1970 Cadillac Miller Meteor Ambulance / Combo Datasheed and infos

S

Simon Maass

Hello everybody.
This is my 1970 Combo which i bought a few month ago in the US.
Now that i have here in Germany, i try to get more informations about it and these kind of cars.
Maybe some of you know, that we have a lot of rules to bring a car on to the streets in Germany.
So if anybody has a "Datasheed" or something, that whould be great.
Speacialy the weight is interesting for me.
Our Authorities say that it is allowed to have a maximum weight (loaded) of 3100Kg (6835 LBS) ...
As i can´t beleave that, im hoping to get more informations.
Thanks a lot. Simon

WhatsApp Bild 2024-03-07 um 1dddd2.17.25_d121a474.jpg
 
that's not a combo. it's a low top ambulance, no rollers or fasteners for a removable rack. a MM combo would have flip over panels that had rollers on one side. normally 3 sets of the them with the last right side on the bottom of the flip seats. one sharp looking car. the floor was not a option chosen vary often. you will be just under the weight requirement.
 
Thanks for the information, good to know.
I already drove to a scale to get the exact weight. It's 2880Kg (Fuel tank not full, some Souvenirs inside).

The problem is, they won't allow 5 Passengers, because they calculate with 75Kg each person and then it is over the 3100 max. weight, that they told me about.

That's why I am searching for a Datasheet or something, with the Max weight in the US... I can't believe such a car is only allowed that little weight. Sorry, my English is not the best, but I hope you understand what I mean.
 
Simon, welcome to the group. You have already met one of senior, encyclopedic members, Ed R. He is a great resource.
To expand on Ed's point,MM Interior.jpegMM 2.jpegmm 3.jpegIMG_1552.JPG however, your car is actually a combination, which could have been used as either an ambulance or hearse. I have appended two images of your car from the sale, which show the rollers Ed mentions. In addition, the cabinet in a combination car was much more rudimentary for storage than in a straight ambulance, and I have included one of mine for comparison.
I suspect your floor covering was replaced at some time, giving the different appearance, though I defer to one of the MM experts.
More info will undoubtedly surface for you here.
Enjoy your new wheels!
 
Simon Maass said:
Thanks for the Informations, good to know.
I already drove to a scale to get the exakt weight. Its 2880Kg (Fuel tank not full, some Souvenirs inside).

Problem is, they wont allow 5 Passengers, becouse they calculate with 75Kg each person and then its over the 3100 max. weight, that they told me about.

Thats why i am searching for a Datasheed or something , with the Max weight in the US... Can't beleave such a car is only allowed that little weight. Sorry my englisch is not the best, but i hope you understand what i mean .
Click to expand...
Is it possible that the Authorities are looking at the specifications for the Cadillac Fleetwood, not the Cadillac Commercial Chassis?

`
 
Jean-Marc Dugas said:
Is it possible that the Authorities are looking at the specifications for the Cadillac Fleetwood, not the Cadillac Commercial Chassis
Click to expand...

Sadly I don't think so.
But as these cars are surely very very rare in Germany, I wonder where they got that Information about the maximum weight...
Only because it's written there, it must not be true. IMG-20240313-WA0002~2.jpg
 
The car as manufactured only allowed for 2 people up front, one per attendant's seat, and one patient. Usually, there were no more than 2 or 3 people on the ambulance when it went out on a call, a driver and one or two attendants. I will have to do some research to see what the factory (GVW) Gross vehicle weight is. This figure represents all the people on board the vehicle, and all the equipment, less the weight of the chassis and body.
 
Paul Steinberg said:
The car as manufactured only allowed for 2 people up front, one per attendant's seat, and one patient. Usually, there were no more than 2 or 3 people on the ambulance when it went out on a call, a driver and one or two attendants. I will have to do some research to see what the factory (GVW) Gross vehicle weight is. This figure represents all the people on board the vehicle, and all the equipment, less the weight of the chassis and body.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much, that whould be perfect.
I nearly searched the whole web, but i could not find Details about the commercial chassis.

So this giant Benchseat is only for two People? I didn´t check how many Seat belts it has.

Caddy_Sitzbank.jpg


I´m pretty sure, the gross weight, has to be higher then 3100Kg (~6800lbs).
A Hightop full equiped Ambulance surly weights more then mine (2880kg / 6350lbs) ...
"Sorry dear patient, you are to fat to carry" ;-)
 
Just found an
"Superior 1978 Cadillac Chassis Specifications"
Brochure on ebay.
Don´t know if im allowed to post the picture here...

Gross Vehicle Weight Rating 3400Kg
Front 1472Kg - Rear 1928Kg
 
Simon, a '78 would be much lighter than a '70, as the Cadillac commercial chassis was downsized in '77. I probably have a factory brochure for a '70 M-M, so will dig it out and see if it contains chassis specifications.
 
Yes, definitely a combo. I would pull out the cot and everything else inside the car that is loose. Spare tire jack all of it. Each of them will be one person. If you can get away with it, those removable flip-over hatches are very heavy. You will be surprised just how fast the little stuff adds up. Just what I mentioned is about 4 of those people. By the way, your English is way better than my German.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
Yes definitely a combo. I would pull out the cot and everything else inside the car that is loose. Spare tire jack all of it. Each of them will be one person. If you can get away with it, those removable flip over hatches are vary heavy. You will be surprised just how fast the little stuff adds up. Just what i mentioned is about 4 of those people. By the way your English is way better then my German.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was thinking about that Plan. But I just want our Authorities to use the correct specs.

But the good news is that tomorrow I will get the license, sadly only allowed to drive with 3 Persons, but I can change it later, when I have more Information for them.

Hope to hit the road soon. So send some Sun to Germany, please.

By the way, Paul helped me and corrected some parts for me 👍
 
Simon, sorry, no luck. I went through all of my factory brochures going back to '67. None of the specification pages showed a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating until the downsized rigs in '77. That is unfortunate, since I would imagine most purchasers would have more of an interest in what the vehicle weighed versus the makeup of the pistons, or the type of bearings in the drive shaft universal joints. Even the commercial chassis brochures put out by Cadillac Motor Division didn't mention weight, but I can understand that, since the final weight would be based on which coach builder manufactured the finished product.
 
Thank you so much, everybody.
I also continued searching without success.
Crazy that there is no information around.
Two German Cadillac hearse drivers sent me their (German license) specifications.
They both (1971/1974) have about 3400kg/7500lbs gross weight.
But nobody can tell, where our Authorities have these pieces of information from...
But I don't give up. 😅👍
 
They were all built to the same specks. The clue is the tires. Original tires on the car were rated at 2,400 pounds. There were only 4 of them so max weight could not exceed that. Of course that figure is over what is allowed on your roads. So its no help.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
They were all built to the same specks. The clue is the tires. Original tires on the car were rated at 2,400 pounds. There were only 4 of them so max weight could not exceed that. Of course that figure is over what is allowed on your roads. So its no help.
Click to expand...
Nevertheless, thank you very much for the information.

In my opinion, Cadillac had to tell every Coachbuilder the maximum load capacity of the chassis.
So it doesn´t matter if it's a Hearse, Ambulance, or whatever -> The gross weight of every commercial chassis should be the same.
3400 kg / 7500 lbs sounds realistic to me.
Anyways, I have no more ideas about where to ask for.
So I will drive and enjoy it, like it is.
 
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