NSW Fire Brigades "Varley" units on call out

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Swift
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Re: NSW Fire Brigades "Varley" units on call out

Post by Swift »

The other night I heard the sound of a thumping V8 vehicle pulling over in front of my place in Woy Woy.I thought it was a Ford F100 or similar but then I heard the sound of air brakes coming from it. :?

When I looked outside,though the bushes I could make out a bits of a fire truck with firecrew disembarking.It must have been one of those International petrol V8s.

I have great memories of it that V8 engine sound together with the sirens as it raced away to an emergency from Eastwood Fire Station.

What year did the fiorst one enter service and was the Dennis the predecessor?

Another question,what does 2500 on the front refer to?Can't be it's engine capacity!What is the V8's engine capacity BTW and who made them?
NSW, the state that embraces mediocrity.
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Mercedes_MkII_2125
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Re: NSW Fire Brigades "Varley" units on call out

Post by Mercedes_MkII_2125 »

boronia wrote:That is a factory built "crew cab". the front and rear doors are the same.

The NSW standard pumpers had a standard single cab chassis with the separate rear cabin built as part of the firefighting bodywork.
yeah thats teh cab I'm thinking of, which the majority of NSW trucks had.
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Re: NSW Fire Brigades "Varley" units on call out

Post by Mercedes_MkII_2125 »

Swift 584 wrote:The other night I heard the sound of a thumping V8 vehicle pulling over in front of my place in Woy Woy.I thought it was a Ford F100 or similar but then I heard the sound of air brakes coming from it. :?

When I looked outside,though the bushes I could make out a bits of a fire truck with firecrew disembarking.It must have been one of those International petrol V8s.

I have great memories of it that V8 engine sound together with the sirens as it raced away to an emergency from Eastwood Fire Station.

What year did the fiorst one enter service and was the Dennis the predecessor?

Another question,what does 2500 on the front refer to?Can't be it's engine capacity!What is the V8's engine capacity BTW and who made them?
There is no 2500 Acco, Most of the V8 petrols were 1610, 1710 or 1810 models. The Petrol was made by International Harvester and was either 345 (or more commonly on these trucks) 392 ci (about 6.5 litres i think. Coupled to an alison these are a gem of a vehicle.
Regards, Lee Huntington
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boronia
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Re: NSW Fire Brigades "Varley" units on call out

Post by boronia »

Mercedes_MkII_2125 wrote:
boronia wrote:That is a factory built "crew cab". the front and rear doors are the same.

The NSW standard pumpers had a standard single cab chassis with the separate rear cabin built as part of the firefighting bodywork.
yeah thats teh cab I'm thinking of, which the majority of NSW trucks had.
This is the add on cab used on the Perrie built pumpers for NSWFB, NTFB, Army and some other brigades. It uses standard ACCO doors, but the rest is custom built.
IMG_0238 (Medium).JPG
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Re: NSW Fire Brigades "Varley" units on call out

Post by Peta mechanic. »

I have to make a correction here to an earlier post in this thread (sorry Boronia!). I noticed a comment about the Firepacs being repowered with the same engine as the Varleys but unfortunately that didn't happen. I saw some of the Firepacs being worked on at Cummins and yes, they do have a Cummins engine now but it is an ISB, a smaller engine than the ISC. I asked why that was happening and quite simply it was because the ISC wouldn't fit under the cab of the Firepac. I don't know what transmission they ended up with but the perfomance is definitely different between the two vehicles. Watching the old pump 32 (MT. Druitt) Varley going past my house compared to a Firepac could definitely prove the difference in engine size and performance between these two vehicles. It's a shame that these vehicles aren't produced now, the Firepac was the first fully integrated fire appliance in the fleet since the Dennis vehicles all those years ago which was a notable point of history.The engine that came out of the Firepacs was a Cat. 3116 in case anyone was wondering, they didn't make the "grade" when it came to longetivity unfortunately.

As for the Skyjet bodied Acco in the photos here, a magnificent vehicle in their day. That one here is from Miranda but I remember the one that used to be at Blacktown (63). They had a VT555 Cummins in them with an Allison auto. and yes, they sounded brilliant! Pulling rear stabilizer legs out them was a nice job (not!), I did that on the one in these photos! Remember that B?

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Re: NSW Fire Brigades "Varley" units on call out

Post by boronia »

Thanks for clarifying the engine details Pete. The Brigade was not too impressed with the Cat engines when they were new, but Austral virtually said take it or leave it. A lot of re-engineering was required when Varley rebuilt them with the Cummins.

The Varleys have a ZF Ecomat HP500, the Firepacs probably still haved the original Allison box.

That bloody stabiliser leg is still leaking a bit.
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