Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge-based Ambulances and Hearses

Warren Swaney, of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, provided a small Dodge-based Superior ambulance brochure; he said, “The first on is exterior and interior views of their standard width Type II vans. The second is an exterior shot of their ‘61’ van which was cut down the middle and had the entire body widened by 16 inches.  The widened vans had ample room in the back but they tended to wallow on the road and were a handful to drive.” Superior’s 61-S ambulance, based on the Dodge 300 Maxivan, had 61 inches of headroom - the name referred to headroom rather than width - and could be made to order. (For more on the B-vans often made into ambulances, click here!)

The Superior ambulance roof was a steel frame under fiberglass to maintain structural integrity. The standard interior featured a walk-through partition and cabinetry with see-through glass doors (as pictured).

Fat Albert ambulances

Steven Brown provided us with the Fat Albert photos - also based on a 1975 Dodge B300 Dodge Van ambulance (in Prince George, BC). The current owner bought it for a billboard for his first aid training company after the owner (Hollingshead) packed up his ambulance business. It's been parked for years. He starts it up occassionally. It's parked behind the first aid training facility, and he uses it to keep garbage.... when the ambulance is full, he throws the garbage into his truck and off he goes to the dump.... A sad end to a noble machine."

Warren Swaney added:

I worked in one of the “Fat-Albert” units while I was with Olson’s Ambulance of Regina SK in 1976-77. They were built in Canada by Strathroy Body Service of Strathroy, Ontario. They took a 1-ton van, cut the body off behind the B pillar, widened it 18 inches, then added the roof cap. These were good trucks to work out of with tons of room (five stretcher patients) and, believe it or not, quite stable on the road.

There was tons of room in the back (roughly the same as today's Type III modular units) and it handled much like a stock van. The one we had in Regina had two beacons on the front corners of the roof, four of the round flashers on the front of the raised roof, two more round flashers on the front of the hood, and alternating high-beam headlights so you could see it coming too.

Olson's also ran a 1976 and a 1977 Dodge, both built by Superior Coach in Lima, Ohio, which had the entire body cut in half right down the middle and widened 18 inches before adding a fibreglass raised roof. Sorensen Distributors in Red Deer, Alberta, sold both Strathroy and Superior vehicles in western Canada.

Other Dodge ambulances

More recently, according to Anthony Brockbank, “In Saskatoon, we had, until about 2 years ago, Dodge Ram 3500 pickup ambulance conversions. They had the 8.0L V10. Although I couldn’t find any pictures, I have talked to ambulance drivers and they have said they are much faster and easier to work on than the Ford E-Series vans.” Anthony provided these photos of one of their 5.9-liter Cummins diesel-powered Dodge Ram ambulances (both at Advanced Response Vehicles Inc., in Saskatoon).

At one time, Dodge vans were the best sellers, so there were many Dodge-based ambulances; DeSoto wagons were apparently moderately popular for a time in the 1950s. Steve sent over some photos taken by professional photographer Trevor Burkitt (who took these for personal use) of a Dodge ambulance for sale in Lethbridge, and provided us with these links: History of a 1959 Chrysler Imperial Ambulance Imperial Hearses The only Chrysler side-entry ambulance 1957 DeSoto Firesweep "Memphian" Ambulance

Warren Swaney sent in numerous ambulance photos, and we plan to show more later. Let’s start with this 1982 Dodge KaryVan conversion:

Warren wrote, “All public ambulances in BC are owned and operated by a division of the provincial government and from 1975 until about 1990-91 they built their own units in a small plant on Vancouver Island. They attempted to standardize units throughout the province and this was what they used from 1975 until 1982. These units could carry up to 5 stretcher patients.”

Bill Anderson sent in a host of ambulance photos. Photo A was converted by Summers Coach Sales in Duncanville, Texas. It was built from leftover van stock at Summers Dodge. The base was a 3/4 ton van, 360 2-barrel carb, with a steel raised roof. The company was better known for their line of Suburban ambulances. The photo was, with most of Bill’s others, taken in August, 1980. Photo B is a 1984 B-350/National Conversion used by MedCare ambulance in Irving, Texas. Photo C 1980 is a B-350/Osage conversion unit, loaned to Transtar EMS in Silsbee, TX in 1995 while waiting for new units. The truck had its siren in the grille and no insulation; it sounded like the speaker was in the cab.

Photo D is a 1978 Dodge B-300 converted by Custom Coach International, in Tuksa, Okla. It originally had two Deitz four bulb beacons on the roof. We modified this one because the two lights were ineffective. This is one of two that we had. They had sequential VINs.

Photo E was taken at Summers Coach Sales in August 1980. Williams was a small company that operated in the Dallas area in the late 1970s to early '80s. This unit was used by Paramed (Ray Crowder) Ambulance in Fort Worth.

	There have also been minivan-based ambulances (see below), as well as a Chrysler-sponsored PT Cruiser ambulance shown at SEMA but probably not used by any medical services. For the most part, Dodge-based ambulances faded out when the B-van’s fate was announced; upfitters would not want to spend their limited resources developing for a vehicle that was soon to be discontinued.