Posted by Brian A. on August 09, 2000 at 15:02:50:
In Reply to: To Brian A. posted by Mark S. on August 08, 2000 at 21:14:18:
I went and talked with the men who operated and worked on my W500 when it was in service. They all had nothing but good things to say about the W500s and every one of them wished they could find a way to keep them in use. After over 35 years in service it was just getting too difficult to find parts for them, especially drag links. Over the years they have tried all sorts of vehicles to do the same job without much success. As I understand it, they first tried I-H trucks which were converted to 4wd, then they tried surplus military 6x6s (both 2 1/2 and 5 ton) and M548 tracked cargo carriers. Often now they are just using their 450 series dozers to get the fire breaks plowed, and the 6x6s as pumper trucks.
The guys at the fire house were nice enough to give me a couple of photos of my W500 from when it was in service. If I can get it to scan well enough, the one of the truck just after fighting a fire will go up on my webpage this fall.