Hate to do it, but I am selling our 2003 E350 Ambulance Conversion

[kcurtis3]

Hello Everyone,

I must first apologize, I have been a serial lurker for years now and have benefited from the time and effort others have made by making posts to this forum. Every time I plan to initiate starting a forum I let something get in the way. I first came up with the idea to convert an ambulance into an expedition inspired vehicle back in 2009. A few years later in 2012, I was able to pull off buying a 2003 Ford E350 McCoy Miller Type III ambulance off Ebay. At the time, my wife and I were stationed at Fort Lewis and found this ambulance listed by an auction house in southern California. We hit the buy it now button and picked it up in Portland a week later after being shipped up for $700.00. At the time of purchase it had 376,XXX miles on it which made me assume the engine was on its way out. Boy was I wrong, now at 390,XXX and still running like a champ. Over the years we reconfigured it a couple times until we decided to do a full gut job and raised the roof. It was a very ambitious project, but turned out amazing if you ask me and everyone who sees it. It has the 7.3L Powerstroke diesel in it and all we have had to do replace the number 2 injector and 2 glow plug relays since we bought it. I have spoken to Ujoint in the past about doing the whole 4x4 / lift conversion and had plans to do so. However, over the past two years we have only used it 4 times camping. My wife and I are so consumed with school that we simply don't have the time to enjoy the vehicle and to top it off I was just accepted to a graduate program that will consume the next 2 1/2 years of my life. It kills me to see it sitting in the driveway, but the thought of selling it is equally devastating. However, there is always time to do another project later on. I have many pictures taken over the years on this project that I will post. I was also able to have the DMV change the registration from a van to a motorhome. I have heard that sometimes this is challenging. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want. If anyone is interested in purchasing it, please contact me. I am not putting a price on it yet, would like to receive some offers to determine what it is worth to others. I currently live in Saint Petersburg, FL if any of you are local and want to see it let me know.

A little background on the rig - EXTERIOR: Raised the roof, created a bed over the cab, used Al's heat and noise reducer on the entire outside then bedlinered the whole rig, added three windows, updated grill and HID headlights, built a rear bumper with tire carrier and grill (both on swinging arms so you can access rear doors, fantastic vent in the roof and a window shaker for A/C, 2" front leveling kit, BFG Rugged Trail 235 80 16 tires, front wheel bearings replaced and new front calipers 200 miles ago, all exterior cabinets are fully diamond plate with lighting, one driver side cabinet houses a AirPax inverter, the 110 volt electrical panel, 16 gallon fresh water tank and 16 gallon grey water tank, onboard converter/charger with one 12 volt house batter (not currently connected to alternators), random shelving in the rest of the cabinets.

INTERIOR - Full gut, started with bare walls, insulated walls and ceiling, ran all new electrical, custom built cabinets, sink with 12 volt pump, 2 - TV's, surround sound, dvd players, frig, micro, under cabinet lighting, lots of cabinet storage, newer driver and passenger seat from a 2014 Nissan van, etc.

I am sure I am missing something. If you see something in a photo you have questions about feel free.

Thanks for looking.

 

[pugslyyy]

Welcome to expo. I'd love to see some more pictures of the interior - that would probably help everyone.

Are these photos the most recent? In the description you say you raised the roof and put a bed over the cab but I'm not seeing that? Good job on getting it titled as an RV, that's a good step in the process. How much was u-joint quoting for the 4x4 conversion, that might be useful to add to the description?

 

[kcurtis3]

Still figuring out posting pics

Current pic

 

[tgreening]

Did I miss the price somewhere?

 

[Bbasso]

Your first post is to sell, why not either have a build thread with a sale at the end or just put it the classifieds?

Seems like there was a bunch of work done and no way to showcase and or appreciate it... ie, lack of build thread or detailed F/S post.

 

[kcurtis3]

No price posted, leaving it open to offers. Not sure if this is the best way to handle this, but we will see. Those who might be interested will understand the time, effort, and money that went into this which should lead to a reasonable offer.

 

[kcurtis3]

As Bbasso pointed out, this post does not showcase the effort that went into to this project. I have been trying to create this thread all day. I would love to build a detail thread discussing everything I did to the rig, but time is one thing I am constantly battling. The below link will hopefully take you to a photo bucket I made with about 200 pics of the project. They are not in chronological order, but I am sure you all can follow the progression. If someone else mentions that this thread should be in the classified section I will move it. Again, sorry I did not post to the forum as I worked on the project. Let me know if you have in questions about the rig or pics. thanks

http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/kcurtis7721/library/

 

[kcurtis3]

Hey pugslyyy

I finally got the photobucket link to work. Check out the pics in the bucket and let me know if you have any questions. The two above pics are from the first day it came home. The next one was taken while camping at Fort Desoto. As for Ujoints quote, it was from about 3 years ago and was right in line with the prices on his website for a lift, axle, and transfer case. Don't remember the exact number, which of course would have gone up since then.

 

[kcurtis3]

The paint job

I used Al's liners to paint the entire outside of the rig. After I completed all the metal work, I used an epoxy primer on all bare metal so the heat and noise reducer would adhere properly. The heat and noise reducer (HNR) claims to reflect exterior temperatures by 45 degrees Fahrenheit or more. After applying this and allowed for proper drying time, I hit it with 8 gallons of bedliner. I painted it about 2 years ago now and it looks as good now as it did when I first did it. Looking to do my wife's grand Cherokee and whatever diesel truck I get next. This rig has been a real head turner for people of all ages.

http://www.alsliner.com/alsliner

 

[Abitibi]

Did you guys have a look at kcurtis3's pictures?!?

