This classic pickup celebrated its retirement with just 8,812 miles on the odometer!
When it comes to classic emergency vehicles, fire trucks tend to be among the coolest, and this retired 1976 Ford F-250 brush truck is a perfect example. The New Salem Volunteer Fire Department of Marshville, North Carolina retired their Ford earlier in the year, and they put it up for auction this month. The online auction for this retired brush truck just ended, and it ended up selling on GovDeals.com for about $21,000.
Just the truck alone is cool being the F-250 4x4 long bed, but factor in the vintage fire truck script and the water pumper and you have an instant parade truck! Pretty much all fire trucks tend to be in good condition trucks as they are well cared for by firefighters who rely on them, but this one is especially mint since it's claimed to have less than 9,000 original miles on it. While it might be easy to assume the odometer has rolled over, the pictures of this Ford seem to back up the fact that this truck wasn't driven very far. On top of that, the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department bought the truck when it was brand new, so they would definitely known this truck's mileage.
While the bed is understandably beat up, the rest of this F-250 is in excellent shape especially for a 43-year-old work truck. The body is straight and the bumpers are remarkable, and it even has a nice look to it with those bullet-hole wheels and meaty LT285/70R17 tires. The best part of this fire truck is the "I heart Smokey" bumper sticker, but sadly, the emergency lights and siren will be removed if the truck isn't sold to another fire department.
The interior is another example that this fire truck was rarely used – the seats, steering wheel and pedals have almost no wear! Under the hood is a 360 CID V8 mated to a four-speed manual, and although the engine does show a bit more wear than the rest of the truck, that's probably because it has a lot of idling hours on it while the truck is battling brush fires.
It's sad that the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department had to get rid of the truck in the first place, but here's to hoping it goes to a new owner that can keep it in this condition.
