Look carefully at how the steering wheel is controlling the rear of the vehicle, Left still drives the rear LEFT and right still drives the rear RIGHT, no different than any car, just have to coordinate a little with the rig driver, remember he isn't focused on steering the front, only steering the rear, yes he pays close attention to what the front is doing, but left is left, and right is right.
Abdullah Seba yes if you turn the wrong way you can jack knife or wreck which is the worst thing those tucks are a pain in the ass to get out of a jack knife
I spent 36 years in the fire service almost all of it on a ladder co. the best part of driving any apparatus was tillering. In 1977, when I started on the department the tillermen sat in the aerial, not in a box behind it. You had to clear the seat, steering wheel, and windshield before you could through the stick. The only protection I had from the elements was my turnout gear and a small piece of canvas that hung down from the windshield. Sitting behind the aerial is warmer but you don't see as well because you are sitting lower. Danm I miss it. Stay safe brothers and sisters.
I work in a fire museum and teach the same thing every week I was even lowed to drive the till spot and got the truck out with hitting any thing fire buff for 50 years. stay safe my brother's and sisters next watch.
I drove a tiller for a couple of years. I finally realized it wasn't for me. Had more close calls than I care to remember. Respect for those who still do it.
@@LeftyWriterTx not obviously as kishascape said. I tilled for a bit, and all we had was an alignment pin on the top of the main cab, and a braking indicator light.
My dad retired from the saint Louis fire department as a captian. But he used to be drive the tiller on one. I asked him what's the hardest thing about driving one. He said. The guy driving the front sometimes doesn't realize the back of the truck was 2 feet wider in the back then the front.
@@GiantTurdXx why didn't they just make a 4 wheel turn system connected to the one steering wheel tho Or does having one more guy give significant advantages over that
@@andersonrobotics5608 it's so long, 4 wheel steer wouldn't work. Notice the back guy is turning after the front guy is. It's a totally separate motion, and of course being on the back himself, he has the best view of the correct timing.
That’s definitely an art. I was trying to steer virtually along with the ride, and several times I steered in the opposite direction as the tiller man steered. This must be hard to master.
pfft, that's nothing, try dealing with a vehicle that has all-wheel steering, and the rear axle steering is a switch you can never remember which way is which direction the first time you use it in each 'session', which gives you crab steer (maintaining facing direction whilst moving sideways as well as forward or back), but also sharper steering lock (opposite turning - that's why that type of firetruck has a tiller, it's a long articulated and with fixed instead of steered trailer wheels, he has to take turns wider to stop the trailer going into the corners rather than around the corners). On a mobile crane, it's one driver, and some have automatic sharper steering at slower speeds through addition of the rear axle(s), and have both manual and linked steering modes for crab and sharp,. And the ones I've driven were all manual rear steering with locking the rear axle required for high gears. I've done some of the moves from this video without stopping in one of the cranes (It let me unlock rear steer without stopping) - that is, crabbing over for a weight balance when 'moving over a lane' type of situation because sharp and back sharp has weight transfer issues and can cause a 'wag the dog' type of situation (seen videos of caravans suddenly going all over the place, THAT is why the tiller steers right on one of these intersections where the truck went into a left lane to get around a stopped vehicle, then on the intersection is moving to the right lane but the tiller makes teh trailer stay 'straight' to the overall direction of travel, though not straight to the direction of travel on the intersection itself.) I've never hit anything with any of my cranes except when someone else was an idiot and decided to steal my braking distance coming up to a red light. (cars lost back windows, truck got SLAAAAAMED hard when I want into his box' back doors. dont stop in front of a 40 tonne vehicle folks, it aint stopping on a dime.) some drivers who don't know how to use rear steer, dont try and they've had scrapes because of it.
Seems so complicated though, why not fit it with a counter steering rear axle? Or an intelligent one that switched between counter and crab depending on speed
@@MaartenvanHeek Because when you're weaving through traffic, or narrow streets, or among other firetrucks, you need the fine steering only a separate tiller provide. Plus a ladder truck is long enough that the rear end maneuvers often have to be done seconds _after_ front end maneuvers, and four wheel steering -- where front end and back end maneuvers happen at the same time -- just won't cut it. All in all, it's actually _simpler_ to have a tillerman rather than implementing a delayable, variable all-wheel steering.
