Pierce Manufacturing

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Pierce Manufacturing, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary of Oshkosh
Founded	1913
Headquarters	Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Key people	John W. Randjelovic, President Tom Adrians, CFO
Industry	Trucks & Other Vehicles
Products	Fire and Rescue Vehicles
Revenue	$107.80 million (2005)
Employees	780 (2005)
Parent	Oshkosh Truck Corporation
Website	www.piercemfg.com

Pierce Manufacturing is an Appleton, Wisconsin based manufacturer of custom fire and rescue apparatus and a wholly owned subsidiary of Oshkosh Truck Corporation. Pierce was acquired by Oshkosh in 1996. The company was originally founded in 1913 by Humphrey Pierce and his son Dudley as the Pierce Auto Body Works Inc., and concentrated on building custom truck bodies for the Ford Model T. From the 1960s to the early 1980s, Pierce was primarily known for building custom bodies on commercial and other manufacturer's custom chassis, and was considered an OEM. The company's first custom chassis, the Arrow, debuted in 1979. Throughout the years, Pierce has had partnerships with various other manufacturers, notably when it came to aerial devices (they now engineer and build all their own aerial devices in-house). Such aerial manufacturers included Snorkel, Pitman, Aerial Innovations (AI), Ladder Towers Incorporated (LTI), Smeal, Bronto Skylift and Nova Quintech (whose assets Pierce/Oshkosh acquired in 1997). In addition to their main facilities in Wisconsin, they also have facilities in Bradenton, Florida and Ontario, California. The Florida facility is both a manufacturing site for the Contender line of apparatus, as well as a refurbishment center. The California facility is a refurbishment center only.

1 Innovations
2 Products
3 Trivia
4 Gallery of Pierce Apparatus
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Innovations

Pierce is noted for leading the way in fire apparatus innovations, including:

First custom tilt cab (Dash, 1984) and custom split-tilt cab (Lance, 1985) in the industry
All-Steer all wheel steering (1994)
Command Zone fully multiplexed chassis and aerial devices (1996)
TAK-4 independent front suspension (2001)
Side Roll Protection System side airbags (2003)
Pack Mule hydraulically lowered hose bed (2004)
Front airbags (2006)

[edit] Products

[edit] Custom Chassis

Arrow (1979 - 2002)
Arrow XT (2003 - current)
Contender (1999 - current)
Dash (1984 - 1999)
Dash D-8000 (1988 - 1992)
Dash 2000 (1998 - current)
Enforcer (2000 - current)
Impel (2006 - current)
Javelin (1990-1993)
Lance (1985 - 1993)
Lance II (1993 - 1999)
Lance 2000 (1998 - current)
Quantum (1995 - 2004)
Quantum II (2004 - current)
Saber (1992 - current)
Velocity (2006 - current)

[edit] Commercial Chassis

Contender (1999 - current)
Responder (?-1998)

[edit] Apparatus

Rearmount and midmount steel aerial ladders and quints
Rearmount aluminum aerial ladders and quints
Rearmount and midmount steel aerial platforms and quints
Tractor drawn steel aerial ladders and quints
Telescoping and/or articulating water tower booms
Standard, rescue, and heavy duty rescue midship mount pumpers
Rear mount rescue pumpers
Mini pumpers
Pumper tankers/tenders and elliptical tankers/tenders
Wildland/brush pumpers
Walk-in and non-walk-in heavy rescues
Homeland security vehicles
Command and communication vehicles
Foam systems

[edit] Trivia

Although the "Arrow" name was used for their first custom chassis, the company has no affiliation with George N. Pierce's famous Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company of Buffalo, New York, which operated from 1901 to 1938. Oddly enough though, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company supplied 8 and 12 cylinder engines to Seagrave for use in their fire apparatus. These engines continued to be made even after Pierce-Arrow ceased operation in 1938. Seagrave continued to deliver fire apparatus with the "Pierce-Arrow" V-12 until 1970.

[edit] Gallery of Pierce Apparatus

Engine 55 of the Greenfields Fire Co, PA. 1999 Pierce Quantum Pumper	6-Tower of the Hillcrest Fire Co. #1, NY. 2002 Pierce Dash 2000 95' Midmount Aerial Platform Quint	Reserve Engine 249 of the Clay Fire Territory, IN. 1985 Pierce Dash Pumper	Reserve Ladder 18 serving the Lexington Fire Department, KY. Pierce Arrow 105' X-Ladder 1
Aerial 1 serving the Jackson Fire Department, KY. 1988 Pierce Arrow 105' canopy cab	Engine 14 serving the Crab Orchard Fire Department, KY. 2006 Pierce Contender custom cab	Engine 30 serving the Stanton Fire Department, KY. 2002 Pierce Contender-Freightliner crew cab	Engine 2 serving the Jackson Fire Department, KY. 2003 Pierce Contender-Kenworth single cab
Engine 10 serving the Morehead Fire Department, KY. 2005 Pierce Enforcer with Roto Ray	Engine 8 serving the Morehead Fire Department, KY. 1993 Pierce Responder-International crew cab	Engine 3 serving the West Liberty Fire Department, KY. Pierce Responder-International single cab	Engine 7 serving the Morehead Fire Department, KY. 1979 Pierce-Hendrickson custom cab