The wife and I have been looking for a used camper van for a while when we realized an ambulance would be perfect for us. It offers a raised fixed roof, well insulated (now with R25 insulation), several large boxes outside, already has a 40 gallon fuel tank, 7.3L diesel engine, 1050W inverter, 20A tripple stage charger, and several other items that make it a steal for the $3500 we paid.

The truck has 118K miles on it which is barely broken in and runs great.

We are working on the interior right now then planning on a new paint job with some simple carbon fiber graphics on the side kinda like an RV. We will be converting to single rear wheel for better off road performance using 99-04 F350 axles and will use a Ujoint off road 4wd convesion kit since I dont have time to fab everything.

http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/35595/2743154650101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2743154650101688096IpuHJF)

http://inlinethumb38.webshots.com/44197/2248533940101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2248533940101688096ETSrhO)

Here is the frame I made for the seating and bed setup, this will safely seat our 2 girls while driving (using 3 point belts) and have seating for 5 while camping. When we are ready for bed we will pull an insert out from underneath and will have a queen size 6" thick memory foam matressed bed.

http://inlinethumb64.webshots.com/45439/2227572280101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2227572280101688096FAoQEQ)

http://inlinethumb34.webshots.com/2209/2809477420101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2809477420101688096IYOfVd)

http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/26809/2412919040101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2412919040101688096urJaBD)

The fridge is a 4.3 cubic ft unit,microwave, sink with 15 gallons of water, 13,500 btu/3500btu a/c and heating unit on the roof, 22" flat screen tv, awning on the side as well as flood lights. Im probably leaving some things out but thats the gist of it for now.

Here is the flooring going in, the new paneling will be going on tomorrow since the wife hates the bright white panels ( I dont blame her)

http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/47014/2092037670101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2092037670101688096PTHOEO)

Well be updating the thread as we build it. Let me now what you think.

Randy

I think you got a great platform to start with. I cant wait to see it with a 4x4 conversion!

Awesome! What is the stand-up height inside the box?

We will be converting to single rear wheel for better off road performance using 99-04 F350 axles and will use a Ujoint off road 4wd convesion kit since I dont have time to fab everything.


For the love of everything holy, please DO NOT single out the rear axle unless you put it on 19.5 (as a bare minimum) or 22.5 supersingles.

I have been a paramedic for 12 years and I have driven just about every type of ambulance they have produced for the last 20 years.

The type of ambulance with a singled out rear and an ambulance box is called a "mini-mod". They are the nastiest things ever invented to drive. The ambulance box is heavy, much heavier than you think. And they are built strong, which means heavy. They are built for roll over protection, which means heavy up top. Therefore they sway a lot. 10x worse in the wind.

They just do not make a tire that has the sidewall strength to stop the side to side motion these trucks get in a wind storm or even a crowned road. The last mini-mod I drove I needed the entire lane to keep it going somewhat straight in a 10 mph cross wind. That was at stock height, not lifted for 4wd, which will make it even worse. When I got out, the tire sidewalls were HOT and you could push the box and watch the tires sway in the tread. This was a BFG commercial TA at 80 PSI. Scary stuff.

They made mini-mods with every advantage too, on a wider dually axle and with better sway bars. The boxes were even a little smaller. The tires just could not take the weight and lateral movement from wind. Duals add a bunch more sidewall resistance, and it runs smother and nicer, tires last longer, and wind is not such a white knuckle drive.



Also, weight it some time. I know you are taking a bunch out, but you are adding too. Ours weighed 12,000 empty, and closer to 13,500 with all of our crap on them. By the time you added 2 paramedics, a patient, a family member and maybe a firefighter, you were dangerously overloaded. They drove hard and we replaced brakes when we changed the oil. Not running emergency traffic, you might be able to extend that to every other oil change, but they are still heavy and need lots of brake to stop them.


I love ambulance chassis, and to me they make a much better box for an RV than an actual RV box. The outside storage is nice to have, and the boxes are built to last. The aluminum will never rust, and E450 parts will be around for a long time to come.


Just remember to watch your weight, your brake pad wear, and most of all watch out for that rear tire, especially if you single it out. They stopped making mini-mods some time in the late 90s/early 2000s because of their superior level of suck.

One more thing, 100k is when we surplus out our ambulances because they are wore slam out. 118K is not "barely broken in" for an ambulance. They have a lot of life left in them, but pay careful attention to the suspension bushings, steering setup and brake mounts. That, and front door hinges, is what usually brought down our ambulances.

