Berliet 770 KB 6

The Berliet 770 KB 6 was a fire service truck chassis and cab that Berliet built from 1974 to 1985 in 1,633 examples, a version of the K series that itself derived from the Stradair. Since 1960 Berliet fire fighting trucks had been built on the GAK 5 chassis with Hotchkiss or Ford six cylinder petrol engines, because Berliet had no diesel strong enough to meet the rules for pump trucks. The 770 KB 6, launched in November 1974, replaced them with a 8.8 litre six cylinder diesel of 185 DIN horsepower and a six speed synchromesh gearbox, and it could reach 83 km/h loaded, or 93 km/h with the Allison automatic gearbox offered from 1978. French specialists such as Camiva, Maheu-Labrosse, Sides and Sairep fitted the bodies, and firefighters liked it as easy to drive, powerful and reliable. It stayed in production unchanged until 1985 under the Berliet name, even though Renault had dropped the brand in 1980.