Having fully gutted my ambo and having dealt with all the electricals and more I can only appreciate all the work that went into his build. And there's way more work done on his than I'll ever reach with mine. Looks like an amazing build!

Kcurtis3, do you know how much she weighs now? Great work!

Cheers
David

Sent from my SGP511 using Tapatalk

 

[kcurtis3]

Hey David,

I appreciate your comments and yes, it was ALOT of work. The first 3 years we owned it we did small projects and reworked the existing cabinets and inverter to meet our needs. Several different bed designs, relocated the frig three times and just had fun with it. Once we got busy with school, money became tight and our ability to use it dropped drastically. Trust me, there is still a good size wish list if we had the money and time to use it. Really need more time than money at this point. I hate seeing it sit in the driveway. I ran to my friends house yesterday to help him work on his truck and drive the ambulance just because. Thumbs up and waves the whole drive there and back. It is definitely a head turner. I originally had 600 pics in the photo bucket, but they were not in order and was a bit confusing. Yes, I know how much she weighs and it is a lot. I over built the cabinets on the inside and added about 7 sheets of 11 gauge aluminum to raise the roof and fill in all the light holes. Regardless, it has the 7.3L and blows down the interstate just fine. The overall weight of the rig is 10,600 lbs. 300 lbs. of that is probably cargo and I don't recall how much fuel I had in it at the time.

 

[Abitibi]

Actually that's not bad at all and much less than I expected! I've seen plenty of SMB pushing the 12,000lbs.

Best of luck, she'll make someone very happy for many years!

D.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Bikersmurf]

X2 I'd think it'd be more also. Mine and David's Ambos are 8500 lbs empty... and they're more like a mini-mod with Dually wheels.
I can see the tremendous amount of work you've put into it... I wouldn't be able to sell it if I'd built it the way I wanted.

That said, it's not what I need mine to be... best of luck with the sale of an awesome camper/ex-Ambo.







Mine needs to look like an Ambo for our marketing, and we don't want one that even remotely resembles a camper. It also need to be under 8'6"... and extra wind drag.

 

[kcurtis3]

Trust me, took awhile to make the decision to sell and about three months of indirectly convincing the wife to let it go. When we first bought it the weight came in at 9300. So after all the work completed we added about 1000-1200 lbs. I think the rig measures about 10' 2'' in height. The box is 90'' wide and I recall it being 11'6" long. It fits well in a parking spot, actually, that was the stipulation that I had to meet to park it at the complex we are living in. "As long as it fits in a normal parking spot, no problem". Just like you said about marketing, I also figured this would make a great marketing tool for a business. The amount of heads it turn would draw a lot of attention to a business if they plaster their logos all over it.

 

[kcurtis3]

Why did I gut it?

Why did I totally gut it? After using the rig as is with minor modifications it got to the point were I was tired of not being able to stand up in it and there was a pesky electrical issues that was causing my batteries to drain. As for insulation, we never had a problem with cooling the rig in its original condition. We had it in Vegas for a week during the month of July and the little widow shaker keep the interior at 78 with it set at 68 degrees. It kept it cool just not at what the setting was. So one day as my wife was off at school, I had the idea to start removing the wiring that was no longer being used, i.e. lights, siren, vacuum pump, etc. After opening up the access panel in the roof and getting to work, one thing lead to another, 5 hours had past and the rig was completely gutted. I did not know if I was going to be in the dog house after she came home and saw what I did, luckily she just shook her head and said now what. Once I saw how the box was constructed, I convinced myself that I would be able to cut off the roof, raise it, create a bunk over the cab, and reuse the old roof, I went for it. It was a lot of work, but as you can see it paid off. All new insulation in the walls and ceiling, all new 110 & 12 volt wiring, padded ceiling and walls (which increase its insulation factor), and custom cabinets. We thought about using prefabbed cabinets from either home depot or Ikea, but it would have caused gaps of unusable space and the point is to use all available space, right? We build all cabinets out of 3/4" sandply and select pine for the doors. Soft closing hinges and horizontal hinges from Ikea allow most cabinets to swing towards the ceiling so they are not opening towards you, but above you. I used the locking drawer mechanisms seen in Earthroamers for all the drawers. Also, instead of building drawers from scratch, we used drawer kits from Ikea to create a more finished looking drawer. We replaced and kept the rubber style flooring, better for sand, mud, and water. Just sweep the dirt right out the side door. The black leather rear bench seat is out of a ford escape and it has cup holders. We put a Sony blue ray surround sound system in it that cranks. It has a fridgideaire refrigerator that I believe is 4.5 cu ft. An LG window shaker cools the rig and we use a very small portable heater as needed. The sink in plumbed for city and onboard water. A small breaker panel was used for all the 110 volt wiring and I chose to use a automatic transfer switch to go between shore power and inverter power. The remote switch for the inverter is located on the dash board. We used a full size futon mattress for the bed area over the cab. There is a TV and blue ray dvd player mounted up where the bed is. The main TV is on an arm so you can see it from anywhere inside the rig.