They are rode hard and put up wet, and the maintenance on them is good, but good in a get it back out there and make money way, not good in a caring, we want this truck to last way. Like it was cheaper to put on new tires rather than fix minor alignment issues. Not unsafe, but it played hell with the front suspension. If you are replacing it with a solid axle, you will probably be fine.

If you need to tear down your transmission anyways to convert it to 4x and hang the transfer case, you probably want to freshen it up. On the rare occurrence we kept an ambulance to 150K, the transmission usually either did not last at all or was sloppy as all hell when we surplused it.

Thank gavan I will think a little more on the single wheel conversion but you have to understand you're from houston and this was from a little middle fo nowhere town, the guy I bought it from drove it or was in it since new basicly. I have checked it out thoroughly and its in great shape, handles well, runs and shifts like new. This is also not a 450 its a 350 and yes I have already weighed it at 8500 with just me in it.

Thank gavan I will think a little more on the single wheel conversion but you have to understand you're from houston and this was from a little middle fo nowhere town, the guy I bought it from drove it or was in it since new basicly. I have checked it out thoroughly and its in great shape, handles well, runs and shifts like new. This is also not a 450 its a 350 and yes I have already weighed it at 8500 with just me in it.

I am in Houston now, but I have been a driven an ambulance in about 10 different states, and everything from rural as rural gets to down town big city. All ambulances get run the same way, they just accumulate miles at a different rate.

If it was used for emergency response, it sits cold, gets started cold, runs 110% to the scene, idles for 20 mins, drives hard to the hospital, then gets shut off hot. It is just a tough life.

If it makes you feel any better, one of the transport services I worked for was non-emergency, long runs, and the ambulances were driven by one person for a majority of the time.

I personally watched about 2 million miles get put on these trucks, all vans but the same chassis. Every truck met about the same fate.

Transmission - first replacement at 150,000, every 75,000 thereafter. Crappy rebuilds to "save money".
Rear end - Blown by 200,000 miles, replaced with a junk yard unit, lasted till end of service.
Brakes - 10,000 miles if we were lucky.

We surplused those units at 250,000-300,000 miles, but there was not much left. We got rid of them when the doors would no longer safely latch. They are sold to third world countries that put even more miles on them, but thats another story.

It looks stripped of emergency lights and all the heavy stuff like oxygen tanks and stretcher mounts, so I could see it maybe weighing 8500, but by the time you get done fitting the interior and adding stuff to the external compartments you will be adding a bunch of weight.


I love the idea of an ambulance build, and I think they are a great platform. I love your builds on 4btswaps.com. I am looking forward to see how this thing turns out. I am just trying to impart some half baked wisdom of a lot of years sitting in, driving, managing, buying and turning wrenches on these beasts.

I welcome any experience I can get especially first hand experience, thanks.

This thing is in pretty good shape, I was actually planning on much worse since I used to be married to an EMT and have an idea of how they treat these things.

I'm really debating on wether I want to beef up the e4od when I install the transfer case or if I want to swap it for a zf5 spd, either way I have to pull the tranny for the transfer case install just not sure on the best route.

You bring up great points about the stability I just worry about the dual wheels off road even with 4x4. I dont plan on any serious off road of course with this monster but I'd like something I can depend on in snow, ice, mud and minor off road obstacles.

Good thing is I'm pretty good at engine swaps so if something happens to the powerstroke I will drop in an isuzu 6bd or cummins 6bt and call it good, by that time it should be a great truck, new engine, trans and suspension as well as interior. :D

I second what Gavan says. A lot of those issues can be noticed within the first 30k easy due to the nature of use, we put them though hell and sometimes its almost impossible to get the mechanical attention that would be desirable.

If its anything like how I drive ours, check the floor under the accelerator for wear marks, might give you a good idea of its history. :laughing: I wouldnt go single rear if it ment the truck would get 30mpg and make orange sherbert ice cream in the cab.

Why would you be worried about duals off road if you are not getting into anything rough? There are plenty of dual rated tires that have good tread on them for off road and aside from occasionally getting a rock stuck between them I have never noticed any disadvantage to running dual rears. Most likely anything really bad the body is not going to let you get through anyway.

Thanks guys but you havent seen this van, its pretty clean and in great shape.


Did a little more work on the interior today

http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/35545/2017055480101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2017055480101688096hWxREu)

http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/8113/2315335340101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2315335340101688096BHXdiB)

Awesome build :grinpimp: !