Audio from the headsets with ride along videos would be cool. We wanna hear all the shit you guys talk about the bad drivers you have to deal with out in traffic lmfao
I remember I saw a tiller truck in Pheonix when I was there a few years ago and I wondered why there was a person in the back and now I know. Very cool. I could only imagine driving a truck like that because where I live it's impractical to have one of these trucks.
@@ClearwaterBeachBum Rural fire departments have no need for these units. For example, in rural Ontario, it is not uncommon for a firetruck to do most of it's trip in a straight line. Oh, and our trucks go faster than the American trucks, which are governed at 60mph.
@@ClearwaterBeachBum yeah they're just not popular in rural areas where everything is wide open. I've never seen one in Orange County, FL and we're not even rural. The streets and turns are just wide here.
not really, just re watch and focus on one part of the vehicle at time. he's focusing on his wheel only, watch where he moves when he steers it. not that counter-intuitive if you think about it.
First time I saw one of those ladder trucks was as a kid in NY in the 60's, never knew till now that it's reverse steering in the back, I would never be able to handle it, I can barely back a trailer which involves the same reverse steering logic and this is moving forward! Kudos to driver engineers on those trucks!
I designed and built a 50' long float for our archery club in Edmonton's annual K-Days parade. It was too long to navigate the corners so I built a tiller steering system into it. The float was depicting the evolution of archery. I wanted it close to the ground so our archers could step on and off easily to interact with the crowd so the deck was only 8 inches of the ground. The front portion had a prehistoric family hunting a saber tooth tiger, the middle section had robinhood, maid marion, his merry men on one side and the sherrif and his men on the other, and on the back end were at set of Olympic rings and our Olmpic class archers walking along side with their bows talking with people as we traversed the narrow streets. Our club president, although not so smart looked strikingly like Frier Tuck so we dressed him up and sat him down at the tiller steering position. He just couldn't get the hang of it. I had to walk along side the float constantly saying now turn to the right...no your other right! No that's left! through the entire parade. We managed to keep the float on the road until the very last corner where we turned back into the wrap up parking lot where we hit a curb and lost a wheel. This was ok because we built it with almost 50 casters. Needless to say my nerves were raw by then. Very successful day though. We won most of the parade awards which paid for the cost of building the float.
I have a 2 1/2 year-old grandson who is obsessed with their trucks. That’s how we ended up here. This is really neat seeing the view of the fire fighter.
Whatever that man is paid, give him a raise. That steering obviously requires a lot of skill, practice, and alertness. Plus, his kidneys are destroyed by the lousy ride.
I was wincing about that myself, company I worked for had some side loaders that where super bouncy unladen (no suspension, heavy semi pneumatic tires) and we could only work on them for a couple of hours a day and the company would move people to other sections entirely after a while.
The volunteer department I was with back in the eighties had a 1941 tractor-tiller combo, but I never had occasion to drive either end. It was crashed within my first year or so, and we got a straight-truck as a replacement. There was an arcade game back then, too, that had two players navigating such a rig. My brother and I pretty much sucked at it. ;-)
I remember the arcade game, there was one in the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World. My brother and I spent many dollars on that one! Loooong time ago.
Atari Firetruck. Awesome game. 1 player sat in the seat controlling the tractor, and the 2nd player stood behind, steering the rear. Old school, black & white 70's arcade fun.
Never seen this kind of vehicle before that requires front and rear driver!! Amazing skill set for both drivers to safely navigate day/night time traffic enough such a long length vehicle... and then to top it off when they get to their location they save lives... 2 for 2 in my eyes
I had no idea this was the case. I thought it would happen automatically like those multi axle buses with rear wheel steering. Very interesting and thanks for uploading this.
There for is a reason: those way to big American style firetrucks are too big for us here in the Netherlands. We have more advanced and smaller firetrucks, but the can do the same job.
In many departments, the tiller driver is someone that has been driving the tractor (front) of the ladder truck for several years. In my home state of Virginia, tiller operators and airport crash truck drivers carried the highest level of emergency vehicle operations certification.
in a station to day thay use blue lights for med's and red lights for fires along with the tones and in the newer station's the bedrooms have no windows it helps you fall asleep faster
I see one of these often in the city where I work. There is more to it than you see in the video. The driver in the video was simply steering the rear end to the outside on each turn so that it wouldn't track into curbs, cars, etc. The truck can also slew sideways (like changing lanes on the freeway) by turning the rear end the same way as the front. The real trick, however, is if you ever have to back it up! Very fun trucks to watch in tight quarters - surprisingly agile!
