Maxi Métal Inc.

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Maxi Métal Inc. is a Canadian fire apparatus manufacturer, owned by Oshkosh Corporation, located in Saint-Georges, 1 hour south of Québec City, Québec. They have built and delivered over 1,000 fire trucks.
==History ==
=== Saint-Georges Métal Inc. ===
Claude Gendron, Maxi Métal's founder, created his first business in 1960. Called Saint-Georges Métal Inc., the company produced ornamental steel products such as sign posts and handrails. The 6500 sq. ft. plant was located on the boulevard Lacroix in Saint-Georges.
In 1972, the company changed its name to Maxi Métal Inc. and moved to a plant in the 182e Rue in Saint-Georges. The original plant was destroyed in a fire in December 1972 after it was sold.
===Maxi Métal Inc.===
The new company, Maxi Métal, was formed on 4th July 1972 by Claude Gendron. In the beginning, production was traction aids, trash cans, fireplaces and trailers. 
In the mid 1970s, the company started to produce utility bodies made of fiberglass and plywood. In 1982, the company began building lightweight fiberglass bodies for small pick-ups such as Datsun, Toyota, Dodge Dakota, Ford Ranger, GMC S15 and Chevrolet S10. 
In 1979, the company moved its plant to 9345, 25e Avenue in Saint-Georges. The first rescue truck was made for Sherbrooke in 1983 and the first pumper was made for Lac-Drolet in 1984.
Since 1996, the company has also developed CAFS systems for fire trucks. The Service de Sécurité Incendie de Saint-Georges, which operates several Maxi Métal-built apparatus, was the first fire department in Québec to have foam systems on all fire trucks. The first prototype was a snuffer unit built on a 1996 Ford F-350 4x4 with a custom fiberglass body.
In 2007, Claude Gendron died and his family put the company up for sale. In 2009, the family of the founder sold the company to three area businessmen, Danny Dufour, Martin Rancourt and Yvon Roy. In 2016, Danny Dufour completed the purchase from the partners.
On June 13 2022, Oshkosh Corporation announced the completed acquisition of Maxi Métal. In the press release, it was mentioned that Maxi Métal would maintain its name, team members, facilities, and branding elements. https://www.oshkoshcorp.com/news/6-13-22-Maxi-Metal
==Production==
In 2010, Maxi Métal won a 5-year 35 pumper contract with Service de Sécurité Incendie de Montréal for over $16 million. To this date, this was the biggest contract in the history of the company.
In 2018, Maxi Métal won another 5-year 35 pumper contract with Service de Sécurité Incendie de Montréal for nearly $37 million, surpassing the 2010 contract as the biggest contract in the history of the company.
===Maxi Fire===
Maxi Métal builds pumpers, tankers and rescues, on both custom and commercial chassis. Historically, most of its sales were to fire departments in Québec, with some deliveries in the Atlantic provinces, Alberta and Morocco. Maxi has now delivered trucks across Canada with trucks serving departments in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Nunavut, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Service de Sécurité Incendie de Montréal and Service de protection contre les incendies de la Ville de Québec and Service de Sécurité Incendie de Lévis are some major fleet customers. They have also rebuilt a number of older apparatus.
Maxi Métal has only built a small number of ladder trucks in its history, all with used Thibault ladders reconditioned by CET.
====Econo Series====
The Econo Series was developed in the early 2000's to create affordable pre-engineered trucks for Québec municipalities. They were offered on Freightliner M2 106, GMC C8500, International 4400 or Kenworth T300 chassis, with 2 or 4-door cabs. The Econo pumper came with a 1050 IGPM Hale pump and 800 imperial gallon water tank. The Econo pumper/tanker came with a 1050 IGPM Hale pump and a 1500 imperial gallon water tank. Both trucks were sold with a hydraulic ladder rack and had a choice of roll-up or hinged doors.
====PIC Tanker Series ====
The PIC Series, PIC meaning "Pump In Compartment", is available throughout Canada via Maxi dealers and in United states through Pierce dealers as the "Contender by Maxi Métal". The "Contender" name was attributed by Pierce to this product in 2017 but Maxi Métal had been manufacturing PIC tankers since 2012. The trucks are built with Hale or Darley PTO pumps and a full pump panel located in the first compartment on the driver side of the truck. PIC tankers are built on a large variety of commercial chassis.
