Carryall ambulance photos

What's on the hill?

Thanks for continuing with these amazing pictures Steve! In the last set with the Tunellton ambulance, there are some additional ambulances up on the hill as well. As least on eof these looks to be a commercial car based ambulance. Do you recall any of the those when this picture was taken?
 
This trip was in May of 1987; at the time, there were at least two dozen limousine-style ambulances here (mostly rusting away). One of these days I'll start posting them in the junker thread.
 
Challenger Corp. - Memphis, TN

As we've seen in past posts, these Centurions were available in lowtop and hightop as well as standard- and stretched-wheelbase versions:

Silver Springs, NY
1969

Angelica, NY
1970

(SL collection)

Evendale, OH
1970

(Dick Adelman)
 

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Wolcottsville Suburban

I purchased the suburban for use at my company(Professional Ambulance)in the early to mid 1980's.afterwards i found out it lacked the proper headroom for use as a commercial ambulance.it was in perfect condition w/only 22K on it.we stripped the beacon and other useable parts,and sold it to a gentleman that lived in the southern tier of new york state.I don't know what happened to it from there.I have a picture of that rig,and will post it in my album when i find it.Call this"the one that got away":pat:
 
In the batch of photos my wife recently found was this one. It belonged to A-1 Ambulance Service in Akron, Ohio. A 1968 (?) Chevrolet Suburban, unknown who did the ambulance conversion. Everybody in Akron ran Q sirens, and lots of lights on their rides. Look closely, I'm pretty sure there's a Beacon Ray behind the Visi-Bar.

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Earlier I referenced a Suburban that A-1 had that had waaaay to many lights on it. I can't locate my photo, but I went to another site and found a photo of a later rig. Credit to the photographer.

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My ex-wife took all the Akron photos on that trip. They were taken with an old Polaroid (sp?), the one that the picture came out , then you mounted it on a backing card. What a PITA those things were.
 
We still have one of those, that's all we can use for taking pics at accidents. To show MOI, etc, for either the ER or Medevac. But we use a newer Polaroid due to issues getting the film, it's hard enough to get the new cartridges.
 
being a constant thief of pictures you get some from some strange places in all kinds of condition. if it a rare car it's worth taking the time to clean up. played with this on a little the hard part was removing the third eye of the driver. it is in the 69 to 72 range. they are vary hard to date if you don't know as they used this grill in a number of years. the egg crate one was late 71 early 72. the 67 and 8 had the slope in the hood
 

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Looks like a 69 to me Ed. This was the first alum. grille they used on this style truck that looked much like the steel painted grille on the 67 and 68 models. I had a 68 Chevy C-10 long bed fleetside that had that slope on the front hood edge your talking about. 68 was also the first year for the side markers on the fenders too.
 
yes guys that's what I said. if you don't know the year it's hard to pick out. labeled on the back is 69 so 69 she is. this grill was used in 69 70 71 and 72. it was mixed in early 71 and late 72 with the egg crate plastic one. side trim changes were also one way to Id them. the 67 had only the reflector in the fender. were the light socket would twist in, it was blank. when they were no longer around we would replace them with the side marker light. just put a piece of tape over the socket hole to keep the dirt out. the 71 and 72 had the park lights in the bumper. the bar grill was just not cut out for them. some difference in the hubcaps to. back ground color changes from black to gold. I always thought this was the best body GM ever produced. things on it fit well. once you understood it. the glass trim was a pain in the butt to keep in the rubber changing windshields and back glass but other then that it went together well. man show up with one damaged you ask what year is it. stop in to get parts and order this grill or that one with or with out holes and caps this color. don't work with them for 20 + years your forget the little things. poor quality picture it's hard at a glance to get the year exact. I forgot about the park lights changing. or could have gotten it to 69-70. here is a pictures of the Glen Mitchell Manuel I used to make estaments on them. the up dates would be mailed to you. you put the replacement pages in one at a time. notice that in this book the only grill pictured is the egg crate one for 71 72. the one used the lease. remember I payed for this service to. they were considered the best then and now
 

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Here is a good "guide" to help identify Chevy trucks within the 67-72 range. There are other differences, but this is a good start:

"For those of you who are learning about these trucks, it's fairly easy to tell what year they are. The six years of production, from 1967 to 1972, are divided up into three groups of two years. We have the '67-'68 trucks, the '69-'70s and the '71-72s.

1967 and 1968 trucks shared the all-new body introduced in 1967. When I first saw a '67 I decided right then I'd have one someday. The only real difference between the two is that the '68s had the federally-mandated side marker lights that are found on all American cars and trucks from that year on. The 1967 Chevy trucks had some of the nicest styling we'll ever see on a truck. The early '67 pickups came with a small back window that was only available that year in this series of trucks.

1969 and 1970 Chevy trucks differ mainly in having new front end sheet metal. Gone is the sloping hood that was unique to the '67 and '68 trucks, replaced with a version that has a more upright leading edge. The '69 and '70 models are easy to find, and since they lack some of the features introduced in 1971 they are less expensive to buy than the '71 and '72 trucks.

The hood and front fenders interchange between 1969 through 1972 trucks, with the only difference being the mounting holes for the bowtie emblem on the '69 and '70 hoods, which was moved to the inner grille on the '71 and '72 models. Many of the other parts also interchange, except for the wheels on half-tons, and the front brakes.

1971 saw the introduction of front disc brakes on all Chevy light trucks. That year, all half-ton pickups and Suburbans were built with five-lug wheels in a five-inch, "five-on-five" bolt pattern. (This bolt pattern is shared with some GM full-sized cars.) The 1971 and 1972 trucks were given new inner and outer grilles that lacked the center bar used on the '69 and '70 models.

1972 was "the last of the all-steel trucks", since interiors were almost completely covered with plastic starting with the '73 trucks. The trend was for the industry to produce trucks that provided the comfort and luxury found in full-size cars, with power windows being offered for the first time in Chevrolet trucks."
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From the picture Russell posted, you can only narrow it down to a 69 or 70 (assuming all pictured parts are original). As far as I know that grill was never used beyond 1970, and all 71-72 trucks had the large "egg crate" grill with no aluminum center bar. differentiating between a 69 and 70 is tough to do even in person. Technically the only difference is that the 70 had a slight difference in the inner grill that made it look like it had thicker vertical bars every few inches or so, but according to folklore GM ran short on 69 inner grilles so they started putting 70 inner grilles on 69 trucks, so you would either have a 69 truck with a 70 grille, or a truck assembled in 69 as a potential 69 model, but sold as a 70 (since that was the only difference).

Since the photo says 69 on the back it probably is a 69, but really no way to tell if it is a 69 or 70 from the photo. It would have to be one or the other though.
 
Steve, do you have any pictures of the GMC and Chevy Carryall ambulances used by Baltimore City and Baltimore Co? I think the city used them from 1957-1963. Baltimore Co. used them up until the early 70s. Not sure of the manufacturers.
 
Mike Doll said:
Steve, do you have any pictures of the GMC and Chevy Carryall ambulances used by Baltimore City and Baltimore Co? I think the city used them from 1957-1963. Baltimore Co. used them up until the early 70s. Not sure of the manufacturers.
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Yes; I'll post some as I get time.
 
found me one other 70 stoner over the weekend. it was a twin to mine so now I have a pattern. been hiding in Sterling Il all this time
 

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