Fifty-Seven Feet of Tiller: Sutphen's SLTDA 101

Asheville's downtown ladder company already knows what a tiller buys. Ladder 1, a tractor-drawn aerial (TDA) bought for $1.2 million in 2019, was running more than 2,800 calls a year out of the downtown station when the city wrote about it in 2021. A tiller, the city said, lets its firefighters "more safely maneuver through the narrow streets and challenging terrain of downtown Asheville." The department's first motorized tiller, an American LaFrance, went into service in 1923 for $16,100.

Its next one is a Sutphen, and it's the first of a new model. The SLTDA 101 is Sutphen's second tractor-drawn aerial, a shorter version of the SLTDA 105 that came out four years ago. According to Sutphen, the 101 was designed for departments facing "tighter streets, limited station space, or challenging access conditions," and the design grew out of feedback from fire departments around the country.

"This unit is extremely special; not only is this Sutphen's first SLTDA 101, but this will also be the Asheville Fire Department's first Sutphen apparatus," said Adam Bordeaux, vice president of First Choice Fire & Safety, Sutphen's North Carolina dealer.

What the shorter rig gives up

Length depends on options, and even the longest 101 is shorter than the shortest 105.

The 101 also uses a five-section ladder where the 105 has four, and the trade shows up in reach and storage.

Horizontal reach is what a truck officer feels on a building set back from the street, and the 101 gives up a little over 7 feet there, along with about 190 cubic feet of compartment space.

Everything else on the spec sheet matches the 105. Both are rated for a 750-pound tip load dry and 500 pounds wet with a 3:1 safety factor, and both flow 1,500 gallons per minute (gpm) through the aerial with an electric, remote-controlled monitor at the tip. The aerial works from minus 5 to plus 75 degrees. One set of H-style outriggers spreads 18 feet, with short-jacking for narrow roads and alleys, and the trailer can jackknife up to 90 degrees for turning and for aerial setup. The aerial carries a 30-year structural and corrosion warranty.

Built on the Monarch

The 101 rides on Sutphen's Monarch custom chassis, with a huck-bolted aluminum aerial and a #304 stainless steel body. Tractor wheelbase runs from 153 to 180 inches. The body can carry up to 315 feet of ground ladders, a water tank of up to 300 gallons and up to eight air bottles stored in the fender wells. Buyers can choose a Hale, Waterous or no pump, and Akron, Elkhart or Task Force Tips monitors.

The tiller cab is the same as on the 105: 62.5 inches wide at hip and shoulder, with an enclosed trainer's seat for breaking in new tillermen. Sutphen calls it the largest tiller cab on the market.

Asheville's build

The Asheville truck now appears on Sutphen's deliveries page with this build sheet:

• Four-door, six-person cab
• Cummins X15 engine at 605 horsepower, with an Allison Gen 6 EVS4500 transmission
• QMAX single-stage pump at 1,500 gpm, with a 200-gallon tank
• Four discharges (three 2½-inch and one 4-inch) and one crosslay
• Over 410 cubic feet of compartments, with a high transverse compartment up front and ground ladders enclosed in the rear
• Elkhart Cobra monitor at the tip
• Wireless five-position headset intercom

With an Insurance Services Office (ISO) Class 1 rating, the Asheville department runs 13 stations for a city of nearly 100,000 residents, according to Sutphen. It also has two custom pumpers on order.

The 105 marked Sutphen's return to the tiller market. It was shown at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) in April 2022 as the company's first TDA since the 1990s, and that first truck went to DeKalb County Fire Rescue in Georgia.

Departments shopping for a tiller now have two Sutphen lengths to choose from, and the choice comes down to tape measures. Measure your tightest turn in first due, your apparatus bay and the setback on the buildings you'd ladder most, then decide whether 7 feet of horizontal reach is worth less to you than 3½ feet of truck.