It’s a funny feeling when one encounters a car from a far-flung country that looks kind of “off”. On this site, we see 1960s-vintage Chevrolet Opalas treated to 1980s redesigns and Lincoln Town Cars tweaked to become Hongqis and we think, “That just doesn’t look right.” This Holden Commodore ute is probably tripping your “off” detectors right now. Rest assured, they didn’t all look this weird.
Does it look more normal now? Admittedly, it’s still a bit unsightly. A company called Jakab Industries, based in rural Tamworth, New South Wales, stretched the Commodore ute by 23.6 inches to allow for this fiberglass pod to be put on the back for ambulance duty. For context, a regular Commodore ute was 191.57 inches long on a 111-inch wheelbase.
The photo above is from Flickr user sv1ambo, who also had this to say:
The design was such that ambulance services could remove the module and fit it to a new extended ute when the car was due for replacement, thus reducing their operating costs. Further adding to the savings achieved was the belief the longer utes would be popular as trademan’s vehicles after their service life and achieve a higher resale value than that of a used ambulance.
Jakab performed these ambulance conversions on Commodores throughout the 1990s, in addition to building ambulance pods for the Ford F-Series and assembling busses. The VS Commodore ute, the last in a line dating back to the VN Commodore-based VG of 1990, ended production in 2000 in preparation for the new generation VT models. Jakab didn’t do any conversions of the new VT utes and went out of business in 2002. I wonder if the increased use of vans for ambulance duty hastened their demise.
I’m not sure these Jakab Commodores were ever used in Queensland, where I live. We’ve been using Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans as ambulances for so long in Queensland that I’d forgotten most of what was used beforehand other than the Ford F-Series. Though I have no recollection of these Jakab Commodores in service, I’ve certainly come across a few over the years sans pods. I’d always wondered what the story was behind these weird, stretched-taffy Commodores. Now I know, and now you know.
Related Reading:
Museum Classic: National Funeral Museum – Hearsetravaganza
Curbside Capsule: 1993-97 Holden VR/VS Commodore – Second/Third Owner Stigma
Well that sure is neat indeed, what a unique technique to build an ambulance. Are these vehicles Unibody?
Yes, no seperate chassis, and they also have a rather crudely located live axle on coil springs.
Aussie ambulance creations need a post all their own especially the weird staionwagon/van mashups where a vehicle was assembled using one side of two cars wagon one side panel van the other these stretched commodores are the tip of the iceberg, by the time I left OZ in 03 Hobarts ambulance fleet was all Mercedes Sprinters there were no 3 door EH Holdens to be seen anywhere.
So it’s basically the slide-in pickup camper of ambulances? I like it!
Back in that time, a used ambulance was worthless, so this idea gave it more resale value. It makes perfect sense.
Nowadays, at least in the US, used ambulances are a hot comodity among the DIY RV crowd. That makes sense on the surface, but I always feel like the chassis and drivetrain led a difficult life, so I’m not sure how viable a used ambulance is over the long term.
I knew a guy who liked to use used ambulances for his lawn care business. Gave him lots of lockable storage for equipment and still had towing capacity for larger equipment.
Back in the late 1990s he could pick them up cheaply enough he’d just get a different one every few years.
A mate of mine had an ex ambulance set up for living in, he had a 84 F150 still with all the useful ambo gear twin alternators AC compressors twin batteries the fibreglass rear body was from the same mob who did those Holdens, the whole thing weighed 3 tonnes empty of gear, drank fuel like it was going out of style 13 mpg on petrol he converted it to LPG and got the 351 engine modified to suit, good unit but with the usual weak steering components F series trucks are cursed with, easy to repair but the parts are expensive in OZ.
I remember W124s being the norm in Denmark as a kid. In Sweden they used Volvo 200 series.
Why didn’t they always just use vans? It seems way too laborious to convert sedans or station wagons.
I’ve seen one of these in my town and always kinda wondered what the story was. Thanks for answering the question I’ve never asked!
Well thanks, William, because I too had no idea why these Long John utes existed, and just assumed they were for buyers suffering from ute-envy issues.
KB (above) is right: the pageant of Australian ambulances rather looks as if one has walked through the looking glass in Alice. (Played havoc with the memories of head injury patients, ie: “Man, you should have seen the thing I dreamed they took me away in, like some ’50’s Fairlane with a phone box on it!”)
Many, if not all, of these conversions must have nasty to drive. Even the big and wide F-100’s were known for instability, but can you imagine the tippsiness of a skinny-tracked Commodore with this device swaying above? Like trying to get to ED, in a hurry, while keeping ten apples up on top.
I spent enough time in NSW each winter in the late 90s that I actually saw some of these stretch Commodore ambos, each state seemed to have its own ideas on what was best, my mates ex ambo camper was ex Victoria, they were getting out of F150s due to servicing costs the durability was pathetic my mates unit had a complete replacement power train in it and only 500,000kms on the clock gawd knows how many steering boxes (manual) and track rods it had eaten with all the extra weight.
Woah I never knew they made these in Tamworth, I live pretty close to Tamworth and have always wondered what’s the stretched utes where for.
Whoa, never expected to see a car that’s street parked not far from my house on this site. And yes, it is still there three years later. Still in the same condition. Fun fact, just one house away from where this is parked there are two mystery vehicles parked on the driveway but under car covers. The cars are are never moved and the covers never come off. From the way the car cover hangs, I am certain that one is a late 60s Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler muscle car. The other, who knows… maybe a W123 coupe or Volvo 242.