St. Louis Metro

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[quote name='JM82' timestamp='1298239063' post='426252']

I'm just not feelin' the love for these things. They're too large. When is "enough is enough" when it comes to the size of an ambulance?! Yeah, it's better than a van, like when I started out 25 years ago, but these things are getting out of hand! I remember seeing Cambridge (Mass.) Fire Department's Spartan Metro cab ambulance a few years ago at FDIC and thinking the same thing.



In My Humble Opinon, if you want to go with an ambulance with the large commercial cab, then the Chevy/GMC, International and Freightliner are just fine for that. Why do we need a 4 door "budget custom cab" on an ambulance??!! I realize that they're utilizing the back seats for SCBA storage, but do we REALLY need a Spartan Furion cab just for that?! Another waste of taxpayer's money.



Just my two cents here.

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I guess it all comes down to each department's needs.



#1:Response area would be my main concern. Neighborhoods built before the 60's, forget this truck. Strike one! (It's just to big for that tight of a development, as is every medium duty chassis. I mean width wise not turning radius, which this thing kills no matter what chassis it goes against.)



#2:What am I going to carry on it. Plan Jane ambulance, or ambulance, rescue, command? Plan Jane ambulance that's strike two.



#3:What kind of budget do I have? $225,000.00 or more, no so that's strike three. It's out of consideration.



Now with that said, lets look at it from the other side.



#1:Response area would be my main concern. Neighborhoods built after the 60's, take first base.



#2:What am I going to carry on it. Plan Jane ambulance, or ambulance, rescue, command? All the above or two of the above, take second base.



#3:What kind of budget do I have? $225,000.00 or more, or department will lease it for 10 years, take third big boy.



#4:OK, so now am I considering refurbishing it in 5-10 years? (Re-man the body and replace components, refurb chassis rebuild motor & trans) Well you've just hit a HOME RUN!



Consider this as well, I just sold a unit with a Freightliner M2 chassis. In 5 years that chassis will be thrown out and replaced for a cost if it were today of $67,000.00. Your looking at a chassis cost in 5 years of $80,400.00, assuming a 4% per year price increase.



You can get a factory re-manufactured Detroit Diesel & Allison for about $25,000.00. If you do that you will only end spending about $10,000.00 more for this chassis over the two life times of it, compared to a commercial chassis five year lifetime. That's also assuming you go to the extreme of a complete chassis motor transmission replacement. If you just refurb the engine and tranny you would actually save money.



Then again many look at medium duty ambulance chassis replacement at 150,000 to 200,000 miles, those same people look at custom chassis apparatus at 300,000 miles. So if you decide to do that you can equal the savings out just by the amount of time you keep it before replacement. If you get twice the use out of the chassis, you are easily saving money.



All of this does not take into account that most dealers can work on a Spartan chassis, where as if you have a Freightliner, Kenworth, International, Ford, or Chevy, your dealer more than likely can not touch it!



While this chassis is not for everyone, there are many who can make a convincing argument for it.



Oh Yeah BTW: Who was first with Blue over Red Montreal, Quebec, Canada or Gary, IN?



Kris