IFA N7

The IFA N7 was a prototype of a two-axle truck made by VEB motor vehicle factory “Ernst Grube” Werdau in the 1950s. It was a long- nosed low-frame chassis based on the H6 truck manufactured in Werdau . Although more components from the base vehicle were used than with the Panther cranes , the N7 did not go into series production.

The VEB Feuerlöschgerätewerk Luckenwalde (FGL) received the order in 1955 to prepare the production of turntable ladders . The problem arose that the truck chassis available in the GDR were unsuitable. The H3A turned out to be too light, the H6 too big, and suitable imports from the Comecon countries were not available. In this context, the SMA received the only functional model of the N7 in September 1957. There it was provided with a chassis cladding based on synthetic resin. The development of a 30-meter ladder (DL 30) in Luckenwalde was discontinued after several problems and in 1962 a 25-meter ladder (DL 25) for the new S4000-1 was presented.

The N7 functional model received a DL-30 turret from a Metz pre -war leader in the central workshop of the Borkheide fire department in 1961 and was stationed at the Karl-Marx-Stadt professional fire department at the end of 1961 . After the ladder was snapped off, an older Metz-DL-30 ladder park was set up in Borkheide . When new 30-meter turntable ladders on IFA W50 were procured in Karl-Marx-Stadt at the end of the 1960s , the vehicle was already scheduled for scrapping.

The N7 was shortly to company fire brigade of the chemical plant Bohlen , transferred after there is a 1936-built Mercedes-Benz failed. With its DL-36 superstructure (also from Metz), the N7 was in use until 1977 when it was finally parked for scrapping due to wear and tear.

literature

• Frank-Hartmut Jäger: IFA-Hauber from Zwickau and Werdau: The history of fire engines on Horch H3, H3A, S4000-1 and G5 (=  fire service archive ). Verlag Technik, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-341-01242-7 , The turntable ladder on N7 chassis, p. 113-116, 132/133 .