Fire Engines Photos

This three ton van conversion was one of the smallest and least expensive LF8TS, and was very popular with German volunteers for these reasons. Actually designated LF 309 it had only 90 horsepower, so it was also no racing car, especially as with a full crew it was at or even over its design weight!

Added by Rob Johnson on 23 October 2025.

The LF8 was the most widespread fire pumper in its day, largely because it was the mainstay of Germany’s 23, 300 volunteer fire companies. Although many had other full size pumpers, water tenders, turntable ladders, rescues and often various specials, the LF 8 was everywhere. The idea was to have a van based pumper with a gross weight under eight tons, so the driver did not need to have a HGV license. A pump capable of delivering 800 LPM @ 8AT was considered adequate, and in many cases it also had a portable pump of e qual capacity too. Because of its size and weight limitations, it had a rather limited schedule of ladders and equipment and above all it did not have a water tank, which was of course a drawback. This was overcome to some extent by the fact that it had a large crew, being intended to be staffed by no less than nine volunteers. This meant that it could be set in to a hydrant or open water relatively quickly, as long as everyone knew what they needed to do.

The portable pump version was also very useful at incidents where the company had to rely on an open water supply, and it could be deployed as a relay pumper, so it was widely used by small town and village companies with rural fire risks in their response areas.

It was replaced by the LF10/6, which had a slightly more powerful pump, added a 600 liter tank and was otherwise pretty much the same. However, because many of them were comparatively rarely used, many LF8s saw decades of service with their owners before being replaced by more modern LF10s.

Added by Rob Johnson on 22 November 2025.

Please add your comments about this picture using the form below.

Comments

Your Name

Your email address - this will be shown on the page and will allow the system to notify you of further comments added to this picture.