CC Cohort Owen Smith has found a unicorn, a very wide one at that. In the early 70s, Superior sold these widened Chevy vans, which kept the dash and steering wheel in their original position, primarily for ambulance and shuttle-bus use. I’ve never seen the camper version, and neither has Google. So feast your eyes on one of the best finds ever here at CC, even if it’s not exactly the most attractive.
Here’s the back end. The plugs in the middle of the doors and bumper are quite apparent here. This must be quite roomy inside, to say the least.
Here’s how it was most often seen, as an ambulance.
I did find this wide Dodge van back a few years ago, and posted it here. Note how the wheels on this one are also extended out to the sides.
Superior also offered a Dodge wide-body (jumbo fuselage?), but that one I shot above is not a Superior, as its crude windshield is made up of two cut-down windshields, unlike the custom-made one in the Superior. The stretch was 16″, apparently.
Here’s a Superior brochure shot. The 61″refers to its interior height.
This is a highly unusual find.
I’ve seen the widened Dodges on television and one in person, but did not know similar had been done on a Chevrolet. It would be interesting to know the change in driving dynamics due to this and the now relatively narrow track.
It does not handled bad at all
Seems like it would be worse than a normal ambulance. The centerpiece between the doors doesn’t open, so the openable width for a gurney would be narrower than usual?
The centerpiece appears to be attached to one of the doors of the ambulance (and perhaps the camper, as well), so it’s not in the middle of the rear opening when the doors are opened.
I own one of these 1973 wide bodies, the extension is welded into the left rear door, the body is still in excellent shape as it is located in New Mexico, it can be up for sale as I am too old to undertake rebuilding it, it has under 80,000 original miles and i feel it would start after a treatment of risolonr
James, I stumbled upon this thread. Do you have pics of your wide-body van? What would you be asking for it? I’m an old vanner from a van club in Wisconsin. I now live in Florida. Thank You and have an excellent day!!
Arthur…there is one of these for sale on Facebook in concordia, kansas for $900.00. The seller’s name is Jake Hake. Just thought I’d let you know.
The door extension was added to the left side door, no pillar.
That ad for the Dodge makes me wonder about just who was the one who said to his boss “What this ambulance really needs is fender skirts.”
An amazing find. And looking at these, I guess I was wrong. It was, in fact, possible to make the footwells in front even less pleasant than in stock versions.
And when your camper has been extended in all three dimensions, you know you have the ultimate. 🙂
I’m not seeing the length extended, so not quite the ultimate yet. 🙂
A lengthened and widened Chevy van with a high roof would be something, though…. an Ultra Van!
“I’m not seeing the length extended, so not quite the ultimate yet.”
I guess I am using the old yardstick of the “shortie” being standard and this being extended (like the 2nd generation Ford Supervan). I agree, this could be even ultimater.
With its standard width, will the Promaster ever seem adequate again? 🙂
Gotcha.
The Promaster is of course considerably narrower than the Chinook, with its extended-width fiberglass body, which was probably almost the same as these wide vans. But it’s not really an issue, as the floor plan and space utilization is better in almost every way. But yes, the extra width was nice in some regards. Especially when there were three of us in it (my younger son). That’s not going to happen again. It’s strictly a two-person thing.
I have a1973 superior dodge tradesman 300. Do you have any idea what it may be worth never seen salty roads little to zero rust
I can see fender skirts actually having a legitimate use. Not so much on an ambulance, I suppose, but the sun can do terrific damage to RV tires. That’s why you see tire covers on many parked RVs, particularly in the south.
LOL, agree about the fender skirts! I don’t recall seeing any of these things. I’d love to know the details of how they actually widened them. Perhaps sliced it down the middle and welded in a strip of steel?
I saw a Dodge “Wide One” in the flesh many years ago. They didn’t quite cut them down the middle. They did cut it down the middle in the top from rear door opening to just above the dog house opening, more or less. On the floor they cut it an added a strip on each side that was half the width of the one added to the top. I presume it was done to preserve the factory body mounts, engine cover and opening and the relationship of the wheel wells to the wheels.
This particular conversion used the left ~9/16 or one windshield and the right ~9/16 of another windshield with a rubber strip in the middle of the two pieces.
I wonder why, if they went to the expense of a custom-made wide windshield, they didn’t provide for better wipers. I understand the height was the same so probably longer ones wouldn’t have worked, but perhaps a third one?