Such an amazing machine with very skilled operators. I remember when my local FD had a tiller YEARS ago, when I was in elementary school. I loved seeing it.
It's a tractor trailer type of thing with pivot point and a second cab on the back. The rear most axle has it's own steering so such a massive vehicle can squeeze thru tight streets & turns
It’s just a second steering mechanism. The front driver steers the front wheels and the rear driver steers the rear wheels. If the front driver steers right then the rear driver can steer left and a second later right again to make very tight turns. Must be fun to try.
There are also trucks in germany with a steering rear axis, but they do it automatically To see something like this feels real weird from here, its way outdated tech
In the mid 2,000's, I got to see a Nashville (TN) "Hook & Ladder" responding (oldest unit in the FD IIRC) and it had a MANUAL Tiller, worst yet, this was while they were building the new Symphony Hall (where the Fire House used to be) and building a new Fire House so it was stationed in the Repair Yard and had to make a hard left followed soon after by a hard right from and to on two narrow side streets!) The poor guy at the Tiller was working like a mad man, hauling on the steering wheel to maneuver his end around!!! Perfect teamwork between him and the driver!! >>> However, you can imagine my feelings when I saw this beast "drift" sideways across all 3 lanes of 2nd Ave. going southbound on a One-Way northbound, coming at me, with no way for me to get off of 2nd Ave. at that point (not even a driveway!)!!!!
Fascinating to watch. I never really thought about how different it would be to drive one of those. He literally has to turn left before he can turn right. As a kid, I wanted to be a firefighter who got to drive the back of the tiller.
This is so cool I had no idea they could do this….Firefighters (and their trucks!) are awesome dude I’ve got good friends that are alive today only because of the DC fire department being so damn good at their jobs. I think this is the most honorable and noble job on the planet.
Probably wouldn’t help a lot, he’s on top of the axle so every bump he’s feeling the full effect of, it’s like the old cab over semi trucks, hard riding because of the placement over the front axle
For years I drove a 1990 Honda Prelude that had four wheel steering. Definitely a different feeling to take turns! Obviously, different than this but has some similarities in the way I'm sure it feels to take the turns.
It not as complicated as you may think it is... you are in charge of a set of wheels... that is directly under him... If where you are going too far to the right... you move more to the left... if you are going too far to the left... you move more to the right... Now in the intersection part where the driver was turning to the right... the guy in the back also turned right.. make it looks like it sliding sideways in the intersection. this last part maybe the complicated part for me if i took on this role.
My favorite arcade game in '70's was being the tiller driver. I spent half my quarters playing that game. I'd still play it if I knew an arcade that had one.
It would be so cool being a tiller driver. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no tiller fire trucks in Australia. All Fire Trucks are similar to the trucks they have in Europe.
I remember (about 15 years ago) when a Hook & Ladder (like the one shown in this video) was responding to a fire. It was the oldest H&L in the Nashville, TN fleet at that time and had manual steering for the tiller operator! (Unlike the one shown which had power assist....). The street that they were on had an offset of about 75 feet (~22.9 meters). They came around the corner having to go the wrong way on a one way street that I was on. The Tiller swung wide taking up left hand lane while to take the next street the engine was in the right hand lane. And then the engine made the turn and the Tiller Operator was switching to the right hand lane. He was working hard as the H&L was going around 35 mph (~56.4 kph) which impressed me very much. Even though I was a bit scared since until near the end I was wondering how I was supposed to be to avoid a Hook & Ladder Truck going down the road at a diagonal and taking up All Three Lanes!!!
When i still worked at the fod as a tiller driver. Our cheif told us for people who dont yeild just uh tiller a bit less on the turns if ya know what i mean.... Our truck had massive protecters so it didnt damage the tiller
What skill im from the UK how epic would it be to see a rear steer fire truck driving around like that unfortunatly we have a little dennis or scania fast yes but not as epic as that truck skill keep up the good work guys one love to all you fire fighters all over the world 👍
"I'll put it simple: if you're going hard enough left, you'll find yourself turning right." - Doc Hudson, The Fabulous Hudson Hornet.
