Tiller Trucks in Westchester County

[Steve 78]

Can anybody advise how many tillers trucks are in Westchester County and which Departments they are assigned to?

[Guest gags120]

I know ladder 22 from hastings is a tiller. '85 LaFrance

[JBE 328]

Port Chester has(had) one. Mamaroneck has one. I think Rye.

[E64PCFD2044 1]

LADDER 31 PCFD - 1981(I believe) Seagrave 100' Tiller

[LCFD994 8]

Mamaroneck Village Ladder 20

Port Chester Ladder 31 ( if its still there )

Rye - used to have one not still sure they do.

Hastings Ladder 22 ( as per gags 120 )

Harrison the old Ladder 24 was a Tiller

all I can think of off the top of my head, sounds like they are a dying breed...

[mfc2257 464]

At one point, if I recall, Rye actually had two tillers out of the HQ station. One for the career guys and one staffed by the vollies. Both were Seagraves and had a few years on them.

[Guest]

port chester has ladder 31

rye has ladder 26

mamaroneck has ladder 20

[spin_the_wheel 460]

Almost anyone who has used a tiller and no longer do will tell you the reason they no longer run one is the need for 2 chauffeurs, not for what the truck can do. They are the most versatile ladder truck you can get, as far as maneuvering through congested streets and setting up in just about any placement situation. I know of a Volunteer Company on LI who for 75 years never ran with a tiller rig, and in 2004 put in service a Spartan LTI tiller, it's the best rig they have ever used and have adapted to its use very well. Of course the are not the norm when it comes to this but they have a strong shift worker force of members who are around during the day and also have 16 chauffers in the company.

[JBE 328]

That wouldn't be Elmont, would it??

[Guest]

ladder 47 i dont know what your talking about we have spect one out and we will eventually get in in a couple of years we are gettin a tiller

[LCFD994 8]

wow i forgot City of White Plains had two tillers, the old Ladders 32 and 34, not sure if they still use them as spares or if they still have them at all.

[JAD622 40]

Mount Vernon back in the 80's had 3 Tillers. They were 60 something LaFrances and they had one re-furbed around 85 or 86. This was the one that flipped over at a job in the early 90's. They also had a Segrave they borrowed from FDNY for a while but it had to go back. Tillers were a great truck for mount vernon and something they should seriously consider bringing back.

[RES20CUE 40]

The Town of Mamaroneck Ladder 19 was originally a tiller, but was replaced in the 70's. Since then, the ladder has used rear-mounts.

[CM36 4]

before dobbs got their tower ladder they also had a tiller truck

[Steve 78]

In 1980 Yonkers had three ALF Tiller Trucks. They were yellow in color. I believe they were assigned to Ladder 71, 73 and 74.

[chris498 31]

Rye had two tillers in service, and ran two tillers for the better half of the 20th century, one is still in service. Ladder 25 was a 1975 Seagrave 100, the other tiller is a 1986 Spartan Tractor mated to a 1956 Maxim 85ft TIller. The 1975 Seagrave replaced a 1929 Seagrave 75ft. Wooden spring hoisted aerial which is now on display at the museum in Hudson........

Village of Mamaroneck had a tiller similar to this one, which was replaced by the 1965 Seagrave Tiller which was replaced by the current Sutphen.

Harrison also had a Seagrave 100ft. Tiller that dated back to the mid-1960's both trucks were open cabs.

Dobbs Ferry replaced their tiller in 1990 with the current aerialscope. The Dobbs hook and ladder was a 100ft. American Lafrance...... the tiller dated back to the late 1940's and the tractor was a 1970 or '71..... it later served White Plains FD as a spare for a few years in the early 1990's. Before the 1971/4X tiller there was also a 192X's ALF tiller with a wooden spring hoisted aerial

White Plains had a 1976 Maxim 100ft. Tiller which was replaced in the mid-1980's by the LTI remount which is the current spare. They also ran a 196X 85ft. open cab tiller well into the 1990's, and a 195X American LaFrance 85ft. Tiller open cab.

Hastings had a 1930 Ahrens Fox 85ft. spring hoisted wooden aerial that later served Patterson NJ, a 1949 ALF open cab 100ft. TIller, and a 1962 ALF 100ft tiller (which later was used by Albany as a spare).

Port Chester at one point had two identical ALF Tillers, both open cabs.... one was a 1948 and the other was a 195X...... there were serveral earlier tillers as well.

Town of Mamaroneck had a 1940 ALF open cab tiller, it was replaced in 1970 or '71 by the white ALF rearmount.

Mount Vernon also had at least one tiller built by Seagrave that dated to the mid-1940's....

For more accurate dates, check the Protection from the past section on the front page. Also, if you have info on departments like Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle, Yonkers and White Plains, I would love to have accurate infor on the rigs that once served those communities.

[Truck4 48]

I started putting the info about Yonkers up and it grew into a monster. I figured it would be better posted under Protection From The Past. I'm also working on a gallery at OnthejobNY of pics to go with the article and this thread.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

HASTING TILLER FROM 1981 TILL THEY GOT NEW RIG IN 1985 USED THE REAR OF LAD 31 FROM PORT CHESTER. THEY HAD SPENT17,000 DOLLERS ON IT IN PORT CHESTER BEFORE THEY REPLACED IT IN 81

[Guest]

It is my belief that some communities in Westchester, particularly those along the Hudson and the Sound, with very tight streets could benefit from using tillers. Sleepy Hollow comes to mind. To the Sound shore departments that have given up tillers, you may be going back to them at replacement time. I bet you'll be glad you did. Their manueverability is awesome. Many towns/villages/cities/fire districts around the northeast have looked only at cost and not benefit to drive their decisions away from tillers. I'd be happy to see this trend reversed.

