ACMAT's civil trade came before its military one: the French Army showed little interest in the TPK range of the 1960s, and its sales went to civil buyers — among them the regional laboratories of the Ponts et Chaussées, whose TF4 and TPK drilling rigs prospected ground across France, and a forestry 6×6 with an air-driven crane that worked in the Gironde.
The VLRA carried that on. Départements' fire services bought the TPK 4.20 FFM with 2,000 litres and the six-wheeled TPK 6.35 FFL with 3,500, and the Dordogne's still showed them at its 2018 congress; the VLRA 2 4.36 CCF followed in 2012 and Arquus still lists a fire-fighting VLRA. The TPK 4.32 bus seated 28, carried journalists on the Paris–Dakar, was built in a police version and served a fire service as a command post.
Civil TPKs (1961–1967)
1 VEHICLE IN THIS CHAPTERDrilling rigs for the Ponts et Chaussées, forestry 6×6s and semi-trailer tractors for difficult sites.
Registry records · chapter 1
Fire services (1982– )
3 VEHICLES IN THIS CHAPTERThe 4.20 FFM and 6.35 FFL forest-fire tankers, then the VLRA 2 CCF from 2012.
Registry records · chapter 2
Buses and service trucks (1982– )
4 VEHICLES IN THIS CHAPTERThe 4.32 bus for the Paris–Dakar press and the police, the crane truck and the workshop van, and the ALTV pick-up in fire-service red.
Registry records · chapter 3
Sources
- Acmat VLRA — une brève histoire d'ALM-Acmat — Véhicules hors série (Nicolas Bergon), from ACMAT literature
- Acmat VLRA TPK 420 FFM — Véhicules hors série (Nicolas Bergon), from ACMAT literature
- Acmat VLRA TPK 635 FFL — Véhicules hors série (Nicolas Bergon), from ACMAT literature
- Acmat VLRA TPK 432 SB — Véhicules hors série (Nicolas Bergon), from ACMAT literature
- ACMAT forest-fire tankers, Dordogne fire-brigade congress, 2018 — Wikimedia Commons
- Le VLRA ACMAT, véhicule pompier tout-terrain — Truckeditions
- VLRA — Arquus