I have shamelessly stolen this link from John Berch’s posting earlier in the week.
If you enter 578 in the little box that currently has 160 in it (the page search box), you will find some information about the WWI ambulance vehicles.

ambulance article

Lots of other stuff there too.
Joe

Well, that didn't work, but if you go to John's post from Monday and enter 578, it will show up.
Sorry about the bun link.

...the one about "Ordering 4X4 TT Trucks for General Pershing"

Joe, did you understand what they were talking about when they modified the spring to get a 15" longer wheel base?

http://books.google.com/books?id=dM8qAAAAMAAJ&dq=Automotive%20industries&pg=PA57 8#v=onepage&q&f=false

No, that was not clear to me. Could they have lengthened it like the "Form-a-Truck" kits or something? I thought they used a standard Model T chassis.

I thought the same. The pictures appear to have the standard wheel base. They have more hanging over the rear axle than in front of it.

The article Joseph posted starts out, "With the completion of the designs for several standard machines necessary for the Medical Department Ambulance Services,". I am always interested in the fact that in the early years of the automobile they were commonly refered to as "machines". Folks today don't seem to think of thier cars as a machine. I can remember my grandfather always refered to his car as, "The machine", only he said it in Italian.

Anyway, kind of an interesting sidebar, at least to me.

The 1917 and 1918 Ambulances used a Standard Model T Chassis. The Ambulance design made for an awkward looking body overhang. Experimental installation kits were played with to balance out the objectional overhang. The kits moved the rear wheels 15 inches back. I don't know if this was adopted. WW1 ended and most of the Ambulance designs appear to have been scapped after the war.
This picture is of a 1917 Ambulance with the experimental 15 inch rear wheel kit installed to eliminate the body over hang.

This is a photo showing the Standard 1917 Ambulance with the body overhang.

I finally got to Watertown NY to do some more H. H. Babcock ambulance research. There is very little left there, as the company went bankrupt and was liquidated on August 1, 1928. All the tools, plans, etc. were sold to the Arcadia Truck Body Corp. in Newark, New York. That appears to be a relatively unknown company that did not survive the depression.

The Historic Society did have a new or leftover ambulance plate or tag that was affixed to each body. The patent number could not be found, but the patent date is listed as June 12, 1917.



There is still one of the newer bodies that survived in the Watertowwn area, but it is mounted on a Dodge truck.

There was also a newspaper article on how the amulance bodies were sent to France and who assembled them there.

The Watertown Herald

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1917

Local Men Leave For France

Four men were accepted at the local army recruiting station Tuesday for Lieut. James E. Barney's local Sanitary Corps unit of the army Medical Corp. Three had already been examined and accepted at the office and sent to Fort Slocum.

(Three four men were employed at the Babcock Company. The fourth was a telegraph operator and reporter for a local newspaper).

These men will be first assigned when reaching France, to the assembling of Babcock ambulance bodies, built in Watertown, and to be mounted on trucks from western auto factories.

From the Army Medical Reports from 1928, The Babcock Company supplied wartime ambulance bodies that were designed for the GMC ¾ ton Truck. The Babcock Ambulances were larger than the little 1917 Ford Ambulances. The Babcock Ambulances were primarily used behind the front lines, while the Ford Ambulances were used to pick up at forward areas. The complete record is in this book.

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY IN THE WORLD WAR
VOLUME III
FINANCE AND SUPPLY

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
MAJ. GEN. M. W. IRELAND
Surgeon General
1928

I will visit the National Archives later this week and check to see if they might have a copy of that book.

James - You can read it on the web if you like.

http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/finance_supply/defaultrev.html