Thomas Ames began outfitting wildland fire trucks to support the local community and to augment the developing local volunteer fire department's early equipment. That was several years ago. By degrees, this has developed into a serious hobby via which he gets to apply his engineering background. He has continued to assist several local departments with both time and equipment. These pages were developed to reduce the effort spent emailing the various photographs to friends. Given a passion for good equipment and with an eye towards the demands of the off-road, wildland fire environment, he searched for vehicles that would meet the challenge. At the time, the Euro Dollar was low and the U.S. Dollar was high and he bought several U1300L Mercedes Unimogs that had been released by NATO. These former troop carriers were well suited to the task. They were equipped with four wheel drive and an unusually high 18 inch ground clearance at the differentials. The former machine gun turret was another wonderful feature. For wildland firetrucks, the hatch could be used for pump and roll operations. These days, with the U.S. Dollar lower and the Euro Dollar higher there is no longer an advantage to purchasing ex NATO trucks from Germany. Thus, the switch is on to outfit the domestic chassis for the wildland fire environment. Of late, he is venturing into water tenders and structure equipment for the smaller towns and regions in Montana. He is able to acquire equipment and supplies at wholesale or OEM (original equipment manufacturer) pricing, which he then passes along to volunteer departments. Time and time again, departments are able to purchase equipment for considerably less than they would otherwise be able to. Periodically, he also donates equipment outright in addition to the hours contributed to apparatus outfitting. Often, something as simple as some double-jacketed hose and a good nozzle make quite a difference in a rural department's ability to deal with structure fire. There is often some question as to how this truck work is charged out. All the time spent working on trucks, ordering parts, fetching parts and doing whatever else is part of a project, such as paperwork - is volunteered time. All parts are charged out at cost, plus shipping. Here and there consumables such as drill bits or saw blades are added to a project's expenses. In a nutshell, that's it. Not one dime ends up in the profit column, because there is no profit column. Based near Billings Montana, he is known for having a somewhat unusual hobby that also contributes to local communities. Thank you for your interest and for visiting. |