Dennis RS/SS series

The Dennis RS/SS series was a range of fire engine chassis built by Hestair Dennis, later Dennis Specialist Vehicles, from 1978 until the early 1990s. The RS, launched in 1979 and internally codenamed Retained, Steel, was at first offered without a tilting cab. The lower-cost Standard Specification, or SS, followed shortly afterwards and, at the request of the London Fire Brigade, was fitted with a tilting cab as standard. The all-steel cab was designed by Ogle Design. Early appliances used Perkins V8 diesel engines, and from 1987 Cummins C-series engines could be specified. After in-house fire engine bodying ended in 1985, bodies were built mostly by Carmichael Fire. More than 1,750 were produced and sold to nearly all British fire brigades and exported worldwide; older appliances were known to suffer corrosion around the cab doors, which mechanics nicknamed Dennis Disease.