UPDATE 3/23/17 – This cool old fire truck is still on eBay, but the seller has dropped the price by $30k!
FROM 8/21/15 – This 1933 Ahrens-Fox CT4 fire truck is, well, a real monster, is it not? Can you imagine driving this rig with that long engine and the pump between you and the steer axle? Perhaps that has something to do with why “Big Lizz”, as she is known, has only covered 7,700 miles. That huge engine is a 210 horsepower 935 CID inline 6 with 3-speed manual transmission. Imagine the size of that clutch and how much it must take to shove that pedal to the floor! Big Lizz was built in Cincinnati, Ohio and delivered right across the river to the little town of Covington, Kentucky. Ahrens Mfg. began building fire apparatus in the horse drawn days, so they were around for a long time. They built 5 of these CT4s. This one is original and mostly complete except for the main water tank. After it was retired it went to the Antique Toy & Firehouse Museum in Bay City, Michigan for 27 years and then to the St. Louis Car Museum. It’s had a tune up so it’s said to run well. The St. Louis museum has it listed here on eBay with a BIN of $109,900. I hope someone with deep pockets will purchase this for their collection and hopefully keep it on public display.
I bet Jay Leno does not have one of these!
I really like this rig, but don’t have the need for a fire truck. It reminds me of a fellow from my home town. He owned a local car dealership and owned a firetruck. He weighed 500 lbs
Every year he would drive his firetruck in the Christmas parade with a skinny fellow dressed as Santa. It was ironic and funny at the same time.
I recall a T.V. show a while back where a person was restoring one similar to this one. During his search for missing parts he located a set of correct headlamps for it. As it turned out, they were the actual headlamps from the very truck he was working on. He found them hundreds of miles away and it had been many years since they were removed from the truck. What are the odds?
I hope this one sells but it would be a small market I think.
this seller has 42 vehicles for sale including 2 Waco airplanes. this firetruck is great but some of the other listings interest me more. great find
They are a museum, they must have lots of cool stuff!
The Ahrens Fox trucks of that time are the crown Jewel of motorized fire trucks, probably second only to Amoskeag steamers from the generation before it. They are worth big money, Not sure if that much but not my area of expertise.
This appears to be condition #3 at best so might be wishful thinking but it can’t hurt to ask.
That museum holds car shows during the summer months. We were going to attend one last summer in the Mach1 but something came up suddenly and we were not able to make it, will try again this year, they have a lot of cool vehicles.
Pretty sure there was a Hot Wheels patterned after this rig.
I still have that hot wheels
I’ve always judged how difficult it is to drive something, by how many spokes are in the steering wheel. 5 is the most I’ve seen.( by that logic, Citroen should be the easiest) It’s kind of sad this has been for sale for a while.( it was advertised on Hemmings a while back) Nobody is stepping up to plate for this grand machine. What do you do with it? With museum’s closing left and right, that’s about the only market for it.
Get a couple of guys in turnout coats and drive in the July 4th parade. Howard, I would expect this is a beast to drive.
Down here in Sydney, Australia we have a restored 1929 PS2 model (that appears to be similar) on centre display in our official fire brigade museum. It was used in Sydney for quite a long time because of its pumping capacity and can go out onto the road for official events. I think it might still have been in service in the 1960s.
30+ years is quite a commendable service life.
These are some die hard machines. Our local fire dept purchased an Ahrens-Fox almost identical to this in 1928. Cost then was $13,000. It served till it suffered a major break down in 1966. It then set in one of the stations till 1994, when several firemen decided to get it running, which turned into a complete restoration taking several years. It’s now driven regularly in parades & displayed at other events. Hopefully this one will find a good home & be returned to its former glory.
scottish fire and rescue service heritage trust as a member i am restoring a reo speed wagon 1924 would love to have it as a other one ahrens fox for the museum in scotland but a bit to pricey all the best
i dont see any place to contack the owners about this truck could you advise me how i can get phone number ihave tryed the museum to no joy