Cars 😁
car's 😍
cars 🙂
Cars🏎️
Cars 🚗🚗
I wonder if he ever accidentally turns the wrong way in his personal vehicle
LMAO
That’s why I dont wanna be a tiller. I’d have problems driving a real car
🤔🤣😂
Look carefully at how the steering wheel is controlling the rear of the vehicle, Left still drives the rear LEFT and right still drives the rear RIGHT, no different than any car, just have to coordinate a little with the rig driver, remember he isn't focused on steering the front, only steering the rear, yes he pays close attention to what the front is doing, but left is left, and right is right.
@@anthonyklein2944 True, but he's still steering left when going around a right hand turn and steering right to go around a left hand turn.
Got this recommended after watching fire truck drifting.
Yes, me too. NOW with this I can understand the "drift" video. We don't have this kind of looooong vehicle here in Hungary, Central-Europe. :-)
@@Antwort1996 :-) Szeva! Nálunk nincsenek ilyenek, úgyhogy elsőre fura volt.
Same here bro.
Same.
Bruhhh sameeee😳😳😳😳😳
0:16 Ah, so the last one out has to close the garage door...
Lol
@@ismaelamaro2451 shut up
The look in his eyes as he closed the garage door was too much for me hahaha he was seriously focused on closing that door
I didn’t catch that at first!😂😎
He opened it too!
I did not know that there was a second driver to these kinds of trucks. Very interesting!
Same. I wonder if you can mess up tho or does it not let you somehow....
Abdullah Seba yes you can definitely mess up
Abdullah Seba yes if you turn the wrong way you can jack knife or wreck which is the worst thing those tucks are a pain in the ass to get out of a jack knife
They’re used in bigger cities like New York or LA has them.
@@gavinanderson3583 I've seen them in small towns because they can be used to get in and out of things a big ladder can't.
I spent 36 years in the fire service almost all of it on a ladder co. the best part of driving any apparatus was tillering. In 1977, when I started on the department the tillermen sat in the aerial, not in a box behind it. You had to clear the seat, steering wheel, and windshield before you could through the stick. The only protection I had from the elements was my turnout gear and a small piece of canvas that hung down from the windshield. Sitting behind the aerial is warmer but you don't see as well because you are sitting lower. Danm I miss it. Stay safe brothers and sisters.
thank you for sharing and thank you for your service
Thanks for sharing and thanks for your badassery!!!!
I work in a fire museum and teach the same thing every week I was even lowed to drive
the till spot and got the truck out with hitting any thing fire buff for 50 years.
stay safe my brother's and sisters next watch.
I drove a tiller for a couple of years. I finally realized it wasn't for me. Had more close calls than I care to remember. Respect for those who still do it.
Just out of curiosity, do the tillerman and driver coordinate turns via headset?
@@LeftyWriterTx obviously
@@LeftyWriterTx not obviously as kishascape said. I tilled for a bit, and all we had was an alignment pin on the top of the main cab, and a braking indicator light.
Very beginning he hits the button to close the garage door - good man.
My dad retired from the saint Louis fire department as a captian. But he used to be drive the tiller on one. I asked him what's the hardest thing about driving one. He said. The guy driving the front sometimes doesn't realize the back of the truck was 2 feet wider in the back then the front.
wait. then whats the wheel for i thought it was to controll the left right of the ladder.
@@lindinle It steers the back end of the truck.
@@GiantTurdXx why didn't they just make a 4 wheel turn system connected to the one steering wheel tho
Or does having one more guy give significant advantages over that
@@andersonrobotics5608 Couldn't tell ya, I didn't design it, you would have to ask them sorry.
@@andersonrobotics5608 it's so long, 4 wheel steer wouldn't work. Notice the back guy is turning after the front guy is. It's a totally separate motion, and of course being on the back himself, he has the best view of the correct timing.
That’s definitely an art. I was trying to steer virtually along with the ride, and several times I steered in the opposite direction as the tiller man steered. This must be hard to master.
pfft, that's nothing, try dealing with a vehicle that has all-wheel steering, and the rear axle steering is a switch you can never remember which way is which direction the first time you use it in each 'session', which gives you crab steer (maintaining facing direction whilst moving sideways as well as forward or back), but also sharper steering lock (opposite turning - that's why that type of firetruck has a tiller, it's a long articulated and with fixed instead of steered trailer wheels, he has to take turns wider to stop the trailer going into the corners rather than around the corners).