It seems odd to me that with the extra width and rear fender clearance they wouldn’t have put dual wheels on the back of these things for extra stability and weight management. It would probably have forced the elimination of those snazzy fender skirts on the Dodge though.
The fender skirts on the Dodge does add some style. However, it looks like the gap in the grille was filled in with an HVAC return vent cover.
I think the fender skirts were to disguise the goofy appearance of the tucked in wheels. Not as easy to do for the front because those have to steer. I agree that dual rear wheels would have been a better idea for safety and appearance, but moving all four wheels out would have been even better. They could have put more effort into the Dodge grille as well, but hospitals care more about costs than how it looks.
I’ve never heard of these widened vans. Would have been cool to see them do it with the old Cadillac ambulances.
“Not as easy to do for the front because those have to steer.” The Nash Airflyte had similar tucked in wheels to accommodate front skirts. Not nearly as tall though. What a strange look that would be on the Dodge.
Actually, those weren’t front skirts on those Nashes, but the actual fender. Made tire changing a chore.
Never heard of these, what an unusual find! They look to be over a foot wider than the standard vans, what are the dimensions of these?
I agree with other posters that dual wheels on the back would have made these look so much better, as well as adding stability.
I own one. I love it.
I never knew these wide vans existed, or I never really noticed them. Making the wide single-piece windshield must have been pretty costly. On the other hand there are the weird narrow-cab steel hauling trucks. Most if not all have a hatch in the roof for driver entrance or exit. They’re not very common, and I’ve personally never seen a double-cab version.
Interesting and strange looking. What exactly is the purpose of making them narrow? It looks like it’s meant to be also be used on tracks, but only the cab seem to be narrowed, and the chassis the regular width.
It’s a road truck that’s intended to carry long pieces of steel (like reinforcing bars) that were too long for a conventional truck. The steel was placed on either side of the cab.
That is the first “crew cab” narrow cab I’ve seen. The fact that this is a rail road truck though makes sense since the very first Ford crew cabs were a special order for a rail road company and it just seems that 4drs on their trucks became the norm.
IH used to make a center narrow cab with the hatch for steel delivery trucks.
This van is in Comox Bc, I used to drive by it everyday, for the last few years it’s been parked around the same area. I’ve never seen it move but sometimes it’s gone and replaced with a white Toyota Tercel hatch. It’s been regularly parked there since last year. I’ve been meaning to take a pic of it for ages but somebody beat me to it.
I’ve seen photos off the ambulance versions, but wasn’t aware of these.
It needs dual rear wheels to complete the effect, the narrow axle width reminds me of the tippy looking Commer/Dodge vans we had here,
Ditto on the Commercials. They were quite Nash like, in that you could barely see the front wheels from many angles.
EG
Ah, a camper, just the solution to Rootes providing the track of a 1930’s Minx on a wide ’50’s fridge-design body – just add still more width.
If your porky mate with too many pints on-board rolls over in that bed above the cab, so does the unit.
Front track is the same as the Minx/Super Minx range as thats where it comes from, like all British light commercials it based on car mechanicals.
I didn’t claim to be telling the actual truth, bryce.
I should have said “..Rootes providing the track of a Malvern Star bike..”
The newer Dodge is interesting, at some point in the early ’80s there was a company doing these conversions on Dodges only and widening the track as the ’90s/00s one is. It was said that they didn’t do Chevys because of the (then) lack of a factory long-body model and they didn’t do Fords because the Twin-I-Beam front end didn’t lend itself to widening.
Hey, interesting! I’ve seen a variety of widened Dodges over the years, but never a Chev. The first pic has me wondering if “Superior” means Superior Coach, the in/famous Sheller-Globe company who made the school bus involved in the Carrollton Bus Disaster. I can’t quite tell, but it looks like the logo in front of the “SUPERIOR” callout on the side of the topper shell is the same as was seen on Superior school buses. Anyone know?
Speaking of Superior school bus. I saw that video of a guy who filmed some old 1968-72 Superior school bus with Dodge chassis and engine located in a scrap yard.
Believe it or don’t, you could get a Dodge school bus chassis with a 225 Slant-6 engine. Zero-to-60 maybe sometime late next month, I’m guessing, though I guess if it were geared very low and never needed to exceed what, 45 mph, it’d be passable.
As a Mopar kid, I was delighted that my school bus when we moved to the burbs was a Dodge. The speed limit everywhere in the district probably was 40 or less.