Nice! Can't wait to see more.
Scott

my truck isn't a meat wagon but it is a dually and weighs around 10,000#. it does very well but the bad thing is not being able to air down in the rear without them rubbing. i suppose i could do wheel spacers but i want to be careful with that.

one thing i did was take an extra set of dually rims and put smaller tires on them. the idea is if i get in mud, sand, or snow and start having problems i'll stick them on the front for more traction. then with those two smaller tires on the outside in theory they won't cause steering problems once on harder ground. i haven't tested it out yet though.

it looks like a really cool build, good luck

Why not put the Continental MPT 81 tires that Unimogs use? They come in 30" 37" 40" and 44"

http://www.earthroamer.com/galleries/mpt81/img_39471020710033_std.jpg


I know there are some other HD tires out there, check expeditionportal (http://expeditionportal.com)

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/us/en/continental/industry/themes/products/multipurpose_tires/img/mpt81_en,property=original.jpg

Lots of things going on with the ambulance. I've been out of town working alot but still making progress what little I've been home. Finally got the 4wd kit ordered from Chris@ Ujoint offroad early this week, decided to go with his 6" kit. We picked up a 2004 F350 Dana 60 in great shape for the front and a 10.5 sterling for the rear. The interior is finished with the new custom made seats as well as the 2 middle inserts for to make the queen size bed. The tv and hard drive are mounted as well as the rear radio system. I have the new Hehe windows just need to get them installed. Wiring is almost complete we went with extra heavy wire for everything using 1/0 wire from the alternator through the battery seperator to the dual 6V golf cart batteries and 4 gauge wire to the fuse panel. We also installed a 13.5K btu roof top a/c after thinking more about our hot Texas summers (105* heat isnt any fun). We picked up the new black wheels and 35" tires today, we did end up going to a single wheel setup. The wife decided on the 18" rockstar wheels so I go to choose the tires and went with 295/70/18 nitto terra grapplers with a 4080# load rating, more than enough for our van since it weighs in at 8820#'s total right now. I'd post up some picks but the van has been at the painters since tuesday this week getting changed from that ugly bright blue and white to a much cooler charcoal grey pearl. I will get picks up this weekend. We plan to get all the diamond plate and aluminum pieces coated in Line-X bed liner to go along with the blacked out theme. Oh I almost forgot, the old school tow mirrors werent going to go along with the blacked out theme so we ditched them and welded up the door holes to install some modern F250 style telescoping tow mirrors.

Thats about it for now, we don't have much left on the van really just waiting on the 4wd kit which should be in tomorrow then waiting on the front and rear springs before we can actually start on the install. I have been planning on converting to a 6spd manual for a while even went so far as to buy one but the wife has slowly convinced me to just build the auto and be done with it. I'm still on the fence at this point. For now we will get the Ujoint offroad kit installed and drive it around with the larger tires for a few weeks and let the wife take it to arkansas april 1st (her cousins wedding) if she likes it with the auto then we will keep it.

Photos will be coming very soon, stay tuned.

We also installed a 13.5K btu roof top a/c after thinking more about our hot Texas summers (105* heat isnt any fun).

How are you going to power the A/C? Most of the ambulance packages have the 215 amp alternator from the ambulance package, or the dual 110 alternators, but I would imagine that A/C would suck much more power than that. We have 9k Onan gas generators on the truck and you could use them as a walk in refrigerator if you needed to:smokin: Much better solution than the usual "piggyback it off of the factory A/C" that a lot of ambulances come with. Those syetems are a pain and always seem to leak/not cool well

We picked up the new black wheels and 35" tires today, we did end up going to a single wheel setup.

You might have a fighting chance of keeping it on the road with 18s and the resulting smaller side wall. If it has a rear sway bar, I would keep it in the lift, if it does not, I would go shopping for one, or at least start thinking about it. Even my Excursion has rear sway issues without a rear sway bar.

Oh I almost forgot, the old school tow mirrors werent going to go along with the blacked out theme so we ditched them and welded up the door holes to install some modern F250 style telescoping tow mirrors.

These worked great for our ambulances, and looked great.


I have been planning on converting to a 6spd manual for a while even went so far as to buy one but the wife has slowly convinced me to just build the auto and be done with it. I'm still on the fence at this point.

I will be curious to see what you do with this. I am in the same boat with the Excursion, build the auto or swap in manual. I have a nagging feeling the manual will win just based on drivetrain simplicity and fuel economy, but I have never had a built auto and I bet the mileage isn't that different with the better locking converters.

Love the build. Keep up the pictures and updates. I would love to get an older Freightliner ambulance to do a camper conversion and pull the Jeeps, but I think my wife would kill me.

Thanks gavan. We plan on purchasing an yamaha 3000/3500 watt generator. We fired one up the other day and held a normal quiet conversation standing 6" from it, I was very impressed with how quiet it is.