On a mobile crane, it's one driver, and some have automatic sharper steering at slower speeds through addition of the rear axle(s), and have both manual and linked steering modes for crab and sharp,. And the ones I've driven were all manual rear steering with locking the rear axle required for high gears. I've done some of the moves from this video without stopping in one of the cranes (It let me unlock rear steer without stopping) - that is, crabbing over for a weight balance when 'moving over a lane' type of situation because sharp and back sharp has weight transfer issues and can cause a 'wag the dog' type of situation (seen videos of caravans suddenly going all over the place, THAT is why the tiller steers right on one of these intersections where the truck went into a left lane to get around a stopped vehicle, then on the intersection is moving to the right lane but the tiller makes teh trailer stay 'straight' to the overall direction of travel, though not straight to the direction of travel on the intersection itself.)
I've never hit anything with any of my cranes except when someone else was an idiot and decided to steal my braking distance coming up to a red light. (cars lost back windows, truck got SLAAAAAMED hard when I want into his box' back doors. dont stop in front of a 40 tonne vehicle folks, it aint stopping on a dime.) some drivers who don't know how to use rear steer, dont try and they've had scrapes because of it.
"steer away from the corner" could help as a mnemonic
Seems so complicated though, why not fit it with a counter steering rear axle? Or an intelligent one that switched between counter and crab depending on speed
@@MaartenvanHeek Because when you're weaving through traffic, or narrow streets, or among other firetrucks, you need the fine steering only a separate tiller provide.
Plus a ladder truck is long enough that the rear end maneuvers often have to be done seconds _after_ front end maneuvers, and four wheel steering -- where front end and back end maneuvers happen at the same time -- just won't cut it.
All in all, it's actually _simpler_ to have a tillerman rather than implementing a delayable, variable all-wheel steering.
I don't think so. It comes pretty natural if you think "I have to clear the tight corners"
That is a pretty neat perspective. They really need to get him an air ride seat though.
And maybe a five-point harness. Catching a curb with the rear wheels looks headache-inducing.
It does have an air ride seat
That is an air ride seat. They're usually extremely bouncy, especially when they get old.
that must be the same seat from an international, hit a bump and still bouncing half a mile down the road.
@@faatman42 aint that right !!!
Audio from the headsets with ride along videos would be cool. We wanna hear all the shit you guys talk about the bad drivers you have to deal with out in traffic lmfao
I dont onow if UA-cam would like that though because we say some no no words for UA-cam
It’s mainly “get out of the fckin way and dumbass n stuff like that
@Bill Rock the fuck did I do to you bro
@@maxhallman1036 Maybe its an example of what you guys say haha
@@protorandom9097 oh yeah that's a wee bit on the milder side of it
I remember I saw a tiller truck in Pheonix when I was there a few years ago and I wondered why there was a person in the back and now I know. Very cool. I could only imagine driving a truck like that because where I live it's impractical to have one of these trucks.
Where do you live? I can see the practicality of these type of trucks anywhere because of their ability to access tight turning areas.
@@ClearwaterBeachBum Rural fire departments have no need for these units. For example, in rural Ontario, it is not uncommon for a firetruck to do most of it's trip in a straight line. Oh, and our trucks go faster than the American trucks, which are governed at 60mph.
@@ClearwaterBeachBum yeah they're just not popular in rural areas where everything is wide open. I've never seen one in Orange County, FL and we're not even rural. The streets and turns are just wide here.
Man, that is so counter-intuitive. That is some real teamwork.
not really, just re watch and focus on one part of the vehicle at time. he's focusing on his wheel only, watch where he moves when he steers it. not that counter-intuitive if you think about it.
First time I saw one of those ladder trucks was as a kid in NY in the 60's, never knew till now that it's reverse steering in the back, I would never be able to handle it, I can barely back a trailer which involves the same reverse steering logic and this is moving forward! Kudos to driver engineers on those trucks!
