Ambulance Camper/ Expedition Rig Conversion FAQ

[patoz]

Are the bulbs in there now LEDs and do they flash very fast, almost to the point of looking like they are flickering?

If so, then this may be your problem...

LED Turn Signals Blinking Too Fast (Hyperflashing)

Is your LED bulb blinking too fast? No worries—it's an easy fix! LED lighting draws much less power and lasts way longer than standard incandescent lighting that comes stock with most vehicles. Although the reduced draw of LEDs has advantages, replacement of turn signal bulbs with LEDS will cause what is called hyperflashing. Hyperflashing is when the turn signals blink faster than your stock incandescent bulbs did. This happens because your new LED bulbs draw such little power that your turn signal relay sees the bulbs as being out.


There are two strategies you can use to fix this issue:

Read the rest: https://www.superbrightleds.com/blog/led-turn-signals-blinking-too-fast-hyperflashing/275/

Flashers: https://www.superbrightleds.com/search/led-products/LED vehicle flasher/page/1/

 

[Bikersmurf]

No, the bulb is an incandescent 1156 bulb. If the Flasher rate was a tad slower, the bulb might get somewhat brighter, but it certainly isn't Hyperflashing. Mine are the ones pictured against the blue background. The lights on the white (Ambulance) are a replacement option that I've seen. So far haven't found stock on the 60701 Truck-Lite gromets... that said, it has been a holiday weekend, and the local Truck-Lite supplier has been closed. I'm sure someone has them, just not even 100% sure that's the route I want to go. A part of me wants to keep stock looking lights, and another part just wants them to be seen when I want to change lanes. Nothing a 50 watt halogen bulb wouldn't fix...

I seem to recall seeing that the flasher is a heavy duty unit. The flasher was likely installed while the Ambulance was still in service.

 

[tgreening]

Ok, ground is good but have you checked actual voltage reaching the bulb? There's a fair amount of wire in these things with various connections, and most of it getting on in age. Your issue could be multiple places between the battery and the actual bulb. Corroded connection somewhere. The wire itself corroded up inside the casing where it isn't readily visible. On and and. I had an '88 Grand Wagoneer where this was a constant battle. Wiring and switches/plugs that are 25 + years old just get tired sometimes.

 

[patoz]

And to add to what Tom said above, it's possible to read 12VDC at the socket contacts but still not get enough amperage to operate the bulb filament properly.

This can be caused by any of the things he mentioned, as well as a partially cut or broken wire that may have only a couple of strands still intact. It will pass the 12 Volts that you will read on your meter, but not enough current will get through to power the bulb properly.

I had this happen with a sealed beam handheld spotlight (old Q-Beam) I had on my pontoon boat. I had 12VDC at the cigarette lighter socket on the instrument panel, and the light worked fine plugged into my truck dash, but it wouldn't work on the boat.

After verifying the ground to the socket was good, I found the problem buy using a section of 14 gauge wire connected to the + battery and bypassed the boat wiring to the socket. The light worked so I moved back to the next connection, etc. When I reached a connection and the light didn't work, I knew I had just passed the bad section and concentrated my search there. It turned out to be corrosion in a single ring terminal, which had heat shrink over it, but not the kind that has the adhesive in it. That is a big 'NO-NO' when it come to boats on salt water. I replaced the terminal and used the correct heat shrink, and the mystery was solved.

 

[Bikersmurf]

I still need to hook the voltmeter up. I've noticed when the rig is running, brightness is ok. It's most likely poor housing design, and old and opaque lenses now. They are plenty bright to be legal... Just not bright enough to get other drivers attention. I'd really like them to be brighter, especially the turn light over the dually that's at eye level for most drivers.

 

[Bikersmurf]

Ok, ground is good but have you checked actual voltage reaching the bulb? There's a fair amount of wire in these things with various connections, and most of it getting on in age. Your issue could be multiple places between the battery and the actual bulb. Corroded connection somewhere. The wire itself corroded up inside the casing where it isn't readily visible. On and and. I had an '88 Grand Wagoneer where this was a constant battle. Wiring and switches/plugs that are 25 + years old just get tired sometimes.

The Multi-meter I have is not fast enough to measure the Voltage on the turn signals. However, they are similar in brightness to the tail/stop lights and for interests sake I checked the voltage there. The other lights have 12.08 v when the engine is parked. Given that the voltage at the battery at the time was only 12.8 v, a 0.72 v drop after going through a switch, fuses, and about 25' of wire seams reasonable.

I've ordered two sets of these 48smd LED panels so when they get here I'll give them a try. If in doubt, I'll run 96 Leds in each housing... for $6 USD, I figure I don't have much to loose. If they're not bright enough, I'll used them in the dome lights or somewhere else.



I couldn't find a lumin rating for these exacy ones but I'd estimate about 180 lumins for each light. Two in a housing would be about 360 and all pointed in the right direction vs 3/4s of it shining against towards the black housing. They're about 1.5'\"x2.3" so two would fit easily into the 2"x6.5" housing.

 

[cjken]

Interesting. I'm excited to see how the LEDs work out.
That could be a good next project for me.

 

[gringorick]

Hi all,

A new member here, who's been doing lots of reading. There's a ton of great info, but I don't see mention of toilet/potty locations in any of the threads I've read. The kitchen and bed areas are pretty obvious, but what are folks doing for an inside potty (assuming they have one - we've considered just keeping a porta-potty in an outside compartment for those places where it might be needed).

