1994 International 4700 Conversion Begins

[scooter421]

Trying to figure out how to get 10 lug hubs on my truck. Spicer front end and an International rear. It's originally fitted with 8 lug hubs like OZ's. Tire and wheel selection is very limited in the 8 lug set up! Oz told me were to find the wheels and tires he has which are awesome. Just trying to equip the vehicle with something I could find locally if possible.

 

[scooter421]

Been a few days since I've posted anything on progress. The stereo system is up and running and sounds pretty good. I placed "batting" around the speakers and it truly helped the sound. Not so tin canny! I would like to get a subwoofer installed at some point but not in a big hurry. My wife came up with a great idea to install the solar panels. I think you folks are going to like it. I will be able to pull the panels out for use and store them in less then a minute! I am using drawer slides 3 on top of each other and connected in series. Meaning, when I pull them out they will extend roughly 43 inches outside the truck and hold 3 panels. When collapsed they will fit inside the side compartment and only take up about 50x17x6 inches of space. Essentially, this is the top 6 inches of the storage compartment.

 

[scooter421]

Okay, I finally "finished" the solar panel install! I am pretty happy the way it turned out. I figured the extension of roughly 43 inches would be a bit much for the first set of hinges to hold for an extended period of use and I wanted to keep my self and others from running into the doors which would slam into the slides. I built a support to tie the doors together and support the second solar panel bracket. This way I took half the weight off the first set of hinges and you'd have to really slam into the doors to hit the solar panel slides. It worked out great.





All I have to do is put the brace in place, pull the panels out, turn the inverter on to start charging the batteries as needed. This way my solar panels should last a lot longer not sitting in the sun all the time and I did not have to drill holes in my roof! I used 1/4 hitch pins to hold the support brace in place. There is aluminum angle under the brace. To prevent someone from hitting the solar panel out past the doors I plan on putting out a traffic cone or two.

 

[scooter421]

I've been trying to find a solution for the wheel and tires situation on my truck. If you've never heard of LKQ they could be of assistance depending on what you need. They have a heavy vehicle parts supply that's pretty good. Customer support has also been good. However, my truck has odd ball hubs/spindles in which they have not yet been able to match up a 10 lug hub that will fit my spindles. I have to tell you, if you're considering a conversion project like this and you'd prefer to have substantially larger tires later on; by all means, avoid the 19.5 inch wheel. I looked for wheel/tire options prior to choosing my ambulance and knew it would be difficult but I did not realize just how difficult! It is very difficult to find anything much larger than a 265 for a 19.5 wheel. I am pretty close to going the same route OZ went as I am without many options. I am going to contact Accuride and Alcoa on Monday to see whether or not they offer anything in a 8 lug 20/22.5 to see what they have. If not, I am about out of options!

 

[shortbus4x4]

I've seen some military beadlock rims on ebay that are 20" 8 lug. Try looking for GMC Kodiak or medium duty stuff, alot of them had 8 lug wheels. Just looked on ebay, there are some 20x11 rims in the 8 lug variety.

 

[scooter421]

Excellent, I will check it out! Thank you.

 

[scooter421]

After extensive thought and scouring the internet and many phone calls I've found 8 lug 22.5 wheels that supposedly are identical pattern and bore to the 19.5 wheels on the truck now. I've placed the order and they should be in next week. The choice was not at all an easy one but I am hoping a more standard tire size will be available down the road in the middle of nowhere if and when that time comes. I should be able to get a 295/75 acquiring a 4 inch lift with no alterations.....I hope!

 

[scooter421]

My wheels came in, look good and most importantly they fit great! Now I just have to spend the money on tires! I Finally got the TV installed.

 

[rossvtaylor]

Hi Scooter421, I'll be following along. That was a very nice solution for the solar array!

 

[scooter421]

Thanks! It was my wife's idea. We were out discussing various ideas and I hated the idea of drilling holes in the roof. She mentioned somehow making them pull out from the inside and I knew exactly what to do. I think they will work out nicely. I may be headed up camping over the 20th and get to try them out from a practicality standpoint for the first time.

 

[scooter421]

Picked up my wheels and added some E track for load restraint, just in case I have to hit the skids! Saving my pennies for the tires, big trucks equal big bucks!



Sorry, I've tried rotating the picture but it keeps coming across like this?

 

[scooter421]

I am getting ready to install my power inverter and thought I would check out my shore power battery charger in the process since I need to relocate it to make room for the inverter. When I first picked up the ambulance I plugged the shore power outlet in and saw the green light on the charger was on and left it alone. This time I used my meter to verify output and I traced all the wires to make sure something had not been wired improperly. I think there had been a few electrical Gremlins in this truck during it's life. Anyway, after tracing the wires (wire tracer saved me a lot of time) I determined all was good. However, I was not getting output from the charger. I opened the charger and found the fuse I was looking for but it was fine. A little more investigation of the circuit board and I found the likely problem. Hopefully, it's the only problem. It's hard to see in the picture (bottom right of blue capacitor under red and black wires) there is solder but no Linear Voltage Regulator LR645 in board location U2. This little guy had popped. Thanks to the internet I was able to find out what this part was and ordered it. These Todd chargers are very expensive at around $800 to $1000 used and the little voltage regulator is around a $1. So, I need to pull the circuit board out and get to work as soon as the regulator comes in. I will let you know how it goes! For a dollar it's worth a shot!

 

[guidolyons]

Pretty cool so far...along for the ride.

 

[scooter421]

Thanks, I was able to get the inverter installed and it fit as tight as it looks! What I failed to get in the picture of what came with this inverter was the 20 feet of phone cord for the remote. The remote is a really nice feature. So far so good, I ran a jig saw and a shop vac with no issues so far. Not at the same time but it worked great and never even got warm. On a side note, my true RMS multi meter does not like the modified sine wave when the inverter creates the AC current. I was getting no voltage on the discharge side of the inverter and my meter acted like there was a short. For a few minutes I thought the inverter was not working or I had done something wrong. After confirming everything was correct the sine wave issue made me think about my meter and so I plugged in a light and well.....I had light.






Both cables came with the two different sized ends already attached. The red cable came attached to the ANL fuse and ready to go.

Now, working on tires....and for all my effort of avoiding it, I am still going to have to cut the wheel wells a little bit. More to come on the tire exploits!

 

[scooter421]

I installed this LED light in place of one of the original oxygen supply points. It turned out nice, I can see inside every compartment with this one light and it's not so bright that it's annoying. Now, this is the only light that comes on when I hit the dome light "high" switch. I removed the bulbs from the two remaining original fixtures and will replace the "low" level light bulbs with LED's as well. I am going to replace the multiple fluorescent lights with LED strip lights also. How do I get the images to transfer right side up? I've tried rotating, saving them and then posting but many keep coming over on their side?