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Here is one for you guys. It's in Pittsburgh.
The description: This is your chance to own a piece of history. This is a ONE OWNER 1955 Ford F750 Fire Rescue truck with only 13538 original miles. This truck has alot of unique features one of them is the retractable rear roof with rear seating, another one is it comes with the original lights,sirens,and air horn.It was garage kept overall the truck is in good condition for a 1955.It has a V-8 5speed with dual wheels. If you have any interest or questions feel free to call my number is 412-551-9888. Good luck on owning a unique piece of history
Nice truck! It'd be a great bus to haul friends to tailgate at Penn state, or if the buyer is from Pittsburgh, Pitt, games. It is even painted Penn State blue, ie. Sheridan Blue. Disclaimer: I do not attend nor support PSU, but I know people that do.
The pedal to the left of the steering column is the clutch. The long pedal to the right of the column is the brake treadle. Trucks with air brakes have that. The accelerator is to the right of that.
For only having 13,500 miles NM it looks like it has been rode hard and put away wet. It is not in the condition one would expect for a low mileage fire truck. What going on under the hood? And why was the instrument panel replaced? And notice the chrome grille and bumper? Not original, or was it chromed by the company that converted it to a personnel carrier?
The air compressor looks newer than compressors I've seen in other Big Jobs. It doesn't look stock formsure
Yeah, not positive though, but I think the OEM air compressors were air cooled. This one is liquid cooled and robbed the heater circuit, and a very poor job at that.
Seeing the heater core nipples being abandoned makes me think the core leaks and being an old, probably retired to the back lot unit they probably didn't care. The compressor was probably an upgrade as reliability is paramount in fire service. The diamond plate floor is a typical upgrade for fire apparatus. It's probably just screwed down on top of the original cab floor.
A lot of fire apparatus manufacturers and fire departments have their own ideas of what should be changed to make an apparatus 'the best' for their use. (Read: 'committee built' a.k.a. butchered to death by peeps that think they know what they're doing)(Also Read: the bane of my existence)(Supporting evidence: the roll-back roof. What demanding purpose would/could it serve?)(Read: just because you can doesn't mean you should) I would love to see one fire apparatus that was built to standardized, sensible specs. We've deleted so much additional 'serves little purpose' items on our new apparatus yet the build books (contract specs) for what is to be built are several inches thick. (think of them as the options list for a new car) Typically, a committee consists of a handful of fire guys sitting around a table with a "We can do this.. and this.." brochures and they begin dreaming up ridiculous stuff. Then it goes to the city fathers whose entire experience in fire service amounts to maybe riding an engine through a holiday parade. I know I've kinda turned this into a soapbox but I think it helps explain the "Why is this not right", etc.
Apparatus of that vintage normally sourced parts from numerous manufacturers, that could explain the instrument panel. And, again, they may have been spec'd that way from the committee. Or they may have been cobbled together somewhere along its lifetime because some of the originals failed and a derelict was robbed to make replacements.
The air compressor looks newer than compressors I've seen in other Big Jobs. It doesn't look stock formsure
Not really, thats a Bendex Tru Flow 500 that came into play around
1955. The 1954's has external valves like 'rocker arms. All compressors
are mounted that way on big Y blocks not scary just easy to get at and
change belts.. As far as chrome/ gauges etc. I have seen all that before.
My bottom thought is who ever spect' truck had deep pockets. We serviced
a lot of town fire trucks and I always failed to reason, they bought the
cheapest >Buget< no power steering & despicable juice brakes especially
on F8 & F900s. just my thoughts sam
For only having 13,500 miles NM it looks like it has been rode hard and put away wet. It is not in the condition one would expect for a low mileage fire truck. What going on under the hood? And why was the instrument panel replaced? And notice the chrome grille and bumper?
Another point to look at that screams this has more than 13,500 original miles. Look at how the clutch pedal is worn. It is worn so bad that the rubber is almost gone at the lower end. It looks like my original pedal on my 54 when I replaced it in 1999 and my truck had well over 105,000 miles. I am not sure how many because the odometer didn't work when I got the truck in 1977.
The truck has extremely little useful potential for any situation (as shown.) What amounts to roughly 221 miles/year is about two trips for oil changes and maybe four parades. The way it sits about the only use for it is as a rehab' bus (to warm up during a winter incident.) I still don't understand the need for a roll-back roof (except for parades...)
10-28-2016, 07:17 AM
