Jalopnik: fire truck

Opel Blitz Fire Truck Woke Up One Morning In... San Francisco?

Murilee Martin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Denver has the Mercedes-Benz Feuerwagen, but San Francisco can hold its head up high when it comes to German Emergency Vehicle bragging rights, with this 60s Opel Blitz that Akier photographed in the Sunset District. Make the jump to see the entire gallery and read Akier's description.

I live right down the street from this beaut. I tried to get ahold of the owner to get some background information, but no dice.This one seems to have been converted into a camper of some sort - looks like cabinets inside in the back. Check out that medieval-looking tow hitch! I think the grille is a replacement, because all the photos I've found (about 4) show a big "blitz" Opel lightning logo in the middle. Anyways, this thing does move at least, because it disappears come street cleaning time, and makes its way back.

Trying to find information on these things is like pulling teeth - here is what I know. This is a mid-60's Opel Blitz firetruck, with livery for the volunteer firefighting brigade of Viechtach. Viechtach is a Bavarian town on the Czech border, northeast of Munich. It seems to be later than '61 because it has a one-piece window, but earlier than 1971. Around 1971, Opel Blitzes became rebadged Bedford vans. I couldn't find a damn thing about engines, except that the 30's and WWII era Blitz trucks were powered by 3.6L inline jobs making roughly 75hp. It wouldn't surprise me if some variation of this engine, rather than the OHV I6s in Opel large cars, found its way into this old girl. It seems like most of these things were used as pumper trucks, and would have a pump fitted up front a la a Warn winch. If anyone has stumbled across a magic resource for information on these things, let me know.

It's literally on my block, out in the beautiful, not sunny Sunset. I walked by it every day for a couple of weeks, always trying to remind myself to borrow a camera and go out and shoot it. I keep cursing the fact that I don't actually own a nice digital camera because I see amazing things like this all the time here in the city. I saw a Fiat 850 Spyder the other day and rued the pitiful, 0.000000000002 megapixel camera on my ancient Motorola Razor. Anyhow, I'll keep my eyes open and a borrowed camera in my pocket, and keep 'em coming.

Monster 1937 International Fire Truck Auctioned For $26,000

Mark Arnold — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:15:00 EDT

We know all about Big Red; it's a monster-ized 1937 International fire truck that we first saw at the Woodward Dream Cruise. The beast weighs in at a whopping 30,000-pounds and measures 38-feet long; it's the world's heaviest and longest monster truck. But now it's just sold at the Palm Beach Barret-Jackson auction for— only $26,000. Now obviously this isn't a traditionally practical vehicle, but for sheer pounds of awesome-to-dollar value, we think this thing was a steal.

Big Red has a Cummins Turbo diesel engine connected to Allison automatic transmission with a Spicer transfer case. Those tires are 66 x 43 x 25. The 1937 body and frame are all original. Back in the day, this was the first truck to pump 600 gallons per minute. Amazing. [Barrett-Jackson]

Adult Swim Raises Bar with V6 and Jet Powered Firetruck

Ben Wojdyla — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:00:00 EST

If you've never seen the show, 12Oz. Mouse on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim runs a story line roughly based on intoxication, blowing things up and being as confusing as possible. Not that it makes sense, but we were impressed to see a firetruck with a possibly supercharged V6 in the front, jet engine in the back, skis for wheels and a ghetto blaster on the side in this episode. Your employer may feel differently than we do about a drunk peanut shaped fireman driving a jet powered fire truck into a baby carriage full of alcohol, while swearing, so this might be NSFW. We can't tell, we're confused.

Have No Fear, Big Red Is Watching Over Woodward Avenue

Mike Spinelli — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:00:30 EDT

Lock up your arsonists. It's Big Red, possibly the world's longest (38') and heaviest (29,960 lbs) monster truck in the world, parked at the corner of 13 Mile and Woodward Avenue for this year's Woodward Dream Cruise. The sign also notes Red is the world's only fully functional monster fire truck, which could prove handy if a blaze ever erupts atop a double row of crushed cars. It's a late-30s vintage International Harvester D series, best known as the platform of the psychedelically painted school bus named "Furthur." That was the groovemobile in which Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters crisscrossed the US in 1964, dropping more acid in a year than the entire student body of UMass did in all of the 1980s. But you won't find Wavy Gravy crashed out in this ladder truck. It's the product of Monster Truck Rides USA and Liberty-1 Motorsports, which reports the massive rig will depart from New York City on September 11, 2007 for Los Angeles on a cross-country fundraising trip for children's charities [Big Red Monster Fire Truck]

Boy, Where's The Feuer?

Murilee Martin — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:06:07 EDT

You got a mailbox on your bumper and... never mind. The idea of going to a distant land and bringing back some weird vehicle with which to rattle local minds has always had its appeal; for example, the guy in my town who drives around in a Pinzgauer (with Swiss military markings) probably has way more fun on his commute than the rest of us. So it's hard not to respect this Denver guy's ambitious plan to get a Mercedes fire truck from Germany and turn it into a rolling rent-a-partymobile for use at ski and snowboard events. He's got the truck in hand (transport from Germany alone cost close to 10 grand) and he's well on his way to rolling to the slopes in a J ger-Fueled Ragin' Feuerwehr Frenzywagen. Dude. – Murilee Martin

The Truck's Tale [Kittalog]

Related:
New Hose Turks: Firefighters Levitate Car [internal]

New Hose Turks: Firefighters Levitate Car

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:30:00 EST

The video quality of this clip's a bit too sketchy for us to tell what just what brand or variant of Fiat 124-type vehicle these wacky Turkish firefighters are levitating via water pressure, but they do manage to raise it shockingly high in the air with their hoses. Which has us thinking, if we ever find ourselves caught in the midst of an Istanbul/Constantinople riot, we're bailing before these guys show up in their big, red Benzes. – Davey G. Johnson

Related:
A Flying Hovercraft [Internal]