Get those wheels dirty
Published: 01 September, 2008
The days when a brigade only needed a fire appliance are long gone – the modern fire service is expected to attend any time anywhere, so having the right set of wheels is vital. Ann-Marie Knegt brings you some of the best utility vehicles on the market.
Nissan has seen interest from fire services grow since the UK floods of 2007. “The demand has grown for off road vehicles such as the X-trail and the Pathfinder.
Traditionally they were for Chief and Deputy Chief Fire Officers, who were using them as a run-around. However, this changed after the atrocious UK floods in the summer of 2007,” explains James Wood, marketing manager for Nissan UK. Having never sold a Navarra to a fire brigade before, all of a sudden Nissan sold 16 of these vehicles to UK fire brigades.
The double cab Navara pick-up truck has the facility to carry up to five officers and it also has a secure area on the back, which can be covered by a hard top or a canopy so that equipment can be stored there.
One of the first brigades to contact Nissan was Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue, as the worst floods were in their county, and the brigade bought four Navaras.
Dorset Fire and Rescue also bought several vehicles, which they converted into fire tenders, equipped with watertank and small pumps. The brigade uses these vehicles for heath fires or for small fires, where sending out a large water tender would be uneconomical.
In Wood’s opinion the increasing demand for 4x4 vehicles lies in the fact that brigades are realising that these vehicles are very versatile. “The nature of a double cab pick-up truck means that you can do pretty much whatever you want to the back area. FRSs can either fit racking to rescue people from floods or put a fire tender body on the back, should they want to use it for that purpose.
“Apart from being competitively priced, as far as pick-up trucks go the Navara is well known for being very robust and having a very powerful engine. The Navarra is just slightly bigger and slightly more powerful than the competition at the moment.”
Fire brigades choose the double cabs, but there are no clear patterns in terms of specification, as some go for basic and others choose top of the range models. The Diesel engine has a capacity of 2.5 litres with a 171 PSHP and the pick-up can tow a weight of 2,700 kg. The Navara has payload of 10.54 kg, which Woods says is excellent for its kind.
Wood adds that Nissan has very good relationships with bodybuilding companies and can therefore deliver a one-stop shop with a single point of contact and a single point of invoicing.
