Custom Fire, Peterbilt 377, engl.

The Peterbilt 359, built in 1985 on the left, is familiar to all of you who have built the Revell model before. When it came to new vehicles, the Burnsville Fire Department has remained true to its policy of having a fire engine superstructure built on a commercially available chassis. In 1992, a new 377-series Peterbilt arrived in the department.

And in the years that followed, all Peterbilt 359s were replaced by the 377 series. The second 377 followed in 1993 and both remained in service for 20 years and were the last hoods in the Fire Department. The trucks were not scrapped but handed over to smaller fire stations in the USA. I would have liked to own a 359 privately, especially since I had developed the kit for Revell at the time. Model and original at my house, that would have been awesome.

This Peterbilt 377 A/E with the number 4581 in the version as Engine 1 replaced the 359 with the number 585 on November 16, 1993, also Engine 1 at the top of the picture. At that time, the Burnsville Fire Department owned several Peterbilt 359 Conventionals, which were gradually replaced by the 377 A/E series. The vehicle in this photo was built by Custom Fire, a company founded by Jim Kirvida. He was the head of General Safety at the time, and it was under his leadership that the Peterbilt 359 for Burnsville was built. More photos in the archive.

All original photos on this page, copyright: Custom Fire Apparatus

  • Technical specifications
  • Manufacturer: Custom Fire Apparatus, Inc. Osceola, Wisconsin 54020, USA
  • Owner: Burnsville Fire Department, 100 Civic Center Pkwy, Burnsville, Minnesota 55337
  • Chassis: Peterbilt, model 377 A/E, chassis number 1XPCHB8X3RN343046
  • wheelbase: 5994.4 mm, width 2565.4 mm
  • Engine: Caterpillar, model 3406C-ATAAC, 6 cylinder
  • Transmission: Allison automatic transmission, model HT740
  • Pump: Waterous, model CMUYBX-1500, capacity 1500 gallons per minute

Why did I use this Peterbilt in the Fire Truck version here? Quite simply because I know that there are first-class model builders among you who would certainly enjoy building this Peterbilt as a model. On the one hand because it is designed relatively straight and angular and should therefore be quite “easy” to build and on the other hand because the chassis is already available from Italeri, namely as a tractor unit in the version of a Peterbilt 377 A/E in scale 1: 24

Since I unfortunately have no information about the overall length of this vehicle, you have to stick to the given wheelbase of 5994.4 mm, which would be exactly 249.7 mm on a scale of 1:24.

Download drawing right side, click on button.

Download drawing left side, click on button.

This drawing shows the top view of the crew cabin.