A portapotty was definitely a must-have item for my co-pilot, and she makes good use of it. I built a pass-thru in one of the original cabinets. The portapotty stores securely (and odorless) inside the cabint when not in use, and then simply rolls inside the house when needed. It can be removed and emptied from the outside so, as OzRockrat said, there is no dragging it thru the house and down the stairs.

 

[gringorick]

The other idea is to mount the awning on the sidewall so that the bottom half is attached to the reinforced corner, and the top half is attached to a corner bracket that is mounted to the roof. This will allow me easy access to the manual crank, but will indeed extend the width of the ambulance box by about 5 inches on that side. My other concern is being able to access the inside of the reinforced corner in order to get a nut and wrench in there. If I cannot access it, will self tapping screws be sufficient to mount the bottom half of the awning to the reinforced corner so long as the top half is mounted to the corner bracket using bolts?

I also installed a 10' Carefree Awning, and I did almost what you show in this drawing, except I built my brackets out of 1/4" structural aluminum L Channel, and mounted the brackets on the upper corner of the box, so that one side is bolted to the roof and the other is bolted to the side. I drilled and tapped thru the aluminum skin of the box and the 2x2 studs which gave me a bit more then 1/4" of solid threads to screw the brackets into. I also use SikaFlex as an added adhesive and hole sealant. Those brackets aint going nowhere... hope I never need to remove them! I made and installed an 18" bracket on each end and a 6" one in the middle, then I tapped the bracket and bolted the awning to the brackets. I also added a nice fat bead of silicone sealant in the small gap between the awning and the ambulance box for a nice, drip free patio during the heaviest of rain. Works great!

 

[huskyhauler]

I need to replace the the engine batteries on my 1996 E350 7.3l Turbo Diesel. It has two batteries in the bay. The right side battery is generic and the left side battery is a NAPA Emergency Vehicle Battery.

CostCo has standard batteries for $89 each with a three year warranty so I'd rather go that route but do not want to purchase a battery that won't hold up.

How important is it to use Emergency Vehicle Batteries or will a standard battery hold up?

 

[bobrenz]

My Medic Master - Freightliner uses standard Group 31 batteries, but it uses 4 of them. I'm thinking that an Emergency Vehicle battery is just a heavy duty battery, maybe with a longer warranty to help with sales. You need to have identical batteries, though.

 

[Bikersmurf]

I ran Costco Deep Cycle/Marine batteries for the house batteries. The performance dropped off fairly quickly, and they were toast within 18 months. The Warrant was 12 months and the prorated.

Second set match the starting batteries. They seem to accept a charge better (215 amp Mitsubishi alternator). If they die, they've got 3 years free replacement. So far they're doing better than the marine batteries. If their performance drops off, I'll take them back under warranty. If I get more than 3 years, they won't owe me anything. The plus side is I've 4x1000 CCA batteries to start the 7.3

 

[patoz]

As far as I know, there is no such thing as an 'Emergency Vehicle Battery' per se, most are just a good brand, heavy duty, high capacity, battery. However, as you pointed out NAPA does claim to have one, so maybe this is something new!

Battery - Emergency Vehicle

OEM Used Various Size Batteries In Production. Check Original Battery For Size & Correct Fit.;750 CCA;65 BCI Group Size; Two batteries required. For best results, replace both of same type;750 CCA;65 BCI Group Size; 750 CCA;65 BCI Group Size

Be careful with Costco, Sams, Walmart, etc., even if they have name brand batteries listed for sale. One of the reasons they are able to offer them at such reduced prices is because the quality is not as good. Three manufacturers make almost all of the car batteries in the US, Delphi, Exide and Johnson Controls. These batteries are made and labeled depending on who the retailer is and to what price range they will be sold at. One of the things that vary are the weight and thickness of the lead plates, which ultimately affect how long the battery will last.

I was going through Walmart batteries in my two trucks like crazy and changing them out at least every year, if that long. I changed to NAPA batteries four years ago in one, and three years ago in the other, and have not had a problem since.

 

[cjken]

One of the batteries in the front of my 95 is an odd ball size.

 

[huskyhauler]

OK, I came home with two NAPA 9150 Special Use Batteries. I have two new problems;

(Problem 1) My passenger side was an old NAPA 9150 which is a taller, narrower battery and it fits exactly in the battery tray. The driver side battery was a more square, less tall battery and it's corresponding battery tray was also more square. The new NAPA 9150 does not fit the battery tray and the battery appears to sit dangerously close to the hood. The battery is also really snug in the cavity, it rubs against some wiring looms, and the coolant overflow hose will have to drape over the top of the battery. See attached photo for reference.

Is this an incorrect battery? Should I attempt to find a battery of a different size that has the same specs but is a different size?

Reference Photos:

Old Passenger Side Battery

Top of old driver side battery

Side of old driver side battery

New driver side battery sitting tall in battery cavity

New driver side battery sitting tall in battery cavity

New driver side battery pushing against wiring looms.


(Problem 2)
The positive battery terminal on the driver side is cracked and needs to be replaced. The terminal appears to be a part of the wiring itself. Can I just cut off the old terminal and replace it or must I purchase an entirely new wiring assembly? If I can replace the terminal, how reliable are the bolt on terminals?