Six cylinders in medium truck chassis were still quite common until well into the 60s or so. And were the norm in the 50s. It really changed in the mid-late 60s, as it did for cars. Gas prices kept falling (in absolute terms) all through the 50s and 60s. And the economy kept growing. And lots of freeways were built. Hence bigger engines and faster speeds.
Most cities didn’t have freeways yet, and speeds on roads and highways, especially near cities, were typically much slower.
Truck speeds used to be very low once upon a time. As in 15-20 mph. Tops; in the teens and twenties. They grew steadily as more stuff was hauled longer distances. But when you’re hauling things a half mile or mile, who cares? It was faster than horses.
Yes, things have changed, as they are wont to do.
Good points.
One more thing: the Australian “hemi” six was originally designed by Dodge in the US to be a truck engine, to replace the 225/6. This was in the mid sixties. They still saw a future for big sixes in real trucks. But then they changed their mind and shipped it to Australia.
In Australia it was fitted to Valiant cars and Dodge light and medium trucks, great engines.
IIRC the federal speed limit for school buses is 50 or less.
There is (and never was) no federal speed limit for school buses. If there any specific to school buses, it’s on a state-by-state basis.
These are striking, and I have no memory of them. Upon second look, I realize that the *track* isn’t widened (which would obviously be a huge engineering job). Would there be any advantage to doing so–whether or not cost-effective–given the kind of driving typical of their service uses?
One company did; see the white one I shot in a driveway. That company’s vans were used as mini-buses; apparently Phoenix had some in its para-transit fleet.
I don’t think it would have made a very big difference. it’s not like these vans handled so flat and fast to begin with. I suspect the difference was modest.
^^^That’ll teach me to look—and read—more carefully, Paul! Thanks for taking time to steer me straight.
It looks like an SD TV signal being shown in the wider HD format. Or a fun house mirror. Or stretched silly putty. Or too many metaphors in one comment.
Really neat find! I doubt I would have never known that they existed. Front fender skirts could get clogged what snow, so not an issue an ambulance needs. A wider track would be seem obvious for safer handling. I kind of like the wider look anyway. That Dodge grille looks awful with that skillet in the middle though. I had to look close to see the seam of the joined glass, and the strange shape of the top seam.
I find the notion of these bizarre – I can’t believe this was the most efficient way of providing more spacious vans.
It’s very “third world DIY job”.
Later ambulances with separate bodies with a cutaway cab would suggest this wasn’t the most efficient way!
This van reminds me of one of the weirdest vehicles that I have ever driven. It was an International S Series from about 1980. The cab was widened to the edges of the truck. It was also pushed forward so that the engine really intruded into the cab and the stick shift had a horizontal run of about 2 feet before it went through the floor into the transmission at the back of the cab. The dash was cut in half with a filler piece added and a two piece windshield was cobbled together, each piece made from more than half of a stock one piece windshield. I don’t know why it was built like that. It had a silage body on it and was used for farm duties when I drove it. It was a horrible excuse for a truck.
Neat find, that does look like the Sheller-Globe logo on the side. The very same Superior made motorhomes in the early 70’s also. They used Dodge chassis and had galvanized metal bodies that were super heavy. My parents had two when I was a kid. I remember brake parts being unobtanium especially the front rotors. The 413 was one slow turd heading out over the mountains to the desert towing a dune buggy. A lot of good memories too.
Good grief.
There must surely have been folks who expired before their ambulance got un-wedged from some little side street (y’know, like a freeway). What was the idea, load the patients sideways? I mean, a screwy feng-shui concept for healing the sick emerging from some green n’ smoky ’70’s idea forum?
Or was the need for fat-bastard ambulances an early warning of the, ah, corn-syrup issue, so to speak?
There are modern GM van based ambulances that don’t need to be widened. The fire department near my cabin has a 4×4 Chevy Express. Unless you need room for two gurney’s at a time, I don’t really see the point.
Here’s a pic of mine
This is actually my Van. It has just been put up for sale in Comox Bc. Below is a link to my ad on Facebook. Or you can get ahold of me at 2871090@gmail.com 6500 obo
https://m.facebook.com/groups/24582684214/permalink/10158547067674215/
I also own one if these in New Mexico, I would love to find someone to restore it. No major rust, no dents needs a windshield, if i could find a replacement i would put it back on the highway
The track was widened and the center pillar in rear was attached to left door and opened with the door.