Wheeled Coach built this Type ambulance on a Ford E-450 cab and chassis for the Davis Corner (VA) Volunteer Fire & Rescue Squad. (Photos courtesy of Wheeled Coach)
By Alan M. Petrillo
The Davis Corner (VA) Volunteer Fire & Rescue Squad is one of nine volunteer ambulance squads serving the city of Virginia Beach area, with the Davis Corner coverage area being 16 square miles, part of which borders the Atlantic Ocean, and consists mostly of residential and commercial structures. Davis Corner operates two frontline ambulances out of a single station crewed by 35 volunteer paramedics, advanced emergency medical technicians (AEMTs), EMT-Intermediates, and EMTs.
Alaina Graves, former squad commander of Davis Corner and a member of its board of directors, says the nine ambulance squads handle about 50,000 calls a year, almost evenly divided among them, and stretch out over a 500 square mile coverage area. “Both of Davis Corner’s frontline ambulances are Wheeled Coach rigs,” Graves points out, “with the newest one we recently received being almost identical to our prior Wheeled Coach unit, with only minor changes by Wheeled Coach in the rig’s cab and also an updated Striker base plate in the back.”
Lighting on the rig includes a Whelen M Series LED warning and scene light package, three HiViz FireTech LED MiniBrow lights underneath the Cool Bar AC condenser giving 180 degrees of lighting on the front of the truck, as well as an Opticom traffic control device mounted above the Cool Bar.
Abel Del Rio, Wheeled Coach’s director of sales, says the Davis Corner rig is built on a Type 3 Ford E-450 two-door cab and chassis with a 170-inch-long body that has 74 inches of interior headroom. Del Rio notes that the rig has a 158-inch wheelbase, is 22 feet 10 inches in overall length, and 9 feet in overall height, has a severe weather insulation package, and a โVirginia Beachโ interior layout and configuration.
He points out that the Davis Corner Type 3 has a 7.3-liter gasoline engine, a RelayPlex hybrid quasi-multiplexing electrical system, aluminum wheels, a custom aluminum center console sprayed with black Line-X, a Cool Bar air conditioning condenser, two Buell 10-inch air horns, and a Federal Signal PA4000 electronic siren.
The Davis Corner Type 3 has a 170-inch-long patient module with 74 inches of headroom.
Jeff Hawkins, ambulance division regional account manager for Atlantic Emergency Solutions, who sold the Wheeled Coach to Davis Corner, says the rig has a Safety Vision three-camera system (backup, turn signal, and patient compartment cameras), and a Vanner LifeSine 1,100-watt inverter with a 55-amp battery charger.
Inside the patient module, the CPR seat, the attendant seat at the head of the cot, and the dual seat squad bench all are protected by Per4Max four-point harnesses, Hawkins observes. He adds that there’s a curbside cabinet tower at the head of the squad bench that holds a recessed portable oxygen bottle, interior control panels on both the streetside and curbside of the box, a Stryker 6390 Power-LOAD fixture, and a NCE H7000 bracket for a LIFEPAK defibrillator.
The CPR seat, action area, and attendant’s seat in the new Wheeled Coach rig.
Lighting on the Davis Corner Wheeled Coach Type 3, Hawkins says, includes a Whelen M Series LED warning and scene light package, three HiViz FireTech LED MiniBrow lights underneath the Cool Bar giving 180 degrees of lighting on the front of the truck, and an Opticom traffic control device mounted above the Cool Bar.
The rig has dual seating in the squad bench area. All seats are protected by Per4Max 4-point harnesses.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist who has served as a newspaper reporter, editor, and magazine writer and is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Ad