====Reflex Series ====
The Reflex Series is available in Canada only. It is a small walk-in rescue built on a Ford E-450 chassis powered with a Ford V10 Triton engine and is similar to utility trucks that Maxi Métal has built for Hydro Québec since the late 1990's. The truck can be custom configured by the fire department but usually comes with bunker compartments inside, two SCBA seats in the front of the body and a translucent roof.
====TME Series ====
The TME Series, TME meaning "Top Mount Enclosed", is available throughout Canada via Maxi dealers and in United states through Pierce dealers as the "Contender by Maxi Métal". The "Contender" name was attributed by Pierce to this product in 2017 for the US market, but Maxi Métal had been manufacturing these kinds of trucks since the late 1990's. The truck is available on commercial chassis and is equipped with a 1050, 1250 or 1500 GPM pump with a narrow 26" wide pumphouse and pump controls transverse within the crew cabin.
====Paragon Pump Configuration (formerly known as VIO Series)====
In 2010, Maxi Métal revealed its new concept, the VIO fire truck. At the time, it was the narrowest pump panel (26 inches) in Canada with the lowest crosslays at just 65 inches high. Furthermore, it was the first split-shaft pump with a reduced footprint pumphouse in the North American marketplace. In 2020, the product feature was renamed and trademarked as the PARAGON Optimized Pump Configuration. The vast majority of pumpers and pumper-tankers are built in this configuration.
====Titan rack (formerly MAXI rack) ====
Created in the late 1990s, the MAXI rack is an exclusive hydraulic rack built by Maxi Métal. It consists of two aluminum arms that can be deployed to reach different equipment, it usually supports pike poles, suction hoses, portable tanks and ground ladders that are stored on the side and top of the bodywork. In 2020, the MAXI rack was renamed and trademarked as the Titan rack.
====Pierce Partnership ====
In 2015, after evaluating all the apparatus manufacturers in Canada, Pierce Manufacturing chose Maxi to build a special line of trucks specific for the Canadian market. It is called the MaxiSaber and is sold exclusively through Pierce dealers. Maxi Métal and Pierce Manufacturing announced the new partnership in late 2015 and the first deliveries took place in early 2016. Since 2016 all Canadian Pierce dealers are selling Pierce MaxiSaber pumpers, pumper/tankers and rescues. In February 2018, Maxi Métal announced that two lines of trucks, TME pumpers and PIC tankers, would now be available in the United States through Pierce dealers under the branding “Contender by Maxi Métal”.
Following the June 2022 acquisition by Oshkosh Corporation, the “Contender by Maxi Métal” branding has been discontinued and all apparatus will be marketed as MAXIMETAL wearing the Maxi badge.
===Maxi Utility===
Maxi Métal also builds utility trucks for telecommunication and electric companies. Hydro-Québec, Bell Canada and Telus are customers of Maxi Utility and they have delivered over 1000 utility trucks in their history.
==Logos==
Maxi 1.png|1st generation Maxi Métal's plate
DSCF0490.JPG|2nd generation Maxi Métal's plate
DSCF0498.JPG|3rd generation Maxi Métal's plate
Maxi metal parent.jpg|Maxi Metal's official corporate logo
==Plants==
Type 	City 	Address 	In Service 	Notes
Saint-Georges Métal Inc. plant	Saint-Georges	Boulevard Lacroix	1960 - 1972 	Plant was destroyed in a fire in December 1972 after it was sold.
Maxi Métal original plant 	Saint-Georges	182e Rue 	1972-1979 	
Usine 1 	Saint-Georges	9345, 25e Avenue 	1979 - Present	
Usine 2 	Saint-Georges	9200, 22e Avenue 	2020 - Present	
==Dealers==
===Current===
*Commercial Truck Equipment, Western Canada and Ontario (MaxiSaber and Maxi Métal) (Comtruck was appointed the exclusive Alberta dealer on 21 Sep 2019.)
*L'Arsenal, Québec (MaxiSaber and Amiral)
*Safety Source Fire, Atlantic provinces (MaxiSaber and Maxi Métal)
===Former===
*Darch Fire (2016-2017)
*Westvac Industrial (2015-2019)
==Used trucks currently owned by Maxi Métal==
None
==Sources & References== 
*Dubbert, Bob, Shane MacKichan and Joel L. Gebet. Encyclopedia of Canadian Fire Apparatus. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2004. ISBN 9781583881194
==See also==
Departments operating Maxi Métal apparatus
==External links==
*Maxi FireTruck (English Site)
*Maxi Incendie (Site en Langue Française)
Category:Canadian fire apparatus manufacturers
Category:Oshkosh Corporation