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HME Ahrens-Fox can trace its heritage back to 1913, over 93 years ago, when Magnus Hendrickson founded the Hendrickson Motor Truck Company in Chicago. Quite an innovator in his day, Hendrickson began building custom trucks including those for specialized applications such as heavy delivery, stone cranes, roofer’s hoists and scavenger bodies.
 West Point, Ohio recently took deliver of this pair of HME Ahrens-Fox apparatus. At left is a 1,500-GPM custom rescue pumper and at right, a RAT™ attack unit. |
It was Hendrickson that developed and marketed the first tandem axle suspension, quite an innovation in its day, and was one of the first truck manufacturers to install Diesel engines. The company built its first line of fire apparatus in the 1930s, and was the first to develop and market the first tilt cab custom pumper chassis in the 1980s.
Hendrickson Motor Truck Company changed its name over time to Hendrickson Mobile Equipment to better reflect the diversity of products being produced. Over the road trucks, crane carriers, split shaft power take offs, cast spoke wheels, tandem suspensions and specialized prime movers such as a mammoth rig that was built to transport 500,000-lb. transformers to a Canadian hydroelectric plant, proved over and over, the engineering and manufacturing expertise of HME.
Today, HME is located in Wyoming, Michigan with over 140 employees working in a three-year old, state of the art, 150,000 square foot plant, producing fire apparatus, over-the-road Class 8 truck chassis and special mobile equipment units such as drill rig chassis and heavy-duty prime movers. The vehicles begin with the frame rails entering one side of the plant, and the finished units emerging from the other. This “under one roof” facility brings together both the chassis and fire engineering departments to produce fire apparatus that are truly single-source from start to finish.
The company is the world’s largest single-source producer of custom, stainless steel fire apparatus, and has just introduced a number of new products for 2006.
Drawing from its heritage of the innovative and legendary Ahrens-Fox line of apparatus, the RAT, or Rapid Attack Truck, combines a fully rated Class A pumper engineered into the size of a mini pumper without sacrificing water, hose or equipment carrying capacity. The CAT or City Attack Truck is a custom engineered solution, perfect for departments with high call volumes that need a unit having heavy duty pumping power, easy service accessibility, replacement of corrosion-prone components such as aluminum tread plate, and user-friendly design elements such as an extremely low rear hose bed. The CAT provides an
abundance of compartment space for storing EMS and firefighting equipment and is mounted on an HME custom chassis designed to be more maneuverable than the chief’s Crown Victoria.
The new Arsenal aerial was designed to outmaneuver a single axle quint, provide 750-gallon+ water tanks and to carry a full load of ISO required ladders, pike poles and equipment. The department’s investment is further protected by the HME Ahrens-Fox 24-1/2-year body corrosion warranty, 10-year plumbing warranty, and 25-year corrosion and rusting warranty on the ladder, torque-box and outrigger assemblies.
New products on the mechanical side include Hydra-Technology water delivery system that uses no corrosion-prone threaded fittings and the new MAD DOGTM, patent pending compressed air foam system that combines a high level of knockdown power with an affordable price.
A world leader in fire service innovation, American-owned HME Ahrens-Fox is one of the fastest growing fire apparatus builders today, constructing a diverse line of innovative, heavy duty stainless steel fire apparatus that is setting the industry standard for design, performance and long life.
