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Iowa - Floyd County | Pretty much yes to your first question. REV Group bought a bunch of different manufacturers, they still produce under their own names but are owned by REV. E-ONE, Ferrara, KME, Spartan EV, Smeal, LTI, and a bunch of different ambulance manufacturers are owned by REV. Pierce, Rosenbauer, Seagrave, Toyne, and maybe a handful of smaller regional builders are still "independent" but I believe all of them have investment groups as shareholders. US Fire Apparatus was started, at least in part, by Chris Ferrara in 2022 after he sold Ferrara to REV in 2017. I don't know of any of their stuff locally but I don't know why they wouldn't be reputable.
Government has made the price of fire apparatus absolutely ridiculous. Between the AFG program, everyone thinking NFPA is the end all be all of guidelines, and everyone going to "just in time" procurement it has led to insane prices and wait times for apparatus. Emissions and electronic issues are a big reliability issue on new apparatus as well.
I don't know what kind of call volume they run but we have decided that, unless something drastic changes in the industry, we're buying used apparatus from here on out. An example, in 2023 my department bought a 2008 Smeal Rescue Engine for $100K, we got all the paperwork for that truck and the contract price for it new in 2008 was ~$530k(~%755k in 2023 dollars), we'll be able to run it for 15-20 years and then hopefully replace it the same way. I know Pennsylvania is much different than Iowa, but purchasing new apparatus for small departments doesn't make much sense anymore. | |
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Fire equipment manufacturers
