M1010 Build. The Rompulance

[stevo-mt]

I have been contemplating raising the roof ever since I brought the ambulance home.
Any ideas?? Either a place to go to near so-cal.....Only needs to be about a foot taller.

I have thought about that as well. I ended up putting the largest boat hatch that I could find as middle ground. I would have done two less expensive ones looking back on it now. So far we've been completely sealed from the elements and hopefully won't leak providing the good bead of 3m 5200 polyurethane. We were taking pictures of the northern lights with the camera on the roof standing through the boat hatch in the nice heated cabin. It gives you a spot that you can stand up straight in the back as well.

Looking at the structure and how it was put together I think that the amount of work to raise the roof to a strength and reliability that these trucks currently have would require a boat load of time and money. What I finally decided on is to make a side out drawer through the side of the truck for our oven and use an arb awning (or similar) with the attachable tent to cook in poor weather days.

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[dakota123]

I have thought about that as well. I ended up putting the largest boat hatch that I could find as middle ground. I would have done two less expensive ones looking back on it now. So far we've been completely sealed from the elements and hopefully won't leak providing the good bead of 3m 5200 polyurethane. We were taking pictures of the northern lights with the camera on the roof standing through the boat hatch in the nice heated cabin. It gives you a spot that you can stand up straight in the back as well.

Looking at the structure and how it was put together I think that the amount of work to raise the roof to a strength and reliability that these trucks currently have would require a boat load of time and money. What I finally decided on is to make a side out drawer through the side of the truck for our oven and use an arb awning (or similar) with the attachable tent to cook in poor weather days.

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Woah never even thought of either of those. I would like to have a side door at some point off the passenger side. The bed is usually always down making getting into the "kitchen" slightly annoying.

Do you have pictures of both the top hatches and slide out drawer?

 

[Outback]

Raising the roof? Maybe do a flip pack cut down to about 6" tall. Then install an aluminum L bracket welded up so you have all 4 sides welded to gether (shaped to fit inside the flip pac. Bolt it down to the roof and cut out the roof inside the bracket. Attach the flip pac to the bracket. That or build yourself a 6x8 hatch. Hindge side up front. Same idea as flip pac but this just raises to about a 45 degree angle. Sides are fabric with zip up windows and mesh for ventaliation as needed. Give you plenty of head room. Easier and cheaper than raising the roof in my opinion.

 

[Outback]

Have you modified your starter relay yet? Commonly called the Doghead Mod.

See Post#7 http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/163413-M1010-Ambulance-to-Expedition-Rig?highlight=M1010

I can send you they entire how to thread if you want it. This is an essential modification that needs to be done. What happens is the stock relay will eventually fail while you are cranking the engine and keeps the starter engaged. This results in a burned up starter which is pretty pricey.

 

[dakota123]

Have you modified your starter relay yet? Commonly called the Doghead Mod.

See Post#7 http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/163413-M1010-Ambulance-to-Expedition-Rig?highlight=M1010

I can send you they entire how to thread if you want it. This is an essential modification that needs to be done. What happens is the stock relay will eventually fail while you are cranking the engine and keeps the starter engaged. This results in a burned up starter which is pretty pricey.

Ordered the relay for it two weeks ago! haven't had time to throw it in yet. Have a tendency to rush things. Really wanna spend some time making it as clean as possible.

 

[dakota123]

Raising the roof? Maybe do a flip pack cut down to about 6" tall. Then install an aluminum L bracket welded up so you have all 4 sides welded to gether (shaped to fit inside the flip pac. Bolt it down to the roof and cut out the roof inside the bracket. Attach the flip pac to the bracket. That or build yourself a 6x8 hatch. Hindge side up front. Same idea as flip pac but this just raises to about a 45 degree angle. Sides are fabric with zip up windows and mesh for ventaliation as needed. Give you plenty of head room. Easier and cheaper than raising the roof in my opinion.

What scares me about that is it creaking and flexing. My dad has a sprinter pop top and it flexes and pulls screws out of the wall etc. Dont want to get rid of the strength. Ive seen people raise the roofs on school bus conversions. and they basically cut it 3/4th of the way up lift the roof then fill the space with support bars and more sheet steel. Seems like its plenty strong. I just can't weld aluminum haha

 

[ibanezer]

Thanks man! Sorry about the lag on a response. Not on here to much anymore. I miss that TAT trip every single day. Was extremely lucky to have the time and funds to do that trip when I did it. Changed my life. I really want to do a Yellowstone trip in the ambulance and then if all goes well an Alaska trip. How is the CUCV search coming along ?!

I ended up finding a pretty clean '86 1009 back in February. So far I've converted it to 12 volt, changed to a spin on fuel filter, changed out the starter relay, and put some 33x12.5 KO2's on it. I drove it up until about a month ago, but I need to rewire my glow plugs and I think replace some fuel lines, it has a hard time starting below 70 degrees right now... Anyway, I have a new daily so it will sit through the winter, then I'll go through a list of maintenance items and hopefully get it out on some trails.

