Why Is Aerial Ladder Maintenance So Important?

So your fire company treasurer wants to know if it is really necessary to spend money on aerial maintenance. We see some crazy things come through our shop and some could be prevented by performing regular preventative maintenance. An aerial device used for firefighting & rescue operations can be one of the most dangerous tools in your collection if it is not being maintained by qualified personnel. You do not want to finally notice a problem when you are 100 ft in the air!


Regular preventative maintenance will insure your safety and prolong the life of the hydraulic systems, cabling, wear pads and seals. It doesn’t matter if your department runs a low volume of calls and rarely uses your aerial device. In most cases, lack of use will cause hydraulic cylinder seals to dry out and grease to harden. So just because your ladder only gets out of the cradle a few times a year, it doesn’t mean that regular maintenance could or should be delayed.

Aerial operators should be the first line of defense when it comes to maintaining an aerial device. The device should be checked daily according to your fire departments SOP and the manufacturers’ recommendations. Discrepancies should be reported and repaired immediately by a qualified repair facility.

Fire Line Equipment employs a team with over 125 years of aerial repair and refurbishing experience. On a daily basis we are repairing fire trucks and supplying replacement parts to fire departments and apparatus dealers from all over the country.

Here are a few photos of damaged aerial components that could have possibly been prevented through regular maintenance.