Emergency Services Show - 2013... Looking out for the best and worst heavy duty slides on the market

With the show still running at the NEC as I type, I felt it would be a good opportunity to reveal the type of heavy duty slides showcasing on this year's fire vehicles and what fantastic new products are out there.

Firstly let's start with how not to do it.  As you can see this primitive solution is basically a tube within a tube, we noticed a couple of blokes pull this and you could see their ears almost bleeding with the strain as they heaved the small generator out of it's housing.  The rust and the broken paint did not, in this case, lubricate the inner tube and I pitied the poor devils who had to use this on a regular basis.

Hungry for more I prowled the periphery, where vehicle builders were showcasing the big boys and here I found a set of Widney aluminium slides at the bottom of a pull out tray.

In my opinion the use of Aluminium slides on front line vehicles is more to do with cost, rather than performance and therefore I am always a little perturbed to see lighter duty options carrying heavy duty loads.  This is just my personal opinion, and no reflection on Widney who have a great range of products, but in my experience buying cheap often means, buying twice.

I wished them well with their life cycles and went out into the show to find out what I perceive to be the bad boys of the heavy duty slide market.

Chambrelan.  You see them everywhere and this years ESS was no different.  One build we noticed a pair of RA5's, on another a pair of RA7s and then, a small surprise, in that Chambrelan have only just started manufacturing them, was a slam lock draw front on the side of a glisteningly new fire vehicle.

Manufactured in France, Chambrelan's heavy duty slides are considered one of the best ranges of heavy duty slides on the market and with over 60 years of experience, working in the defence, manufacturing, marine, automotive, rolling stock and emergency services industries Chambrelan's heavy duty slides have an impressive pedigree are incredibly built and fantastically robust.

All in all it was a great show and I managed to press the flesh with vehicle builders, both large and small, and was gunned at how positive the vibe was.  All in all it was a good exhibition and I hope everyone had a successful ESS.