Driving Lessons

On the Reservation the other day. The picture arrived as an email attachment earlier - I did not take it. The colors are a little off.

This great beast of a fire truck had been donated to the tribe a month or so earlier and they had asked me to collect it for them, since I have kept my commercial license and I have a reputation for being able (or at least willing) to drive anything. Unfortunately the tribe’s officially-appointed drivers have been having real problems getting a handle on this monster and I had gone back over the weekend to give driving lessons.

At its heart this is a HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck), the fire fighting version being the TFFT (Tactical Fire Fighting Truck), although this particular beast is a variation known as the LTPA (no idea what that means) Think of it as the Ferrari version. The standard 445 hp diesel has been replaced with a 680 hp turbo diesel and the 4-speed automatic transmission is replaced by a 7-speed manual with a manual transfer case. I’m not sure, but I think these were 3rd party modifications rather than factory. No governor - this beast was designed to get to a downed aircraft as quickly as possible with a top speed well over 90 mph. Granted, she gets squirrelly at higher speeds, and holding her at more than 75 mph on the highway for very long starts to chew up her tires, assuming the tires have been inflated to road pressure in the first place.

All HEMTT were built for serious off-road use, with power to all four axles and both sets of front wheels steer. She was very well-behaved on the highway but she is a hand-full to drive at speed on the mountain roads of the Reservation, I must admit, and I can understand why even someone used to a conventional firetruck would find her intimidating. The cabin is stuffed full not just with various switches and controls but all the plumbing to the remote nozzles on the roof and front and visibility is a bit poor.