Open Cab Apparatus

[rbuchjr 0]

Does anyone's departments still operate or know of a department that is still operating with an open cab apparatus? I can only think of one or two departments that still do. I don't think there are any "true" open cabs left, with no doors or anything, but I was referring to trucks without a roof.

[mfc2257 464]

Does anyone's departments still operate or know of a department that is still operating with an open cab apparatus? I can only think of one or two departments that still do. I don't think there are any "true" open cabs left, with no doors or anything, but I was referring to trucks without a roof.

There are a bunch of canopy cabs still in service... (roof and doors on the cab with roof over the open jump seat)... Bedford Hills, Bedford Village, and Katonah all come to mind as having pumpers with canopy cabs... I don't think anyone is running a semi open cab (no roof with doors) or an open cab in active service.

[EJS1810 7]

I know this has been discussed on here before. Haverstraw in Rockland sill operates a ladder with no roof. It was delivered with a roof and they took it off. There are still departments operating vehicles with open jump seat areas in Westchester & Putnam

[rbuchjr 0]

The only ones that I can think of that still operate with open cabs are:

Noroton FD operates a 1972 Maxim as a 2nd due engine

Chesire FD - operates a 1970? Maxim Snorkel as Truck 1 (not sure if this is still in service)

Onset FD in Mass I think operates 2 Maxims - a midmount aerial and an engine

[ltx17 19]

stony point runs 3 cf macks

sparkill will be retiring their cf mack in the next few months

west haverstraw still runs an oren quad

and haverstraw runs the roofless pirsch tiller

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Allingtown in West Haven runs a CF Mack as a spare for the career staff/2nd piece for the volunteers.

[38ff 250]

Marlboro in Ulster County runs E38-20, a 1987 Hahn pumper with 2 jumpseats. It is being replaced in early 2010 with a 6 man cab Ferrara.

[TR54 239]

Haverstraw FD (Rockland) Tiller. 4-99 still in service.

[res6cue 67]

Rescue H&L Haverstraw's 1969 Peter Pirsch TDA "4-99" runs with a roofless cab. It was delivered with roof intact, and was cut off not long afterwards. Sadly, the aerial has failed inspection a few weeks ago, and is now in limited service until it can be replaced with a new rig. Truly the end of an era.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Allingtown in West Haven runs a CF Mack as a spare for the career staff/2nd piece for the volunteers.

The Mack is a canopy cab, not a roofless cab. Just an FYI.

I think there is a semi-open cab ALF still in service with Monroeville, PA or they might have sold it though.

[spin_the_wheel 460]

Res6cue...post that video of the tiller responding to the job a few months back if you have it.....now that was some cool stuff!!! Sorry to hear it failed, I was sure there would be no end to this rig in first line service.

[IFCO3080 26]

The Independent fire company in mount kisco operates a 1989 pierce lance with no doors and has an open jumpseat on the engine. It is engine 105 in Mount Kisco.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Seems to be some confusion on what constitutes an open cab / semi open cab. I'll try to explain it as best I can.

A fully open cab is a truck that has no roof an no doors at all surrounding the front seats. These fire trucks were built for many years like this up until the 30's and 40's. There were some trucks built fully open during the 50's and 60's, I know that there was a Seagrave Anniversary series pumper in New Jersey built in the 60's that just recently has been retired.

A semi-open cab truck is one without a roof and has doors where the front seats are. It doesn't matter if its a conventional (engine before driver) or cab forward like the picture above with Harvestraw's TDA (sad to hear it failed its testing). Even a fire truck with out a roof and has doors for all the seats is considered a semi open cab.

Any fire truck built with a roof, doors around the front seats and has open jumpseats is called a "canopy cab". This was the most common way apparatus was built up until the early 1990s.

And now, all apparatus are fully-enclosed, engine forward cabs.

Hopefully I explained it correctly.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

Seems to be some confusion on what constitutes an open cab / semi open cab. I'll try to explain it as best I can.

A fully open cab is a truck that has no roof an no doors at all surrounding the front seats. These fire trucks were built for many years like this up until the 30's and 40's. There were some trucks built fully open during the 50's and 60's, I know that there was a Seagrave Anniversary series pumper in New Jersey built in the 60's that just recently has been retired.

A semi-open cab truck is one without a roof and has doors where the front seats are. It doesn't matter if its a conventional (engine before driver) or cab forward like the picture above with Harvestraw's TDA (sad to hear it failed its testing). Even a fire truck with out a roof and has doors for all the seats is considered a semi open cab.

Any fire truck built with a roof, doors around the front seats and has open jumpseats is called a "canopy cab". This was the most common way apparatus was built up until the early 1990s.

And now, all apparatus are fully-enclosed, engine forward cabs.

Hopefully I explained it correctly.

You did very well and beat me to it, you get a cookie !

[YFD601 12]

I believe the village of Mamaroneck engine 42 is still a canopy cab. I might have even seen one in Mt. Vernon recently also.

[res6cue 67]

Canopy cabs are way too common to include in this discussion, and there are certainly a good number of them still in service. Nearly every cab built in the 60s, 70s and 80s was a canopy style, from the ever popular Mack CF series, to most American LaFrance cabs, to most of the early Pierce Dash cabs, to Maxim, Ward LaFrance, Young, Hendrickson, etc etc etc. Of course, that all changed with the release of the 1991 edition of NFPA 1901, which mandated fully enclosed cabs for all new apparatus and major refurbs, among many other significant changes to apparatus. You could easily argue that NFPA 1901 (1991 Edition) to this day has had the most impact on the fire apparatus industry, and is more or less responsible for the demise of Mack and other players in the fire apparatus arena.

Here's a video on Duddy's YouTube that shows Haverstraw's rig responding and operating at one of its last fires after 40 years of service.

