Carryall ambulance photos

Larry Sears said:
I remember it for sale on craigslist. I talked with the owner, he bought it from a fire dept in Ill. around 1996 with 19,000 miles. I think it had around 60,000 at the time of the listing. I last saw it advertised for $1200.00 Seemed like a fair price but was said to have rusty floors and cowl area.
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Yes, this was on Craigslist a few times. The floors looked fine to me, but I did not look really close.
 
Hud Kellogg said:
Thanks much for all your Carryall & all other pics. Could the Watervile Va
4x4 be an early Wolfe (N.Eng.) Coach?
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You're welcome...my pleasure!

I've never seen a Wolf conversion of a Suburban...do you have any photos, advertising, or brochures you can share with us?
 
Humboldt Co. A.S. (Paradise Valley, NV)
1971/2 Stoner Crash Wagon

Note that this is on a 3/4-ton chassis as opposed to the much more popular 1/2-ton.

(SL collection)
 

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I see that. what was nice on the Suburban, IHC travelall type rigs is the 4x4 version did not change the riding height a lot. unlike the vans. the 4 wheel drive for winter or rough country in the 3/4 ton offer you a vary reliable chassis that would handle well at speed. still enable you to get back into rough country and offer the room necessary to get the job done. for those of us not in the city they were one of the best keep secrets. if this rig served were I thing it was it a vary rural county in north eastern calf.
 
Steve Loftin said:
Ballantyne conversions of 1960/61-ish Fargo and Dodge Town Wagons:

ABC A.S., Windsor, ON

Windsor A.S., also in Windsor

From Walt McCall, who supplied these photos:

"That's Wally Ballantyne, who with brother Bob operated Windsor Ambulance, stepping into the red Dodge. The Chrysler Corporation of Canada marketed Fargo trucks from 1935 thru the 1972 model year. Dodge dealers sold Dodge trucks, Plymouth dealers had Fargo trucks in pickup, panel and medium-duty versions. Badge engineering at its best."
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These are all very nice, Steve. I've never seen the Fargo line before. Were they Canadian-built Chrysler products? I know you like the one with the C6!
 
Steve Loftin said:
Kirk's Emergency Service (Lawton, OK)

1971 ?/GMC
Reportedly still at Kirk's, but I haven't seen it in years; anyone recognize the bodywork (there were no builder's plates on it)?

1983 Superior Southwest/Chevrolet
Usually operated as one-man paramedic unit, this rig would respond along with an ambulance on ALS calls as dispatched, or would intercept a BLS unit when requested. It was later used as a long-distance trip car. (In anticipation of your queries: The light bar is a Ranger by Lectric Lites; there were front and rear Par 46 flashers flanking the speaker enclosure, with 360-degree strobes at the ends.)

As you might guess, Kirk's is today a paramedic-level agency:

http://www.kirksems.com/index.html

(SL photos)
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Unless I'm badly mistaken, Steve, those Suburbans came from Summers. I know Kirk's bought some of their Oldsmobiles from Summers, although I know they bought some of them used as well. Thanks for including the Kirk's website, I didn't know they had one.
 
Steve Loftin said:
...from the Dallas area:

Richardson FD
1974 GMC

Mesquite FD
1975 Chevrolet

A show of hands, please...how many in this group have actually worked out of an ambulance with curtains in it?

(Duane Troxel photos)
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My '73 MAC Suburban had curtains, but they were in bad shape when we got the truck, so they had to go. All of the short-wheel-based cars, including the two Sevilles I still have all had curtains. The worst thing I ever saw was a '65 Cotington combo that was sitting in a storage yard in Waco, TX, and the car was for sale. I had spoken to the owner, a funeral director, who had told me before I went to see the car that it had a new paint job and all new tires. The "new" paint job had worn through to the primer coat; the "new" tires were all flat and weather-worn. The car had curtains, but they had rotted on their holders. The one nice thing, and only nice thing about the car was the decent 17-D on the roof. Under the hood, not only was there no siren of any sort, but parts of the engine were missing.
 