Your box build turned out awesome though man! I've been wondering when you were going to post some full pictures of it. As far as the NV4500 swap, there is also a ton of info on Steelsoldiers about that. I've thought about it myself, but probably wouldn't unless my 400 started acting up.

 

[Outback]

Aluminum is pretty easy to weld. Easy as long as the aluminum is clean! Thats 90% of welding aluminum. 10% skill after that. BUT I do under stand what your saying.

 

[stevo-mt]

There is a steel soldiers forum where the person shows stripping the inside of the walls removing the aluminum and insulation. I opted to keep the aluminum because I've seen an RV catch fire. It would show a greater detail, but if memory serves me right when I was messing around with the walls there are steel z channel wall studs that the interior and exterior panels rivit to for strength. The corners of the box are aluminum extrusions to the rounded profile. The insulation is fairly thin fiberglass in a plastic thin bag/mat. There is some sealant but I don't think there is a single weld with any of the box parts walls/roof. I'm post some pics when I get home if what it looked like in the roof.

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[dakota123]

I ended up finding a pretty clean '86 1009 back in February. So far I've converted it to 12 volt, changed to a spin on fuel filter, changed out the starter relay, and put some 33x12.5 KO2's on it. I drove it up until about a month ago, but I need to rewire my glow plugs and I think replace some fuel lines, it has a hard time starting below 70 degrees right now... Anyway, I have a new daily so it will sit through the winter, then I'll go through a list of maintenance items and hopefully get it out on some trails.

Your box build turned out awesome though man! I've been wondering when you were going to post some full pictures of it. As far as the NV4500 swap, there is also a ton of info on Steelsoldiers about that. I've thought about it myself, but probably wouldn't unless my 400 started acting up.

Thats awesome man. It is always something with these things. Just brought her up to mammoth to go boarding and camped out in the back below the resort by some hot springs. this morning was degrees and she had some trouble starting. I actually have to figure out how to fix my glow plug switch. The controller card blew a few months back and so i have just been jumping the relay with a screwdriver. Need to figure out how to by pass the controller and wire a switch to the glow plugs.

I have seen/ heard about people grounding the blue wire coming off the controller card with a switch but it won't seem to work for me......

My th400 has been acting up slightly. Starting to slip a bit. just put some anti slip oil in it which really seemed to help on this trip so hopefully i can limp it along until i pull the trigger on getting the nv4500 in.

 

[dakota123]

Aluminum is pretty easy to weld. Easy as long as the aluminum is clean! Thats 90% of welding aluminum. 10% skill after that. BUT I do under stand what your saying.

More so me not having the right welder haha. The biggest bummer for me would be the down time.... Would want like a week off to bang it out if i did it myself and thats hard to come by these days.

 

[dakota123]

There is a steel soldiers forum where the person shows stripping the inside of the walls removing the aluminum and insulation. I opted to keep the aluminum because I've seen an RV catch fire. It would show a greater detail, but if memory serves me right when I was messing around with the walls there are steel z channel wall studs that the interior and exterior panels rivit to for strength. The corners of the box are aluminum extrusions to the rounded profile. The insulation is fairly thin fiberglass in a plastic thin bag/mat. There is some sealant but I don't think there is a single weld with any of the box parts walls/roof. I'm post some pics when I get home if what it looked like in the roof.

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I believe you are correct on that one. Check out @rolling.thunder.ccv on IG he is currently doing the back. Completely starting from scratch. It is turning out great so far

 

[dakota123]

As I was telling ibanezer, my buddy and I took the 6 hour drive up to mammoth mountain for the weekend to snowboard and decided to take the ambulance and sleep in the back in below freezing weather instead of spending the dough renting a place out.

We left pretty late friday night and decided to just do a three hour drive out to Alabama Hills just outside of Lone Pine. Crashed out there, woke up to an amazing sunrise and made the remainder of the drive up to mammoth. Went boarding for the day then drove 15 min down the hill to camp out by some hot springs. Woke up to another beautiful sunrise and hopped in the hot springs before heading back up to the mountain for some more boarding before heading all the way back home.

Was really stoked with how well the ambulance did on a long trip. No hiccups what so ever

The insulation a small space heater and our sleeping bags made for a extremely comfortable night both nights!

 

[Outback]

LIVING THE DREAM! LOVE IT. GREAT PICTURES TOO.

 

[ibanezer]

....I have seen/ heard about people grounding the blue wire coming off the controller card with a switch but it won't seem to work for me......

That's what I did to add a push button, I think my card still works ok, but I wanted it as a back up and so that I don't have to cycle the key so many times if I want to cycle the plugs more. I spliced off the blue wire and ran the other side of the button to the ground terminal up above the parking brake. Make sure you are using the right blue wire, I THINK you want the darker of the two, but I would have to look it up again to be sure.