Edited December 18, 2009 by res6cue

[Guest fire42rescue]

Village of Mamaroneck ENG42INE

[IzzyEng4 427]

Did Engine 42 come with the half doors originally or was they added during the refurb?

[lad45der 78]

Glenbrook Fire Department currently has a 1963 Maxim "open cab" Engine. It has a 750 GPM Hale two stage pump. 5speed transmission and a Detroit Diesel motor. The orignal motor was a gas motor but was converted over to a diesel before my time. This engine has no doors and only has a vinyl top. This rig is only used for special events.

Glenbrook also had a 1972 Maxim "open cab" Engine with a 1000 GPM Hale single stage pump and a Detroit Diesel motor with an Allison Automatic transmission. This was sold in about 1991 or so??. I saw it on Ebay about 3 years ago I can't belive it's still around.

In less someone can prove me wrong these were the only two engines every made by Maxim that had no doors.

Back in 1986vwhen we took our driving test the Department of Motor vechicle sargent was speechless when we told him this type of rig was still in service.

The current 1969/1993 Seagrave before remounting the ladder on the Spartan cab/Chassis was a ragtop but it had doors.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Did Engine 42 come with the half doors originally or was they added during the refurb?

According to LFD171's photo website, the half doors were there pre-refurb.

Pre:

http://public.fotki.com/lfd171/westchester_county_fire/mamaroneck_village/engine42prerefurb.html

Post:

http://public.fotki.com/lfd171/westchester_county_fire/mamaroneck_village/engine42.html

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

Glenbrook Fire Department currently has a 1963 Maxim "open cab" Engine. It has a 750 GPM Hale two stage pump. 5speed transmission and a Detroit Diesel motor. The orignal motor was a gas motor but was converted over to a diesel before my time. This engine has no doors and only has a vinyl top. This rig is only used for special events.

Glenbrook also had a 1972 Maxim "open cab" Engine with a 1000 GPM Hale single stage pump and a Detroit Diesel motor with an Allison Automatic transmission. This was sold in about 1991 or so??. I saw it on Ebay about 3 years ago I can't belive it's still around.

In less someone can prove me wrong these were the only two engines every made by Maxim that had no doors.

Back in 1986vwhen we took our driving test the Department of Motor vechicle sargent was speechless when we told him this type of rig was still in service.

The current 1969/1993 Seagrave before remounting the ladder on the Spartan cab/Chassis was a ragtop but it had doors.

Do you mean in the 60's and 70's, Maxim's without door's? If not they made 100's of them. Any rig made in 70's without door's is rare.

[lad45der 78]

Do you mean in the 60's and 70's, Maxim's without door's? If not they made 100's of them. Any rig made in 70's without door's is rare.

If you go on maxims website and look under the 60's every rig has doors.33 is not in there for some reason.

in the 70's on page 3 is 32 parked in the parking lot. I pulled out the rig so that guy could take that picture.

A waver was requested from Maxim releasing them of any liabilty.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

If you go on maxims website and look under the 60's every rig has doors.33 is not in there for some reason.

in the 70's on page 3 is 32 parked in the parking lot. I pulled out the rig so that guy could take that picture.

A waver was requested from Maxim releasing them of any liabilty.

The rigs that are on Hoiwe's web site are only the ones that firefighter's like your self were nice enough to pull out for a photo, it is not complete. He is a great guy and works very hard on updating that site. The rigs you talk about are very rare and some of the best rigs that were made by Maxim.

[Patch6713 18]

The rigs that are on Hoiwe's web site are only the ones that firefighter's like your self were nice enough to pull out for a photo

What is this website?

[FFPCogs 863]

Belltown FD in Stamford operates 2 "canopy cabs" as described by Izzy as frontline rigs, both Mack CFs

E-42 1986 1000gpm pumper (no doors in the jumpseats)

TL-45 1972 Aerialscope served as FDNY Truck 157, bought by us in 1983 and refurbed. Refurbed again in 1996. (Now has jumpseat half doors as of the '96 refurb)

We also operate E-433. 1949 Mack 1000 gpm pumper as a muster rig with a semi-open (per Izzy) cab.

Glenbrook has their Maxim "S" model

Springdale owns and uses as a parade piece a fully restored 1920's era Buffalo open cab

LRFCo owns a late 40's-early 50's era semi-open cab Seagrave pumper

SFRD maintains a 1950ish Mack semi open cab as well used by 786 at events/fundraisers

All are still in working order to the best of my knowledge

Cogs

[10512 214]

What was the purpose of "open cabs"? Why cut the roof off of a rig that originally had a roof, this is the northeast and it does get cold. As I write this, it is about 14 degrees out.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

New Fairfield Truck 4 (1975 Seagrave) has open cab, all other open cab rigs have been replaced. Truck 4 may also be on its way out soon.

Allingtown Engine 3 (Reserve, 1986 Mack CF I believe) is also open cab, as well as West Haven North End Engine Company 3.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

New Fairfield Truck 4 (1975 Seagrave) has open cab, all other open cab rigs have been replaced. Truck 4 may also be on its way out soon.

Allingtown Engine 3 (Reserve, 1986 Mack CF I believe) is also open cab, as well as West Haven North End Engine Company 3.

Do you mean Canopy cab, Mack only made 6 open cab CF's and none made it to Conn. unless they bought it used ?

[SageVigiles 1,194]

You're right, canopy, I misspoke.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Do you mean Canopy cab, Mack only made 6 open cab CF's and none made it to Conn. unless they bought it used ?

I may be confusing what you mean but Rowayton in Norwalk, CT had a roof-less Mack CF just like the one Valley Stream used to run. As far as I know they purcahsed it new.