I think all will be fine since these things are rated over 4000# I think I remember the wheels only being 3600# or so roughly, either way when we weighed the van the other day it was total 8820 (dont remeber what it said front and rear though), I do remember it being well under what I expected and will be nothing for these wheels and tires. I did get the custom springs speced for the total rear weight even with the new custom bumper I'm making and with the weight of our bass boat we will sometimes tow. I do also plan to add a large rear sway bar and air bags to help get rid of all the sway this things has.

I have alot of new update photos to show everyone but I've been way too busy with being in the hospital, helping my dad get a new truck and gathering the parts to do a cummins conversion on it, and many other things. I'll get some more pics up asap, espeically of the interior which I'm very proud of how its turning out.

Here are a few shots of the outside. As you can see we also upgraded to the newer style Econoline/ F series side mirrors. I just welded up the holes in the doors before sending it to the painters.

We went with a ford charcoal grey with a very light bit of pearl in it to make it kinda sparkle just a bit.

http://inlinethumb47.webshots.com/45102/2105689150101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2105689150101688096CGbjAQ)

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/45362/2417638360101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2417638360101688096vpXFfo)

Here is a shot of one of the windows I got installed its a double pane insulated window from Hehr just like the rest of the windows in the ambulance. I decided to go with a smaller window on the drivers side so I'm waiting on the new one, for now this is the only one done. You can also see the roof mounted A/C we installed, I tried an indoor portable unit but it was worthless and took up valuable indoor space. This thing cools great so far, its a coleman unit 13,500 btu so it shouldnt have a problem keeping us cool even in this 105* texas heat. I had the painter mix up the paint to hold up the plastic and shoot the a/c unit to blend it all in. I think it turned out well.

http://inlinethumb01.webshots.com/18560/2325127070101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2325127070101688096CPwsFl)

New wheels and tires, 18" rockstars, I know the rockcrawler guys hate them but the wife likes them and I've never seen them on any expo vehicles so I figured they'd be different. The tires werent my first choice but they were alot cheaper than my favorite BFG's, we went with the Nitto Terra Grapplers 295/75/18 with is a 34.5" tall tire but nitto calls a 35". These should clear everything fine with I get the last few bits for the Ujoint conversion.

http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/46595/2838934680101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2838934680101688096Aojcgr)

Speaking of the conversion, we have most of the parts and will start installing everything we can very soon. I purchased an 04 F350 single wheel front axle (Dana 60) with 4.10 gears, replaced seals, etc. I also ordered a set of warn hubs from Chris at Ujoint and went ahead and installed new calipers, brake pads and turned the stock rotors down since they were plenty beefy still.

http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/45539/2407689830101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2407689830101688096umfbst)

I did a quick search and couldnt find a good tow hitch for the cutaway van chassis and I needed a way to mount a spare tire anyway so I decided to make my own bumper/hitch/tire carrier. I went to the local steel yard and bought some high quality 2x6 1/4" wall steel for the main part and 2x2 1/4" wall for the rest of it. I think it will all be plenty beefy to tow our 20ft bass boat or to have a luggage rack attached to the back to haul a generator when we go to alaska or other remote places. I'm using a large hub and spindle assembly as the pivot point and just need to go to grainger to pickup a heavy duty latch assembly to keep it all tied into place.

Trust me there is a bumper in there somewhere. :D

http://inlinethumb11.webshots.com/47114/2739112280101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2739112280101688096qFLFJx)

Let me know what you guys think.

More of an update. Here is the control panel, it allows us to run the left, right and rear flood lights, interior lights and several other things. The radio obviously runs the tunes and when turned to aux it will allow the tv to run through the speakers.

http://inlinethumb22.webshots.com/47765/2516607940101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2516607940101688096JtDDoP)

Overall shot of the interior. We made up the cushions ourselves with parts from the local automotive upholstry shop. The fridge is pretty large and from lowes, we did consider a 12v/110v fridge but at around $1K we couldnt justify it since most places we will be going we can either run the truck (mostly on long road trips like to alaska or colorado), run the generator or be plugged in so for a cost of $300 it does everything we could want. I'm sure alot of people will argue that these fridges arent made for off road or even on road use but alot of RV folks have been using these things these days and have great luck out of them. If we were boondocking for days on end we would have went 12v but were just not planning that. You can also see the bed pieces over to the right (the grey things down in the cubby hole)

http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/13827/2975075210101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2975075210101688096vysQld)

Just a roof shot, coleman a/c unit, etc. We replaced the center wiring cover with some 1/4" carpet covered board.

http://inlinethumb08.webshots.com/46279/2365780720101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2365780720101688096LXSwwF)

