I live next door to a busy firehouse, and I've heard plenty of gripes about the perils of their newer truck vs the mid-80's pumper with 350k miles that replaced it. Based on the frequency that I see the department's backup engine next door, I tend to agree.
Basically, the new trucks are unibody and much more fragile -- it turns out that new firetruck demand is driven by smaller/volunteer departments that don't put a ton of wear on the equipment. Minor accidents and mechanical breakdowns on the newer gear are major repair incidents that require weeks of downtime.
The old trucks were basically custom cabs sitting on a truck frame. Not very comfortable, but tough enough to survive 30 years of service with 2,000+ calls a year in a northeast city.
Basically, the new trucks are unibody and much more fragile -- it turns out that new firetruck demand is driven by smaller/volunteer departments that don't put a ton of wear on the equipment. Minor accidents and mechanical breakdowns on the newer gear are major repair incidents that require weeks of downtime.
The old trucks were basically custom cabs sitting on a truck frame. Not very comfortable, but tough enough to survive 30 years of service with 2,000+ calls a year in a northeast city.