Fire Engines Photos

Does anyone know what engine was fitted to these Ford's? Was it their own unit or the wonderful Perkins? I remember Hereford and Worcester had only a few Ford's on 'S' Reg's, before turning to Dennis' Don't see many of these machines on the preservation scene, is this one still around?

Added by Matt Ireland on 02 March 2013.

Matt, I'm sure these Fords had the more powerful Perkins engine, but they were still desperately slow; something to do with the gearing I believe (I may be wrong though. I know the next batch of Fords that Stafffordshie purchased - W reg D1317/CFEs - did have the Perkins motor and were embarrassingly slow!)

This particular Ford served at Leek as WrL and WrT, and then at Longnor as WrL before becoming a spare. She ended up at the training school. And, as with many Staffs' appliances, I believe she was sold to County Kerry in Ireland in the early '90s.

Great blast-from-the-past this photo; not just for the day-glow Ford water ladder, but as much for the Ford Escort police car. The yellow was in fact day-glow yellow and above it they had a band of small black and white checks, not obviously apparent on the photo. Not a particularly attractive livery as I recall!

Added by Yelp Bullhorn on 02 March 2013.

the 1113 designation was for 11 ton chassis with 130 h.p motor the 130 h.p was Fords own 6 cylinder power unit.the Perkins v8 was normally only in the 16 ton chassis for commercial use but I believe the special vehicle division fitted it in smaller chassis later for special vehicle use.

Added by A.J.Alexander on 02 March 2013.

As far as I Known, this appliance is in a field in Newmarket Co Cork, it was sold off after a few years service in Kerry F&R

Added by Paul Mc Donnell on 02 March 2013.

See also picture 20721 of consecutively registered Ford D1113/CFE CEH930T

Added by Jonathan Wade on 03 March 2013.

The SVO Perkins 511 170 BHP V8 in the 11 or 14 tonne GVW chassis was the same engine used by Dennis, Dodge, ERF and S&D in their contemporary fire appliance chassis. As all of these pumps, ladders and snorkels weighed about the same, there is no reason the Fords should have been any slower than the others.

Manchester bought D1617s before the Perkins 511 SVO option became available; most of the earlier lighter chassis were fitted with the 5 liter straight six cylinder Ford turbo engine, which developed 130 or 140 BHP.

But the first D series, supplied in 1966-67 to Gloucestershire, had a six cylinder petrol engine, supplied via SVO from Ford of Canada, as the brigade at that time specified petrol engines.

Added by Rob Johnson on 03 March 2013.

The Perkins V8 was actually 510 cu. in and evolved into the V8.540. There was also a V8.640 but I don't think it was ever used in a fire appliance.

Added by Peter Goodall on 04 March 2013.

The V8 640 was actaully widely used by Dennis in their appliances. It was preferred over the turbo charged version of the 540. The 640 was still however a 'speciality' engine with relatively only a small number manufactured compared with the other engines which were used in anything from combine harvestors to boat engines. When Perkins were forced to remove Asbestos based gaskets from their spare parts inventory, due to the lack of demand, cylinder head gaskets for the 640 were not re-manufactured using non-asbestos materials.

Added by Barry on 04 March 2013.

What a shame we'll never hear that tremendous roar or tick over anymore. Cummings just doesn't do it for me as Perkins did. Dodge G13, Dennis RS, SS, Ford D series were the epithany of fire engines.

Added by Andrew Middleton on 04 March 2013.

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