New style ambulances

Sparky_911

Supporting Donor
May 15, 2013
2,648
Central Illinois
Had a fire/medical dispatcher of 35 years retire last week. Came to work that day and had all this in my parking lot. Not real sure what to think about all these "new style" ambulances.

The one on the left is built in Canada. Whelen 400s up top (360), 700s and LIN 6's down low.
20170428_140225.jpg

I've got some other pics in another thread about this one. Full Whelen Justice and 700s "chin mounted".
20170428_140222.jpg

Another Canada made rig (same ambulance co. as the first).
20170428_140233.jpg

Another ambulance co. built by another mfr. Whelen 700 array (r/w/b mix) and IONs grille.
20170428_140255.jpg
 

Doyle257

Member
Jan 13, 2015
658
Cheektowaga, NY
It could be worse. Just before Rural/Metro Ambulance folded up and sold off to AMR in WNY last year, they bought 8 or so of the Mercedes Sprinter ambulances. I worked a code with AMR on one last night, with myself, one of my firefighters, and a medic. Whoever designed the interior conversion for those particular units knew something about EMS, but im guessing was not very good at it. Similar to a traditional van type, but with less floor space, and more head room. In my time for RMA, I worked mostly in Mods, and the occasional Van, but nothing this poorly designed...
 

firebuff17

Member
Mar 28, 2011
774
CT
The Ford vans are Demers. (Made in Canada, by child laborers with parts made in China) Huge junk in my opinion. Everything felt cheap, and eventually had a very high failure rate of most everything breaking. The ones that my old employer absorbed when they bought out another company were terrible to work in. Not user friendly. They make their own center consoles (or did) with terrible switch layouts, relocated HVAC, and OEM am/fm radio. Which I am sure meant cutting and splicing cables. But neither of which seemed to ever work correctly again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sparky_911

Kendreth

Member
Jul 28, 2011
141
Nashua, NH
not a fan... they were just coming to my area while i was still working EMS transfer trucks.
Similar to a traditional van type, but with less floor space, and more head room. In my time for RMA, I worked mostly in Mods, and the occasional Van, but nothing this poorly designed...
couldn't have said it better myself. 100lbs of crap 20lb bag......
 
  • Like
Reactions: Doyle257

pdk9

Member
May 26, 2010
3,834
New York & Florida
That's the classic Demers "aerodynamic" roof that used to be popular with a lot of the hospitals in NYC when I was younger. While I'm sure that there's SOME small aerodynamic benefit, I think it's a load of crap and probably offers negligible benefits on mileage since the vast majority of ambulances/rescues already have shitty fuel mpgs and are not driving hundreds of miles on highway everyday, like semis

I cannot stand the sprinter/transit conversions. I think they're worse than the narrow Type II vanbulance conversions in terms of comfort and workspace, and some companies get the cheapest, tiny engines that are not designed to support a box and all the equipment. I don't think either chassis should be used in anything other than basic "taxi" stretcher transport b/c there's absolutely no room to work in them, i.e. a code or any other true ALS call. They're popular b/c they're cheaper, but they still suck, and some agencies don't realize that being cheap up front ends up being more expensive in the long run (i.e. A neighboring FD ordered Type I's on a Dodge Ram chassis with a massive box on the back, but they opted to go with a tiniest engine option and it quickly became evident to them that it couldn't support the equipment weight). Type III's aren't as terrible since they have a larger box, but they still often lack power IMO.

Thankfully, I've only ever worked for fire depts that have Type I's (F550 Type I's in NY, and Freightliner/International
type I's in FL), and I think they're the only ones that give you enough space to work and (with the right specs) enough power to support the weight requirements
 

Kendreth

Member
Jul 28, 2011
141
Nashua, NH
The type III ambulances are what i preferred to work in. ones we had were made by AEV. not sure of the exact model would have been 2010ish. lots of room and compartments seem to make sense (size and locations) to me. the sprinter types seem to just be mishmash of little pockets/cabinets/holes to loose things in. but agree with PDK9 some of them cant get out of their own way...
 

Wailer

Member
May 24, 2010
2,290
Canada
Where I live most of the ambos are the modular box van type and are built by Crestline, a local company.
 

Doyle257

Member
Jan 13, 2015
658
Cheektowaga, NY
All of the Type III's Rural/Metro used to buy on GM Chassis had wonderful 6.6L Turbo'd Duramax motors. always seemed to have power when you needed it.
The Ford Chassis had a mix of Triton 4.3L V8's and 7.3L Powerstrokes.... the gas jobs were absolute trash, and the powerstrokes were hit and miss. there was a Type II that had a Triton V10...scary acceleration, but super top heavy.
 

Sparky_911

Supporting Donor
May 15, 2013
2,648
Central Illinois
Had another rig stop by yesterday. All Whelen 900 up top, 700 intersection and over Rear wheel, LIN6 in the grille. Miraculously no split fails.
20170505_184451.jpg
 

Forum Statistics

Threads
53,967
Messages
449,816
Members
19,104
Latest member
airflores

About Us

  • Since 1997, eLightbars has been the premier venue for all things emergency warning equipment. Discussions, classified listings, pictures, videos, chat, & more! Our staff members strive to keep the forums organized and clutter-free. All of our offerings are free-of-charge with all costs offset by banner advertising. Premium offerings are available to improve your experience.

User Menu

Secure Browsing & Transactions

eLightbars.org uses SSL to secure all traffic between our server and your browsing device. All browsing and transactions within are secured by an SSL Certificate with high-strength encryption.