I designed and built a 50' long float for our archery club in Edmonton's annual K-Days parade. It was too long to navigate the corners so I built a tiller steering system into it. The float was depicting the evolution of archery. I wanted it close to the ground so our archers could step on and off easily to interact with the crowd so the deck was only 8 inches of the ground. The front portion had a prehistoric family hunting a saber tooth tiger, the middle section had robinhood, maid marion, his merry men on one side and the sherrif and his men on the other, and on the back end were at set of Olympic rings and our Olmpic class archers walking along side with their bows talking with people as we traversed the narrow streets. Our club president, although not so smart looked strikingly like Frier Tuck so we dressed him up and sat him down at the tiller steering position. He just couldn't get the hang of it. I had to walk along side the float constantly saying now turn to the right...no your other right! No that's left! through the entire parade. We managed to keep the float on the road until the very last corner where we turned back into the wrap up parking lot where we hit a curb and lost a wheel. This was ok because we built it with almost 50 casters. Needless to say my nerves were raw by then. Very successful day though. We won most of the parade awards which paid for the cost of building the float.
Look at him, bobbing up and down with excitement over having the coolest seat in the house.
I have a 2 1/2 year-old grandson who is obsessed with their trucks. That’s how we ended up here. This is really neat seeing the view of the fire fighter.
Whatever that man is paid, give him a raise. That steering obviously requires a lot of skill, practice, and alertness. Plus, his kidneys are destroyed by the lousy ride.
I was wincing about that myself, company I worked for had some side loaders that where super bouncy unladen (no suspension, heavy semi pneumatic tires) and we could only work on them for a couple of hours a day and the company would move people to other sections entirely after a while.
"No; Wait! I meant your other left!"
Great vid and demonstration.
timestamp??
Tillerman was my favorite driving job. I was sad when we got rid of our last tiller truck.
Why was it replaced?
@@paxundpeace9970 Dept decided to go with all straight trucks.
The volunteer department I was with back in the eighties had a 1941 tractor-tiller combo, but I never had occasion to drive either end. It was crashed within my first year or so, and we got a straight-truck as a replacement.
There was an arcade game back then, too, that had two players navigating such a rig. My brother and I pretty much sucked at it. ;-)
I remember the arcade game, there was one in the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World. My brother and I spent many dollars on that one! Loooong time ago.
Totally sucked at that game. Guess it was a good thing I never drove the real one. ;-)
Atari Firetruck. Awesome game. 1 player sat in the seat controlling the tractor, and the 2nd player stood behind, steering the rear. Old school, black & white 70's arcade fun.
Never seen this kind of vehicle before that requires front and rear driver!! Amazing skill set for both drivers to safely navigate day/night time traffic enough such a long length vehicle... and then to top it off when they get to their location they save lives... 2 for 2 in my eyes
From U.K. Didn't know this existed but makes perfect sense. Pretty badass to be fair.
I always have & STILL think this is one of the coolest jobs a guy could have....
I think it will get dull after a month just like any job. Then i prefer the office chair 😊
@@Engineer9736 i don’t think driving a Long Ass Fire truck would get boring
think of doing it at 2am some time
I had no idea this was the case. I thought it would happen automatically like those multi axle buses with rear wheel steering. Very interesting and thanks for uploading this.
Awesome seeing this. We do not have these kind of fire trucks in the Netherlands. Must be a a bit of a learning curve to master this,
There for is a reason: those way to big American style firetrucks are too big for us here in the Netherlands. We have more advanced and smaller firetrucks, but the can do the same job.
In many departments, the tiller driver is someone that has been driving the tractor (front) of the ladder truck for several years. In my home state of Virginia, tiller operators and airport crash truck drivers carried the highest level of emergency vehicle operations certification.
This is a really cool perspective of what actually happens up in those trucks. Very cool video
Kudos to all tiller drivers, much respect ✊
I m retired FF myself. Best memories were Tillering open cab Crown ladder truck
At the very beginning, that's the same alarm tones they used on the old 70s show _Emergency.._
Thank God I'm not the only one who thought that.
in a station to day thay use blue lights for med's and red lights for fires along with the tones
and in the newer station's the bedrooms have no windows it helps you fall asleep faster
I see one of these often in the city where I work. There is more to it than you see in the video. The driver in the video was simply steering the rear end to the outside on each turn so that it wouldn't track into curbs, cars, etc. The truck can also slew sideways (like changing lanes on the freeway) by turning the rear end the same way as the front. The real trick, however, is if you ever have to back it up! Very fun trucks to watch in tight quarters - surprisingly agile!