Here is how we make the bed. We simply pull these inserts out of the cubby hole next to the fridge pop out the 2 legs (cut up table legs rated at 1000# each) and put them down, the whole setup takes 15 seconds. Its about the size of a queen size matress so it easily fits our family.

http://inlinethumb62.webshots.com/46653/2055040150101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2055040150101688096BaNsXi)

Why not put the Continental MPT 81 tires that Unimogs use? They come in 30" 37" 40" and 44"

http://www.earthroamer.com/galleries/mpt81/img_39471020710033_std.jpg


I know there are some other HD tires out there, check expeditionportal (http://expeditionportal.com)

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/us/en/continental/industry/themes/products/multipurpose_tires/img/mpt81_en,property=original.jpg



what kind of rims are those?

what kind of rims are those?

From what I remember when reading about them, someone said they were custom made for Earthroamer. I am not sure who makes them, but I'm sure you could find out easily by doing some research.

Finished up the van, used a dana 60 from a 2004 ford truck and Ujoint off road conversion kit.

http://inlinethumb47.webshots.com/41518/2550722580101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2550722580101688096Hosmbr)

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/45784/2363771990101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2363771990101688096gUsxRc)

http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/47819/2101126150101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2101126150101688096gXoPFx)

http://inlinethumb17.webshots.com/48080/2699169190101688096S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2699169190101688096XmTEPS)

Turned out sweet! :smokin:

Looks like a rig that will get it done. Nice work!

wow...looks cool as hell........but also top heavy as hell....

hows it feel on the road

Thanks guys. Yes it is very top heavy no getting around that. It rides smoother than it did stock thanks to the new springs. I do plan to add some air bags to help keep it from swaying side to side, it did the exact same thing when it was at stock height though its just a tall heavy box.

I will say this, the single rear wheels dont feel any less stable than the duals and after watching my wife take some turns around our neighborhood I have full confidence in the single rear wheel stability LOL.

""I will say this, the single rear wheels dont feel any less stable than the duals and after watching my wife take some turns around our neighborhood I have full confidence in the single rear wheel stability LOL. ""

Yea well follow her around with a m16 and pick a side and shoot one of the tires out and see how stable it is~ (was)

Maybe thats why theres two as in dually

I'll get right on that ass.

If you look into alot of expedition style rigs you'll see most people convert to single rear wheels with no ill affects. I assume all the service trucks running around with only single wheels and boxes on the back are dangerous?

We have an ambulance running around here that is about the size of yours that is 4x4 with singles.

We have an ambulance running around here that is about the size of yours that is 4x4 with singles.

Has it rolled over, exploded, imploded, flipped, rolled or generally caused damage in its immediate surrounding area? Has it killed maimed or even hurt anyone? I bet it hasnt.

Sorry I had to ask LOL:D

Has it rolled over, exploded, imploded, flipped, rolled or generally caused damage in its immediate surrounding area? Has it killed maimed or even hurt anyone? I bet it hasnt.

Sorry I had to ask LOL:D

Not yet, Im waiting for them to sell it so that I can get it. I will try and get a pic for ya.:smokin:

I'd be interested in seeing it.

we're looking at doing the same conversion on an ambulance we picked up and since i didn't see it mentioned, what'd you think of the ujoint kit? any snags with it or is it as easy and :grinpimp: as it sounds? allso i'm assuming you used the 6" kit?
tia

I'm pretty happy with the ujoint kit, chirs is easy to get on the phone almost any hour of the day any day of the week which is great (and almost unheard of in todays "customer service"). Everything is pretty straight forward just look over on expedition portal and you can see several pics of people that have already installed the kit and you can get a good idea of how things should look when finished.

I could have converted the van to 4wd for 1/4 of the price of the ujoint kit but it would have taken me forever searching for the right parts and fabbing everything not to mention figuring out the right spring rates and correct shocks that match. I'm not a fan of paying so much for any kind of conversion kit since I have the resources to fab almost anything I need but this was a no brainer with the great customer service and already thought out parts.

Yes we did use the 6" kit, I originally wanted to go with just the 4" (minimum you can do) since I dont like vehicles jacked up in the air (leave that for the rednecks and other idiots that have no clue) but in this case I felt we needed all the clearance we could get without going too wild. This is such a long wheelbase vehicle I figured the larger 35's and extra bit of lift would help when going over rocky terrain and other rough areas.

I still need to mod the front steering for a bit more clearance of course and a few other things but obviously we wont be doing anything hard core due to it being top heavy.

If any of you guys are around Burleson, Tx I'd be happy to let you come by and take a look at the Ujoint kit.

:smokin: Looks great