There are tanks and firetrucks and vehicles designed to haul gear for the military. There are police shields and a special tracked unit called a ripchair that gives folks in wheelchairs the ability to get out into the woods and hunt or fish or simply travel over rough terrain.
Many have seen the Howe brothers, Geoff and Michael, on the Discovery Channel’s “Black Ops Brothers.”
The brothers — or the equipment they and their employees make — have been in a couple of movies, most recently the Ripsaw tank was in “The Fate of the Furious” (number eight in the “The Fast and Furious” francshise).
They make vehicles for military and civilian use. A big Bulldog firetruck on display, popular for fighting wild land fires, is headed for New Mexico next week. Closer to home, the municipality of East Machias in Washington County has ordered one to replace three vehicles, said Jesse Morrill, manager of Howe and Howe’s Bulldog division.
The model headed for Socorro County, New Mexico, sports a 2,000-gallon water tank. It can spray water ahead of it, and has two stations on the back where firefighters can wield hoses.
Morrill also explained the attributes of the H1 squad vehicle for transporting military gear over rough terrain.
“It’s a hybrid electric and can run for a while on just electricity,” he said. “And it can kick on the diesel generator if need be.”
The Howe brothers said a unit used in police standoffs, called the Swatbot, can be operated remotely or can be used to shield law enforcement personnel during a standoff.
A training scenario showed that a standoff that otherwise would take three hours to resolve was resolved in 7 minutes when a Swatbot was employed, the brothers said.
“It protects the police, who protect us,” said Geoff Howe.
Mikel Souliere of Lyman was examining the Ripsaw tank and explaining the finer points of vehicles that run with tracks to a friend. Having been around trucks and other vehicles since he was a small boy, Souliere indicated his approval of Ripsaw:
“With the components inside … you don’t have to worry much,” he said.
The Howe brothers have been tinkering with technology from an early age. In 2006, they opened Howe and Howe Technologies in in Eliot and moved the business to Waterboro in 2009.
In 2012, the company established a nonprofit called Outdoors Again that provides adventures for those in wheelchairs, such as camping, hunting, fishing, music concerts and more — like a recent expedition to pan for gold.
Among those examining the equipment on Friday was Chris Blair, a Massabesic High School senior. He said he’s interested not only in the manufacturing side of extreme machines, but the technology as well.
“I think this is definitely the future,” he said.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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