Date:         Mon, 3 Oct 1994 12:39:52 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Thom Fitzpatrick" <thom@tim.com>
Subject:      Re: Five Year Dream Car Pick

>$100,000?!?!? Why?! They most definitely don't cost that much in Germany.
>UniMoGs are plain old utility vehicules, often used by the forestry
>departments. I know a farmer in my Mom's native village in Lower Saxony,
>who owns one; and he wouldn't be that rich.

Thats the price I'd heard before, too.  The US Bureau of Land Management
has a fleet of them they use as fire engines.  They are pretty bitchin
little fire rigs.  They have a dozer blade in front, carry about 300 galons
of water, but with a pressurized tank setup.  I'm pretty sure they 
are classified as type IV fire vehicles, but they may be Type III's.  
(Please note that I'm talking about fire vehicle classes and not VW classes)
The US Forest Service was considering getting them, and I'd heard that they
did, but I never actually saw one.  I saw 2 strike teams (5 engines in
a strike team) on a fire in Stanislaus County, could've been the Stanislaus
Complex fire, but I'm getting old and my memory isn't as good as it used 
to be.  If you want a relatively cheap, big 4x4, you can buy used model 5
fire engines from the California Department of Forestry.  I don't know how
much they get for them, but they use International conventional cab 4x4's, and
they have tremendous ground clearance.  I remember coming back from a fire
and driving thru San Jose on "cruise night" and the boys with their raised-up
Toyotas were out in force; we pulled up next to one huge truck at a light, 
and I looked _down_ at him and sed "Nice truck.  When are you going to raise
it up?"  He just looked up in awe as we left in a cloud of diesel fumes...

Ok, thats enough.

Thom
>> Daddy, why doesn't this magnet pick up this floppy disk?
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:    Thom Fitzpatrick                             Transamerica Info Mgmnt  :
:  Systems Administrator                          1860 Howe Ave            :
:  tfitzpatrick@tim.com                           Sacramento, CA 95825     :
:   fax (916) 921-6781                            (916) 565-3346           :
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