FIRE TRUCKS HANG TOUGH

THOUSANDS OF TRUCKS around Australia are taking a well-earned rest in their fire sheds after copping a hammering during the long hot spring and summer of 2019-2020.

Rough dirt tracks, dust, heat and all sorts of understandable driver mishaps in the dark took their toll on many of the basic workhorses of the firefighting services around Australia.

But as far as we are aware, most of them came through pretty well, despite the circumstances. It’s a testament to the amazing expertise of our truck and equipment engineers and manufacturers that they did.

So what’s involved in a fire truck? Let’s have a look around one, using as an example the backbone of the NSW Rural Fire Service fleet, the Category 1 tanker – better known as the ‘Cat 1’.

In this case it’s a 2017 Isuzu FTS 139-260 4x4, which this writer spent a lot of time in over summer.

Basic specifications

The FTS is