Fire Engines Photos

The cabin looks like a Steyr to me. Is that made in license in China, or is it imported ??

Added by Mars on 29 May 2007.

Swat, why do you find it necessary to place SWAT 2007 on your pictures that you submit? No one else of the hundreds of other contributors identifies the source in this manner and spoils the picture by consequence.

Added by Barry on 30 May 2007.

yep its is a Steyr imitation by license. The SWAT wording in the photo is part of my copyright.

Added by Swat on 30 May 2007.

The fire equipment industry in china seems to be vast, have spent time on Alibaba and find some of their equipment surprisingly good and not very expensive in the grand scheme of things, there are several appliances on Isuzu truck chassis which are quite smart but do Chinese trucks in general get a good name as regards reliability, Dong Feng, North Benz etc.

Added by Brandweer 112 on 17 July 2017.

I had some experience in the Middle East competing against Chinese trucks about ten years ago, and at that time they were very poor quality.

They were based on mainly Japanese designs, but both materials and assembly were often inferior.

But they do learn quickly, and its quite possible by now that at least some of their newer products are pretty adequate.

Added by Rob Johnson on 18 July 2017.

Thanks Rob, always curious about fire equipment in both Russia and China, I know that some Chinese truck makers are trying to crack the UK market and was wondering just how reliable or otherwise their equipment was, when you consider how much they charge per appliance you kind of wonder about the quality of build, I know Myanmar purchased a load of Dong Feng fire appliances but have heard little in the way of feedback or reliability and I believe Cambodia have purchased fire tenders on the Isuzu chassis from a Chinese manufacturer, the only possible problem would possibly be with the fire plant and not the trucks themselves, cheers.

Added by Brandweer 112 on 18 July 2017.

Interesting that in Russia the more modern commercial trucks used for fire appliances like Kamaz are really very inferior to the old military chassis ZIL fire trucks, which were very primitive but immensely rugged! They look a lot more "modern", but have been very troublesome in many markets where they have been exported. I think the new GAZ is reputedly better, but still a weak performer when it comes to reliability.

Chinese built trucks under license are not always up to the original brand's quality standards, because many components are made locally by suppliers - who may not operate to the same quality standards - and in the same way assembly machinery and technologies may be locally produced to different standards.

While the old US GMC light truck was a Japanese Isuzu with a different badge, the Chinese Isuzu is a local product, designed by Isuzu with a Japanese badge!

We sold Toyotas built in Taiwan, which were just as good as Japanese products, so the Chinese can do vehicle production well. But on the mainland they can also circumvent the license requirements by cutting corners, too!

Cars and trucks are built all over the World now - Toyota builds vehicles in 28 countries, for example - but quality is very much dependent on how "hands on" the brand owner is when it comes to local quality control and component quality standards.

Added by Rob Johnson on 19 July 2017.

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