During a recent tour of the E-ONE campus, members of the Guil-Rand Fire Department (GRFD) and Board of Directors signed a contract for three new custom eMAX pumpers on Typhoon® chassis.
“For years our department has survived by purchasing good-quality used apparatus and we searched for two years before deciding to purchase new apparatus. With the economy the way it is, used apparatus is hard to come by because departments are holding on to their trucks longer,” said Guil-Rand Fire Chief Brian Cox. “These will be our first new trucks since 1996.”
The GRFD is located 10 miles south of Greensboro, NC, and has five stations covering 85 square miles and two counties. They needed apparatus that could not only fight structural and brush fires, but also carry equipment for responding to both vehicle accidents and EMS calls.
“We knew we wanted this type of configuration because of the storage space, shorter wheelbase and maneuverability, but going into this process we didn’t think we could afford such a design,” said Cox. “We were very pleased when we realized we could purchase such a quality product that fits within our budget.”
After an exhaustive bid process, in which several other manufacturers’ designs were considered, the eMAX, E-ONE and Fire Connections made an impact on the board and firefighters.
“We have been very impressed with the engineering, manufacturing process, quality control process, the product and the organization of the plants,” said Hunter Hayworth, GRFD board member. “E-ONE offers a great quality product at a fair price.”
Assistant Chief Mike Witcher was also pleasantly surprised by the board’s final decision.
“I’ll be honest, when we started this process I did not think we would end up with an E-ONE,” said Witcher. “But the configuration, the quality of the product, the value and the salesmanship of Trey Daughtridge, our sales representative with Fire Connections, were impeccable.”
The eMAX design will allow GRFD to increase their storage capacity by 30% without increasing the length of the truck. Each new eMAX will feature a 780-gallon water tank, 1,500-gpm pump, 6kW generator, a Cummins® ISL 450 horsepower engine, enclosed ladder tunnel storage, dual canopy medical cabinets and aluminum hosebed covers. One of the three will also boast a light tower with LED scene lighting.
