Have you seen it around town? The Fredericksburg Fire Department has a new tiller truck.
Tiller trucks are longer fire trucks bisected with apivot point and equipped with additional steering wheel and driver to independently control the rear wheels.
It’s one of two units the city has purchased to upgrade the fire department’s fleet of vehicles. A 2007 model purchased out of Anaheim, California for around $100,000, it’s described to be in good condition and is currently filling in as a training unit until the city’s newly manufactured tiller truck arrives later in this fall.
That training includes classroom lectures as well as two road programs for each driver; forty hours on a cone course and forty hours on the road (fire fighters spend 20 hours in each seat on each course). The department has been updating its Facebook posts with the tiller truck practicing ingresses and egresses in some of the city’s tightest streets and neighborhoods.
The fire department’s new unit, which was made by Pierce Manufacturing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, cost the city around $1.9 million. Members of the department will visit that factory upon its completion for a walk-through and final inspection to ensure everything is as it was ordered.
Both tiller trucks will offer better maneuverability and increased storage over the department’s existing ladder trucks, which the tillers will replace. They are capable of deploying their ladder nearly twice as fast and offer a more efficient deployment on-scene for non-fire events like vehicle extrications. The new Green Bay tiller truck will include a water pump, which the Anaheim unit doesn’t have. Upon that vehicle’s arrival, the Anaheim tiller truck will serve as the city’s reserve unit.
Unlike new additions to the city’s police department and school system, the new tiller trucks will run off of “pre-def” diesel, which were designed to run cleaner than traditional diesel motors. The city anticipates getting approximately two decades of service from its new truck.
Fredericksburg Fire Department Lieutenant Williams, who is overseeing the department’s training on the new truck, credits Chief Michael Jones with investing the time and effort to give staff the experience needed to operate the new tiller trucks with “confidence.”
The department is also grateful for the hospitality of Fort Walker, which provided space to practice that was free from traffic and pedestrians.
