 2014 - 5:33 PM
DMc 77, I am curious as to what other company’s had bid the Tower Ladder that you are talking about?
I remember that a few years ago Chicago had to go through about 3 separate rounds of bids before they finally had awarded the current straight Aerial Ladder contract to Spartan Erv. I don’t know exactly what was going on at the time except that the Department of Fleet Management had kept asking for new round of bids over a period of about a year and half. I don’t know if they kept changing the specs or whether the city felt that they could have been getting better offers. I do recall that at time Pierce, E-One, Ferrara and Spartan had originally submitted bids and that on the next to the last round of bids it looked as if E-One would be getting the contract as they were supposedly the lowest bidder however the city still wasn’t happy so they asked for more bids and they finally gave it to Spartan Erv which really wasn’t that much of a surprise. As you know Chicago has been getting Luverne , Crimson and Erv Engines almost exclusively since 1992. Those three brands are all the same company however. The only Engines that weren’t from that company were the Pierces at O”Hare and the American La France and the Freightliner Engines purchased in 2000. Even the HME’s were all on Luverne chassis.
It would be interesting to see who will bid on Chicago’s new Tower Ladders once a call for bidding is announced as in addition to the four companies that I just mentioned Smeal, American La france, KME Rosenbauer and even Seagrave all are manufacturing rear mounted Tower Ladders. Seagrave just put on the market (for the second time) its new Apollo brand rear mounted Tower Ladder, even though I have my doubts as to whether they would even submit a bid as I understand that Seagrave didn’t even submit any bids the last few times that bids were requested in Chicago for Aerial Ladders and possibly Engines.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosenbauer would submit a bid considering they are supposed to building new Snorkel Squads for Chicago and KME could even get in on it. KME has been making some significant inroads as of late in terms of winning a contract to build 91 new Engines for New York City over the next 3 years.
I believe that Chicago’s contract for Spartan Erv Engines may still be in effect as in the latest Department of Procurement future buying list there is no mention of Engines. There is a mention of an 85 foot Aerial Ladder however it may be for another department as I haven’t heard anything else about that. The only other fire department vehicles that are mentioned in the latest buying plan is for Ambulances and 100 foot Tower Ladders.
#15 by Bill Post on January 9, 2014 - 4:14 PM
Sebastian Engine 50 is not the slowest rig in the city however the rig that they are using was assigned to one of the slowest companies in the city (Engine 89) and ironically Engine 89 ranked 89 in terms of runs both in 2010 and 2008.
Apparently the rig didn’t have much wear and tear on it. It did replace a newer 1998 model HME/Luverne, short wheelbase engine that was also a “hand me down” originally assigned to Engine 88.
To my knowledge, the crews don’t care for the HME cabs as they are smaller and not as roomy as the Spartan cabs, so they gave them a roomier Spartan rig instead. That still doesn’t explain why they didn’t give Engine 50 a newer Spartan engine. To my knowledge there are at least two 2002 model Spartan Luverne engines (formerly assigned to Engine 122 and Engine 82) that are being used as spare rigs. Even though they are using the oldest first line engine in the city, that 1995 Spartan/Luverne was apparently in pretty good shape to be reassigned to an ALS engine company. Engine 50 has been using it for about 3 years now. As of 2010, Engine 50 ranked as the 67th busiest engine in Chicago, however I don’t have their latest run statistics. In 2010 it went out 1652 times.
Chicago is not in good shape financially so they aren’t replacing their apparatus as often as they should be. A few years ago most of Chicago’s engines were averaging about 12 years of age, but now that average is roughly 14 to 15 years. In addition to the 1995 Spartan Luverne at Engine 50 the CFD is using about 11 HME Luverne engines that are between 14 and 16 years old and were delivered between 1997 and 1999. I believe that they may be using mileage criteria as well as age in determining which rigs are getting replaced next.
#16 by Sebastian on January 9, 2014 - 4:12 PM
I get it! It just seems the city doesn’t care about the rigs nor the men and women thst ride them every day! All i’m sayin you know ur equipment is beat up., budget for it so you can actually afford to get new ones when the time comes!
#17 by NJ on January 9, 2014 - 3:17 PM
CFD rigs are ridden hard, and are getting longer in the tooth. The combination of lots of runs, bad streets, and aging equipment leads to more breakdowns.
This doesn’t even include the various issues CFD has had with a lot of the rigs, even when new.
#18 by Sebastian on January 9, 2014 - 1:53 PM
My question is why are so many rigs oos at one time? And why is engin 50 running with a 18 year old rig as front line?? Can they not afford to give them a new engin or is it the slowest in terms of runs in the department
#19 by NJ on January 9, 2014 - 9:00 AM
Considering how many rigs are running spares at any given moment, if anything they have too few. At one point, one of the TL’s went OOS and there was no spare, so they became a Truck Co for a while (I forget which TL that was). Spare Trucks are also on occasion sparse.
#20 by Sebastian on January 9, 2014 - 4:22 AM
Have they even begun production on the squads yet?? I am amazed that as busy as the cfd is! How many spares they run with! I don’ t think (just my opinion) that any other major city fire dekartment runs with as many spares as cfd does! I am surprised to see engine 50 still running front line with a 1995 rig! And tower 34 with a 88 rig! Granted i know 34 got into an accident! But still! You would think that they would at least try to replace it by now! Again not a rant just an opinion!
#21 by DMc77 on January 9, 2014 - 12:15 AM
The only problem I see with Spartan/ERV platrorms is price. We recently bid out for a platform and they were the most expensive out of the four that bid. We eventually settled on an E-One which was the least expensive. And the low cost was only one of several factors that made them our choice. All the spares CFD is running right now are of E-Ones which may tell you something about their product
#22 by Martin Nowak on January 8, 2014 - 11:09 PM
I actually would love to see Spartan Towers with CFD
#23 by Bill Post on January 8, 2014 - 8:03 PM
That isn’t a bad looking tower ladder and CFD could use at least 4 new tower ladders given the age of our 4 oldest front line tower ladders, one being 25 years old and the other 3 going on 18.
Considering that according to the Chicago Department of procurement services’ latest buying plan they do have tower ladders listed to be bid on for the first quarter of 2014, I wouldn’t be surprised if we buy our next tower ladders from SpartanErv. While it’s true there has to be a bidding process I still wouldn’t be surprised if SpartanErv gets the nod considering all the apparatus contracts that they have been getting from Chicago.
There are even Spartan/Erv parts for apparatus that are listed on Chicago’s latest buying plan.
#24 by Robert on January 8, 2014 - 11:53 AM
That tower is beautiful. Now I could see that in CFD colors.