I would probably be fighting against my muscles memory. I imagine it takes a while to get used to, and going back to your car must feel weird
I read once that in New York up until the 6os it so they wouldnt let anyone that had a car be the tillerman
I use to build these trucks for Spartan it's a trick learning how to drive the tiller.
The best job in the fire service. Tillerman.
It looks super difficult and a true art form!! We can't thank you enough!!
I didn’t know they still had these trucks
Only way you'll get a long ladder that's strong enough and will fit under low crossings.
Such an amazing machine with very skilled operators. I remember when my local FD had a tiller YEARS ago, when I was in elementary school. I loved seeing it.
He must be listening to a very strong hard bass on those headphones to dance up and down like that
he's just really excitable i figured. he's really jammin it out
That's how it's done!!! Communication between the two drivers. Great tillering, sir!!
I like the fact that they haven't put a computer there to do this job, probably for many reasons.
Within the next 2 years I’m gonna get trained at my department to be a tillerman. Looks like such a fun spot to be in
Make sure this driver drift in the freeway
Great way to shut down a road. Just swing the ass end all the way over. No worries about drivers entering the scene of a fire.
Used to do it all the time when we were driving the freeway. Freaks civilian drivers out 🤣
Awesome! Interesting perspective watching the aft operator steering in the opposite directions to clear the turns.😁👍
I've sometimes wished for such a thing during my truck driving days.
UA-cam is cruel. Amazing driving and I pick out one moment: He had to close the garage door! Thank you for serving, M
Reversing uphill at night must be great fun.
How does this exactly work? Im from germany and i work in ems and i never heard/ saw of a tiller with a second driver this looks interesting
It's a tractor trailer type of thing with pivot point and a second cab on the back. The rear most axle has it's own steering so such a massive vehicle can squeeze thru tight streets & turns
Rear steer
So at the back of the truck there’s a tiller driver which turns the trucks trailer wheels so it doesn’t crash
It’s just a second steering mechanism. The front driver steers the front wheels and the rear driver steers the rear wheels. If the front driver steers right then the rear driver can steer left and a second later right again to make very tight turns. Must be fun to try.
There are also trucks in germany with a steering rear axis, but they do it automatically
To see something like this feels real weird from here, its way outdated tech
Watching the accidental husband made me Google what the guy was doing back there. Very cool to learn something new.
A Real Skill, A Real Professional! God Bless them all!
Oh man that looks like so much fun.
In the mid 2,000's, I got to see a Nashville (TN) "Hook & Ladder" responding (oldest unit in the FD IIRC) and it had a MANUAL Tiller, worst yet, this was while they were building the new Symphony Hall (where the Fire House used to be) and building a new Fire House so it was stationed in the Repair Yard and had to make a hard left followed soon after by a hard right from and to on two narrow side streets!)
The poor guy at the Tiller was working like a mad man, hauling on the steering wheel to maneuver his end around!!! Perfect teamwork between him and the driver!!
>>> However, you can imagine my feelings when I saw this beast "drift" sideways across all 3 lanes of 2nd Ave. going southbound on a One-Way northbound, coming at me, with no way for me to get off of 2nd Ave. at that point (not even a driveway!)!!!!
Legend out here tandem drifting a fire truck
That's the coolest thing I've seen in a while.
He is magic! Anyone see him put on the left hand glove?
Fascinating to watch. I never really thought about how different it would be to drive one of those. He literally has to turn left before he can turn right.
As a kid, I wanted to be a firefighter who got to drive the back of the tiller.
" I can't see anything, there is a hugh truck in my way!"
I've never been more envious of a job!!!!
That's gotta be a trip to NOT have a brake pedal!
Lol
This is so cool I had no idea they could do this….Firefighters (and their trucks!) are awesome dude I’ve got good friends that are alive today only because of the DC fire department being so damn good at their jobs. I think this is the most honorable and noble job on the planet.
Dude needs an air ride seat back there.
Probably wouldn’t help a lot, he’s on top of the axle so every bump he’s feeling the full effect of, it’s like the old cab over semi trucks, hard riding because of the placement over the front axle
I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS WAS A THING.
Very cool!
