1955 Chevy Ambulance at Mecum

Brendan Martin

Brendan Martin

PCS Member
I have been watching the Mecum Auto Auction on and off this weekend. I'm not buying anything, I just love the cars. That being said off in the background an obscure ambulance caught my eye. The pics are from the Mecum site. I'm not sure if this belongs in this forum, if not I apologize. The ambulance served in Knoxville, Iowa, and was custom built in Iowa. It is one of a kind by a body maker in Iowa. The auction also states it come with two defibrillators.
 

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I watched in disbelief as this ambulance was pronounced SOLD for $3100! It seems cheap, doesn't it? They said it was the only ambulance built by the Brown Body Co, or something similar to that name.
 
Looks like all the ambulances today, except for the front end. I guess they were ahead of their time with the modular type box on there.
 
My totally uneducated guess,is that because back in the day, if the local funeral home did not supply a service,that the community would rally and create what they could with what they had,money not being one of them,howver many dedicated and well serving services had less than glorious starts.:myopinion:
 
come on guys it just a step van conversion. early box probably built inside a lot better then what you find out there now. at the time it was built it was the pride of the town. still a interesting piece of old EMS HX. the gurney was a hold over from the 30s. the part that is amazing is this box would be a legal ambulance today. none of our cars would. I just wish that they would cover the radiator before they spray all that white
 
Our fire department used to do this with the old Gerstenshlager Trucks. It was used to respond to motor vehicle accidents, the Cadillac went to "house medical" calls. The size of the old trucks was favored by our department to accomadate mutiple patients, back in the day when the Newport Naval Base was in full swing the communities around here saw many serious, multi-patient accidents.
 
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