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In 1963, the Snyder Rural Fire Board asked Don Smeal to fix a leak in its fire truck tank. The tank could not be repaired so Don, being a volunteer firefighter himself and knowing the needs of the community, offered to design and build a new fire truck. Don’s fire truck had a portable and PTO water pump, 1,200 gallon water tank, enclosed crew cab, and a 42’ hydraulic aerial ladder. This was the first fire truck to have all of these features on one rig. The rest, as they say, is history.
Don’s inventiveness and commitment to innovation continues at Smeal. Today, Smeal designs and builds proprietary features that create the safest and most durable apparatus on the market.
Smeal’s exclusive CP-84 Waterway is designed to be the strongest, most resilient waterway on the market. The 84,000 psi “cold” drawn over mandrel steel tube features an interior galvanized coating to inhibit corrosion from the inside and chrome plating on the outside to provide scratch resistance and a smooth telescopic movement during extension and retraction. Even with its innovative design, the principles of a typical hydraulic cylinder remain, including commonly sized seals for easy replacement.
The Smeal QL-12 Electrical System is the next generation of electrical systems in the fire apparatus industry. The Quick Link design features plug-style connections and greater reliability. The QL-12 also provides lower maintenance costs, a longer service life, and is completely sealed from the effects of the environment. Should components need to be added, the QL-12 has spare access points that make the process quick and easy.
The FP-4 Stabilizing System enables the Smeal apparatus to operate safely on almost any terrain. Designed for optimum balance and stability, the FP-4 is one of a kind. The front stabilizers are located directly behind the cab to eliminate fore/aft limitations and allow full ladder movement even on a downhill incline – a feature that is exclusive to Smeal. The FP-4 also provides superior strength and durability in even the toughest situations with hot dip galvanized box tube beams that transfer aerial operation loads to the T-box instead of the chassis frame.
What happens when there is nothing else you can put on the body of your apparatus to make it stronger? You look underneath it. Smeal started with the idea of isolating the body from the frame to prevent undue stress, incorporated the tank cradle and ultra strong tow eye into the design, and constructed it with 36,000 psi galvanized steel. Thick rubber isolation blocks, spring loaded supports and a dissimilar-metal-isolating polypropylene material were then added to create the ultimate substructure.
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