Build your own "Light Rescue" vehicle

[locnload]

I,m the Chief of a small rural volunteer fire district that covers a mountain/canyon area. We want to put together a "light rescue" truck, and hope to do it "in house". When I say light rescue, I mean 3/4 or 1 ton 4WD pick up cab and chasis with a utility box. We cover an area with a lot of remote 4wd roads, snow, ice, mud, washouts, you name it. Driveways can be a challenge to get a pick up into at times. We need to carry rope rescue and swift water gear, extracation tools, medical gear, some haz mat supplies and the like. It also needs to function as a comand vehicle with maps, gps, radios, spare batteries and such, and hopefully have some "on scene" lighting capabilities. We requested funding from the fire district board for the basic truck, but they just don't have the money available. So we are going to plan "B". We will either do a specific fund raising effort, get a grant, or both. We have a very talented and resourceful group of folks available to help and several good contacts with a local fire aparatus manufacturer (SVI)to help with advice on NFPA/DOT requirements and maybe some good pricing on equipment and fabrication. We intend to end up with a professional looking rig here , not some old pick up with hillbilly racks and a tool box. Has anyone else taken on a project like this, and if so what advice can you give us? Any helpful tips are much appreciated.:)

[oldstyle]

Whatever your specific needs, make sure the vehicle has heavy duty brakes and cooling system.

[ffemt30]

Good Luck on your project. I've seen both hillbilly rigs and also others that were well over 100k get the job done. I guess it all depends on what you're looking for in a rig whether you'd look into a pick up truck body or something else...

[ffemt30]

here's some ideas....

[ffemt30]

Hummer

[Joey]

F550, check out Pierce in BOulder, they should have the specs for it as offen s it was in the shop there. It was built by AFR & when pierce bought out AFR they ended up having to fix all AFR's problems.

However, she's a excellent running rescue.

[Joey]

Ya also might want to check out ALF up in Casper Wyoming, they do excellent work.

We found ouot it's way cheaper in the long run to have somebody build us a truck to our specs than to piece/part one togeather in house.

QUality is better and ya end up with a way better truck.

[Turk40SW]

just don't do like Webster FD did here in the Houston suburbs. They bought a 4wd 2500 and put some mud tires on it.. only to find out the custom rig that replaced the bed put it overweight. that stupid thing was about 70k all said n done and it sat out of service for 2 years till a dually rear end was put on it.

it has 2 seats, a red line and reel, pump (unknown gpm) small water tank, foam, tools, etc..

[glockfd]

We just put this in service last year. The body is fiberglass... no weight problems!
We got the truck through a local dealer and the body came through American Lafrance.
...Just FYI....

[Shane26]

You may try some rescue truck dealers to see if they have some demo's , Mccoy miller makes a good ( cost efficent) rescue truck, and they usally have a few demos available, we purchased a new rescue from them and the craftsmanship is up there with the big name rescue truck builders

[ryanm]

I would happily help rescue some lights for my vehicles!
;e