Steve Loftin said:
Alamo F.H. (dba San Antonio Ambulance)
San Antonio, TX

"1964 Chevrolet panel (one of five), converted by an off-duty San Antonio firefighter that worked for the funeral home on his days off. San Antonio Ambulance Inc. (Alamo Funeral Home) was the contracted emergency
ambulance service for the city at that time (circa November 1966) and I ran many a call out of the rear of the funeral home in these "panels", 283 V8,
standard shift on the column, NO a/c and NO power anything. Very basic "load and go" back then. I was a junior in high school and worked part time and got hired because I had an advanced Red Cross card. But I
digress, LOTS different 40 years ago. Oh, and you guys will love this...don't know if you can see them but dead center on the hood near the windshield is a small set of electric air horns. The city of San Antonio had an ordinance on the books at that time that PROHIBITED the use of sirens on ambulances and
police cars. SAFD was the only emergency vehicles with sirens back then. I know, I know...but it's true."

(photos and description courtsey John Anderson)
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Steve: Did that truck have a siren on it all? I'm aware of that old ordinance. One of my teachers many years ago suffered a ruptured appendix while in S.A. and was transported via ambulance with only those airhorns going. But I was told that although they had to use the airhorns in town, but if they left the city limits and crossed over into one of the suburbs: Alamo Heights, etc., they could run sirens and that most of them had underhood sirens. This truck is almost the twin of the '61 Chevy panel that I worked out of that belonged to Ellis F.H. in Midland. It was setup with two 54-L cots in the back w/hanging hardware for two auxilliary stretchers and two O2 setups. On top was a 17 beacon flanked by a pair of 6" red Unity lights. The truck had a 6-cylinder engine, but was a fast runner. It replaced Ellis' '59 Ford wagon.
 
Dean Wilkinson said:
I worked in the "Binder" in the previous post at the beginning of my career. With two patients on board, you squatted over the head of the patient on the number 9 cot.
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I haven't heard anyone refer to one of the Internationals as a "Binder" since I worked for Baker Ambulance in Odessa (TX) from '66-'68 and part-time thereafter. Baker owners Jim and Nate Cawley moved from Baker, Montana (hence the "Baker" name) to Odessa in '65 to open the first-ever private ambulance co. They brought with them a '62 home-brewed International TravelAll and a '60 stretched Pontiac wagon (possibly a National). When they first opened all three funeral homes were still running their ambulances, but one-by-one they got out of it. Baker ended up with a '66 Gordon K. Allen Conversion Chevy wagon and a '61 C/B Seville ambulance, both from Chapel of the Roses F.H.. Initially they ran the two ambulances from Chapel and the Binder, and then bought two '65 GKA Ford wagons that had come from Dudley Hughes F.H. in Dallas. Gradually they built up an impressive fleet. In 1973 when I was running a small standby ambulance service in Lubbock, I bought the old '62 Binder for a whopping $250 equipped. When the Cawleys had first brought the old truck down from Montana, it was very plain jane, with no cabinetry of any sort, just a place for the cot and a small jump seat. Once they got to Odessa they totally revamped the truck, adding a partition and cabinets. Outside they replaced an old blue beacon and a pair of small singlefaced red lights with a center-mounted 17 flanked by four DoRay lollipop lights and a C5G siren behind the beacon. That's the way I got the truck. We got a lot of service from that old rig!
 
Steve Loftin said:
Those lights on the front fenders are Carpenter Wig-Wags. They were available in 6" and 8" (seen here) lens sizes. They were motorized, with an internal bulb/reflector assembly that moved from side to side.

Here's a Carpenter ad from 1956:
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Thanks for the ad, Steve. The 6" bulb-type flashing Carpenter lights were very popular in West Texas, until the DoRay lollipops took over for many years.
 
A few suburbans:

1980 Summers, McCurtain Co, Okla., 1980
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1982-74 Summers, Dudley M. Hughes, Dallas, TX. 1987
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197? Summers, Central Ambulance, Dallas, Tx., 1980
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? Starline at Summers, 1980
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And some more:

198? Summers, at Summers, 1983
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1973-4 Either Prestige or Modulance, Delta Ambulance Service, Cooper, Tx., 1980
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1970? Summers, Delta Funeral Home, Cooper, Tx., 1980
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1979 Unknown, Clarksville Funeral Home, Clarksville, Tx. We borrowed this from the funeral home, put a homemade light bar on it when I blew the engine in our 1978 Dodge van.
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And a few more:

1980 Summers 4x4, $16,800 and it could be yours,1980
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1980 Summers, ETMC EMS, Tyler, Tx., 1980
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1980 Summers, ready for delivery. Note the full cabinets on the roadside, 1980
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1971 Summers, at Summers, 1980
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