Your right, that makes it all more complicated.
When a truck is given to a local volunteer fire dept by the feds they are going to use it and spend little to nothing on maintenance. Can't blame them, they don't own it Then when it quits and/or no longer meets their needs they park it. If they don't use it it goes back to the feds. If no other fire dept or agency wants it, it gets auctioned.
I'm developing an opinion of what happened the more I work on this truck. Right now I'm thinking the electrics went bad, the truck was hard to start or hard to keep running and the starter was over used and being 6 volt, with a 12 volt battery it couldn't take the punishment. Then the mice took over and it was never going to get fixed.
One thing I didn't know until I bought this truck is that these federal vehicles are given to ranchers that form their own volunteer fire dept's and they are encouraged to do so. They have the ability to be first on the scene after a lightning strike and get the fire out while it's small.
I removed the seat and while the seat looked good on the outside, no rips or tears, inside the bottom bench was one big huge stinking mouse nest. The cardboard bottom held it all in. There was no space in the springs, it was totally packed full, and that's why my son who was helping me yesterday was saying the longer I sit in here the worse the smell gets. Everytime he moved he pumped out more smell and man did it ever stink.