For years I drove a 1990 Honda Prelude that had four wheel steering. Definitely a different feeling to take turns! Obviously, different than this but has some similarities in the way I'm sure it feels to take the turns.
I had one too!
From the video titled crazy drift by a firetruck and everyone in the comments said it's just an experienced tiller man.
I was today years old when I found out there’s two drivers of the longer fire trucks🤦🏽♂️
Love the Station 51 tones going off at the start of the video.
and also the lights come on red is fire and blue for med's there is a red light in the room to help getting up at night rather then white
You know its one thing to turn right when your going right.... its something else when you turn left to go right..tiller drivers get it ....i think?
The drivers brain literally has to think backwards
Aaron Price yep opposite ways it’s like backing up a trailer left to go right and right to go left 😂 confusing
I think sailors will get it as well.
It not as complicated as you may think it is... you are in charge of a set of wheels... that is directly under him... If where you are going too far to the right... you move more to the left... if you are going too far to the left... you move more to the right... Now in the intersection part where the driver was turning to the right... the guy in the back also turned right.. make it looks like it sliding sideways in the intersection. this last part maybe the complicated part for me if i took on this role.
Poor driving instructor
. Makes sense when you see it from that angle, driven a lot of trucks in my time always wanted to try that
never new there was a trailer driver. learn something new everyday
When the whole have to turn left and back part have to avoid something in left side, he has to turn right.
Good teamwork, salute.
Looks tricky
My favorite arcade game in '70's was being the tiller driver. I spent half my quarters playing that game. I'd still play it if I knew an arcade that had one.
Only a few supermen exist that can handle this level of concentration
Mind blown! I never knew this was a thing!
It would be so cool being a tiller driver. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no tiller fire trucks in Australia. All Fire Trucks are similar to the trucks they have in Europe.
I remember (about 15 years ago) when a Hook & Ladder (like the one shown in this video) was responding to a fire. It was the oldest H&L in the Nashville, TN fleet at that time and had manual steering for the tiller operator! (Unlike the one shown which had power assist....).
The street that they were on had an offset of about 75 feet (~22.9 meters). They came around the corner having to go the wrong way on a one way street that I was on. The Tiller swung wide taking up left hand lane while to take the next street the engine was in the right hand lane. And then the engine made the turn and the Tiller Operator was switching to the right hand lane. He was working hard as the H&L was going around 35 mph (~56.4 kph) which impressed me very much. Even though I was a bit scared since until near the end I was wondering how I was supposed to be to avoid a Hook & Ladder Truck going down the road at a diagonal and taking up All Three Lanes!!!
When i still worked at the fod as a tiller driver. Our cheif told us for people who dont yeild just uh tiller a bit less on the turns if ya know what i mean.... Our truck had massive protecters so it didnt damage the tiller
I liked how he turned around to close the "garage door" with a remote.
Absolutely freaking awesome.
Very nicely put together video and very entertaining as well. Thanks for posting this.
Love the fact that he has a garage door closer
well on an truck co. the capt. does the same thing
Amazing and awesome video of and amazing fire responders in action with their vehicle.
I’ve always wondered what this exact job was like. Now it’s 2021 and I can just search it up. Cool :)
This is pretty cool. I've always wondered what the guys do back there. Looks like it takes a certain level of skill
This is really cool. Thank you first responders!
Thank you for what you guys do!!!
That is so freaking cool. That's alot of ladder truck to get around corners. Well done 👍
What skill im from the UK how epic would it be to see a rear steer fire truck driving around like that unfortunatly we have a little dennis or scania fast yes but not as epic as that truck skill keep up the good work guys one love to all you fire fighters all over the world 👍
Thank You for this great View !
I've never witnessed this before. I never knew. Pretty cool. Makes sense with those long trucks.
Completely different style of driving. Great job.
I would go crazy if I had to listen to that siren on repeat every day
with the head phones on you really don't here that I did a ride along all I heard was the capten
talking to dispatch
And here I thought driving on the left-hand side of the road in England was a challenge!
I had NO IDEA how difficult this must be.
That's some good driving G.
Very very nice to see. Great video!!!!
Wow!That ist great!I have never Seen IT before!In Germany we have nothing this Art of für Truck!🏆🌞😀👍
didn't think these trucks still existed - very cool!
I’m a “Truck driver” in the UK… I would love a go at this!
The only type of backseat driver I appreciate