[21Truck 8]

I will agree tillers are a very versatile and great piece of apparatus. Where i'm from in jersey our truck co. uses a tiller and has for many years. The only problem I find with tillers is you need 2 drivers to run the truck. During the day a lot of places that are volunteers have a man power shortage. So probably 9 times out of 10 that truck won't respond. I think thats why most dept's have gone to running rear mounts and towers. My current dept runs a rearmount and we can get it in alot of tight spots. I think the only way to get a rear mount to manuver like a tiller is to go with all wheel steering. But tillers are beatuiful pieces of apparatus that are quite enjoyable to look at

[Remember585 815]

I have a question that is kind of related......hope I'm not "hijacking" this thread.

Would buying a single axle rear-steer unit help? I know that tillers require a 2nd driver, but sometimes that's not possible.

Any real truck drivers or people-in-the-know that can shed some light on this?

[Guest]

To 21truck, a volunteer department can use the tiller as a recruiting tool, the tiller was in all the colouring books FD's passed out in grade schools come Fire Prevention Week. Parking one outside the quarters twice a month could prove beneficial. Not a foolproof solution to be sure, but likely to be worthwhile.

[E64PCFD2044 1]

Port Chester had a 3-wheel Knox tractor and tiller way back when.

[25truck26 29]

The info on the City of Rye is correct and in 2001 the 1975 Seagrave tiller was replaced by a 2001 Seagrave single axel low profile 100 ft rearmount. The problem with the tiller was that, as 21 Truck stated 9 out of 10 times it wasn't going out. This annoyed the career staff and some of the volunteers that looked past tradition. Rye's Ladder 26 is somewhat in service. that is the 1985 Spartan tractor with 1955 Ladder. Tillers are nice for those tight streets and Rye has a few but the overall feeling in Rye is that everyone loves the new ladder 25 and it does the job; including getting down the tight streets. In Rye if they replace 26 which could happen soon it will NOT be with a tiller.

[21Truck 8]

Ah but why buy a tiller to use it as a recruiting tool? I'm all for tradition and would love to have a tiller but the fact is now a days we have to realize that the volunteer base isn't what it used to be. Not many members work in town like they used to. They all have to commute to somewhere for work. Rearmounts, and midmounts are now the way to go as well as towers. Look at a city like Boston. They don't have a single tiller and have some tight as hell streets to manuver through. If you want a ladder to get into the tight streets a single axle rearmount would work. I've seen pics of Rye's rearmount that replaced a tiller and it is a nice looking truck and i'm sure it gets into a lot of places. Unless you have a career staff or enough manpower around during the day will make a tiller reasonable. Like I said before down in Jersey where I grew up they have a tiller and if I remembered correct it doesn't respond as muchduring the day only because the lack of manpower.

[x242Steve 1]

For those of you who follow the Communications boards, you will be interested to know that Rye having tillered rigs in the past was directly tied to them self-dispatching.

Up until 2001, the Ladder driver (paid man) would act as dispatcher until a tillerman (volunteer) showed up, at which point the phones would be turned over to county. If no tillerman showed up (like when the alarm company called back right away to report workmen, malfunction, etc.) then the Ladder driver would finish out the call in the office.

Once the rear-mount ladder was purchased, the Ladder driver still dispatched the alarm, but if it was a full assignment then he would immediately turn over the phones to 60.

Which brings us to today and being fully dispatched by 60.

And another side note, 21Truck mentioned Boston streets- I drove a Ford F350 with a 10' flatbed and a 8-1/2' Plow blade in Boston and THAT had a hard time negotiating some turns, so more power to the BFD for not taking out every car thats parked on a corner.

[Guest gags120]

Hastings has put together a rig committee for purchase of a new ladder truck. One of the salesmen told them to not even consider a straight job b/c of some of the turns and streets. Some of our engines have trouble in some of our tight streets up in the hills. Of course it depends who is driving.

[spin_the_wheel 460]

On Long Island Elmont FD is 100% volunteer, one of the truck companies in town replaced a rear mount with a tiller and they get out all the time in fact 708 is one of the first trucks out all the time. I guess it depends on the makeup of the company. They have 16 chauff.s' of a company of about 27 members.

[Guest]

Someone mentioned Boston. I was up there some years ago when the E-One's were nearly completely phased in. There were a few tillers in the reserve fleet. I asked a truck Captain what he liked about the E-One and his reply nearly had me splitting my sides. In the deadpan, drawling way Bostonians are known to speak he says "when the E-One goes in for service, I get my ****ing Maxim tiller back."

[Guest bnn327mike]

Besides riding my Harley's the wildest ride ever was in the backseat "tillering", Elmont was the first and only one on the Island to do that and go out and buy a tiller when their trucks before were rearmounts and all of Long Island volunteer except for 2 combo dept's in Nassau, Truck 2 always had a good crew when activated having alot of guys who were city fd or pd around during the day, besides Elmont, only Freeport and Glen Cove have tillers, Freeport just got a new 2004 Seagrave to replace their old ALF tiller and Glen Coves 's tiller is old and I'm not sure if they are going to replace it with another tiller, all other fd's in Nassau have not replaced the tillers when it came time for a new rig, it's ashame because they (tillers) are in a class of their own (and one hell of a ride too)....................Mike :wink: