The Crown Body & Coach Corporation, also known as the Crown Firecoach Division of Crown Coach Corporation was a custom chassis and fire apparatus manufacturer located in Los Angeles and Chino, California. It's most famous product was the cab-forward Crown Firecoach chassis.
History[]
The Crown Carriage Company was formed in 1904 as a horse-drawn carriage manufacturer, moving into truck bodies and buses by 1915. In 1935, Crown introduced the Supercoach custom cab-forward school bus, a ground-breaking design in the school bus field. As the student population exploded during the postwar baby boom, Crown introduced a new mid-engine Supercoach.
Throughout the Second World War, Crown was tasked with building fire apparatus on commercial chassis for the United States military. After this introduction into the fire apparatus business, Crown's engineers developed a version of the Supercoach for the fire service. The first Firecoach was completed in 1951. At this time, only American LaFrance was building cabover apparatus.
In 1960, Crown became the west coast distributor for the Snorkel Fire Equipment Company which allowed them to offer Snorkels, and later Squrts and Telesqurts. In 1966, Crown entered into an agreement with the Maxim Motor Company allowing them to offer rear-mount, mid-mount, and tractor-drawn ladders built on a Crown chassis. On January 1, 1971, Crown became the west coast distributor for Pierce Manufacturing. This agreement allowed Crown to build more custom apparatus on it's Firecoach chassis, while Pierce would receive commercial chassis, build apparatus bodies, and return the apparatus to Crown for final outfitting and sales, with an associated 5-digit Crown job number.
Crown largely used Hall-Scott and Waukesha gasoline engines in it's Firecoach line of apparatus In the 1950's and 1960's. With the growing popularity of Diesel engines, Crown began offering Caterpillar, Cummins, Detroit Diesel, and Hall-Scott engines in Diesel variations. Older apparatus produced by various manufacturers aside from Crown were often sent to be re-powered by Crown technicians throughout the 1960's and 1970's to incorporate these new Diesel engines.
In 1979, Crown Coach was sold, with the last Firecoach being built in 1982. Operations moved from Los Angeles to a plant in Chino, California in 1984. At the Chino plant, 5 Firecoach chassis were produced and built by P.E. Van Pelt Inc. in 1984 and 1985. GE Railcar acquired Crown in 1987 and operations ceased altogether in 1991.
Crown ended the agreement with Pierce in 1983 after Pierce began building custom chassis itself.
The vast majority of Crown's sales were in the western United States, including the states of California, Washington, and Hawaii. Some apparatus were built and delivered to departments in the states of Arizona, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah. 4 pumpers were also built for Kuwait, and 1 for Queretaro, Mexico.
A total of 865 apparatus were built under the Firecoach name, with an additional 173 apparatus recieving Crown job numbers through the arrangement with Pierce.
Common Buyers[]
- Los Angeles Fire Department - 145 apparatus
- Los Angeles County Fire Department - 141 apparatus
- Orange County Fire Authority - 39 apparatus
- Honolulu Fire Department - 34 apparatus
Milestones[]
The last Firecoach produced from the Chino plant was used by Van Pelt to build a 1985 pumper for the Santa Monica Fire Department. The chassis was serial number 75005.
See also[]
Departments operating Crown apparatus
Sources[]
- McCall, Walter M.P. Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Fire Engine Manufacturers. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2009. ISBN 9781583882528