Fire Service Fleet Switches To Bridgestone

Bridgestone UK says that a growing number of fire and rescue services are changing over to Bridgestone tyres to improve the stability and handling of their fire appliance fleets, particularly in the wet.

The Bridgestone R227 steer axle tyre is fast developing a reputation for superior handling in adverse conditions; the latest converts being the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. Drivers found that a tyre from another manufacturer made their vehicles unstable on both front and rear axles in damp or wet conditions and surface tension and grip was lost when cornering under braking conditions.

A set of test tyres, supplied by Bridgestone, was fitted and, according to Bill Brewster, head of engineering services for East Sussex Fire and Rescue, the tyres were quickly found to be “a vast improvement”.

Bridgestone went further, carrying out tests on appliances at their Italian testing facilities and at the Chobham test track in Surrey. Although fire service vehicles are not legally required to be submitted for plating and testing, an appliance fitted with Bridgestone tyres passed all requirements under EN 1846 and JCDD standards as applied to fire service vehicles.

Mr Brewster said that the tests included items such as braking stopping distance, speed testing, hill starts and freewheeling stopping distances. He added: “We were pleased with the performance of the steer axle tyres and we now fit them as standard to our heavy goods fleet. We have supplied colleagues in other services with information…that in turn has resulted in them switching to Bridgestone.”