Oshkosh T1500

That's a picture of my new favorite ride in the world. It's the Oshkosh T1500 ARFF vehicle. It's equipped with a turret and 1500 gallons of water. It drives like a champ and is a blast to use.

As you might be able to guess, I had the opportunity to take this vehicle out for a spin today. Although we didn't really do much with it other than run around a small obstacle course and hit some targets with the turret, I had a blast. I managed to impress the instructor and one of the other guys riding up in the cab with my driving, which made it even better. It felt a lot like tillering to me, except I could finally turn the wheel in the right direction.

Overall, she handles very well and is a ton of fun to drive. We also had the opportunity to take out a much newer model ARFF truck, but I did not have as much fun in it. It had lots of buttons and automatic features, but didn't feel like you were actually a part of the unit. Driving it felt like a game and didn't feel real. This coupled with the plastic new car smell it had kind of ruined it for me.

Maybe I'm just used to using old, beat up equipment. Maybe I'm just more comfortable with something that's old and battle worn. Either way, as long as it works without some fancy gadget malfunctioning, I'm pretty happy.

We're doing a lot of burns tomorrow. I'll try to get some pictures. I'm hoping I get a chance to take the old Oshkosh for a spin again soon.