Belafonte Reboot....Ambulance to 4x4 Camper Conversion

[tgreening]

About time for a bit of updating I think. The big beastie seems to be running pretty good. I had low boost issues right after the turbo install but it seems to have worked itself out and leveled off. I hit 10 psi once really gettin on the bad boy uphill, so I seem to be right about where the factory says it ought to be. Even so....


I think a new injection pump, injectors, and glow plugs will be coming up, along with a fuel filter relocation kit to get rid of that bulky do-dah under the dog house and free up some space. I would really like to do a complete engine harness replacement as well, but finding the correct one for my rig is proving a bit of a pain. Might have to roll my own.


Bought 5-gallons of Raptor Liner and got that collecting dust. It will probably be the next project. Going to do everything except the roofs.

A/C took a dump over the winter and had to get that sorted. A new hose ($300 from Ford!), one hose repair, a recharge, and I've got A/C front and rear again. Woot n such.

Think I might dump the buckets in the back and try to come up with that dinette/bed thing you see in campers, but one that is crash safe with belts, and collapsible. I like having that 4'-ish wide piece of floor back there where I can slide full 4x8 sheets of whatever.

Pics coming up on the A/C issue, though they ain't exciting by any stretch, but they might be a bit informative for guys that have the internal box mounted A/C stuff. I DREADED having to rip all that out to fish out the leaky hose.


Anyhow, shameless self serving bump back to the top. I'm wondering if the new pump/injectors and what-not would give me the grunt to go up in the air another couple 3 inches so maybe I can stuff some 40's under this bad boy. Them 37s look a bit lost under the big pig.

 

[patoz]

Those bucket seats sure do look comfy! I wonder if they would fit in the front of my F250 Super Cab? I know the seat belt shoulder anchor points would be different.

 

[tgreening]

Articulation photos!

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No issues with clearance on the rear end. It looks stuffed back there, which it is, but there's quite a bit more room up in the wheel well. It just doesn't look that way because of the way the opening is cut.


The front is a different story, and there's a couple things I could do, but only one thing I really should do.

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I can trim more of the bumper no problem, and it won't really change it's appearance since most of the material trimmed isn't all that visible. There's a bit of plastic that could be trimmed, and also a bit of the fender well seam in the front. Thats what I could do. What I should do is change the bump stops up front because this level of flex is actually pushing the springs into negative arch, which is not good for the springs when done too much.

Now in reality this will probably never happen because this thing is really too big to be doing "hard core" off road work. It's not a rock crawler, trying to be a trail machine would be fine as long as the trail is a dirt track that's never seen a tree, and at 10.5K pounds it's sinking right to the bottom in a mud pit.

 

[tgreening]

My rear A/C had a leak. Actual location was unknown other than it was inside the box in the wall where the A/C unit was. I was really not looking forward to tearing into it because I figured pulling the unit out would suck, fishing the leaky line(s) out would suck, and paying the bill for a new line would suck. Pulled the cover/vents off to find this.

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It was held down with a whopping 4 screws. Spun it around a bit to find this gooey mess.

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And under all that was this. I think it's called the Expansion Block, something like that. As it turns out the bottom soft line was the problem. As best we could tell the o-ring gave up the ghost which allowed the coolant to seep out through the fitting, which corroded and seized itself up. It had to be cut off and replaced.

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I got uber lucky because the shop I went to, Roma's Radiator, had the correct fitting in his parts bin and the hose was long enough to trim some off and still have plenty left over. This hydraulic crimper was the cat's ***.

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Hook all the wires back up and my A/C was back in business, front and rear. Just running the front it works great, good and cold, and if I keep the pass through door closed the cab can get chilly. Running front and rear and you can tell the system is being taxed. Run it long enough and it will eventually get everything chilled pretty good, but it takes a good hour or so of running before the air gets recycled enough to get ahead of the heat. I might check into replacing that rear unit if something can be plugged in that takes some load off the engine mounted compressor, and yields better performance. I'm not an A/C guru by any stretch so I might be pipe dreaming it, but we'll see.

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I'd really like to get started on the Raptor Liner project this weekend, but the wife has been making noises like I need to provide the family entertainment so it's iffy. We'll see.

 

[FROADER]

Articulation photos!

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Seeing an ambulance tuck a 37" tire, is probably one of the coolest things there is... :drool:

The rig is looking great!

 

[tgreening]

Those bucket seats sure do look comfy! I wonder if they would fit in the front of my F250 Super Cab? I know the seat belt shoulder anchor points would be different.

I think those came out of an explorer but I can't remember for sure. It's probably back in the thread somewhere from when I picked them up, but my memory isn't so good so good.

 

[tgreening]

Seeing an ambulance tuck a 37" tire, is probably one of the coolest things there is... :drool:

The rig is looking great!

Pretty sure it would take a 40" back there with no trouble. The front would start to get real tricky I think. Probably aftermarket fenders for sure, the stock bumper would have to be hacked or ditched altogether, and not sure what else without taking another look-see. Conventional wisdom says I should have an 8" lift with this rubber but I'm a big fan of having your desired tire with as little lift as possible, while still keeping things in proportion.

One of the things I absolutely hate is when someone takes a conventional anything, slaps a monster sized tire on it, and because it doesn't stand a snowballs chance of stuffing at ALL, they lift it so high that the fender opening is completely above the top of the tire. They do this crap because buying a taller lift is easier and cheaper than the body work required to fit the tires they want. These folks are all about form and could care less about real function, as long as it looks "kewl". If you're fine with the 80s show truck look, more power to you because to each his own and all that, just don't kid yourself you've built a capable off road rig.

Hell, even mine is marginal really, depending on where I want to go. It's a pretty laughable trail rig. Way too big and bulky. Wouldn't stand a chance of floatin its way across deep mud using wheel speed and momentum. And good grief could you see me trying my way across a serious rock field? Not sure how far off camber I could get but if I went juuust a bit too far I better have a whole bunch of heavy winch equipped trail buddies to get Tyranasaurus Turtle off its back and back on its feet.


Man, off on a rant again when all I needed to say was Thanks.

 

[FROADER]

Pretty sure it would take a 40" back there with no trouble. The front would start to get real tricky I think. Probably aftermarket fenders for sure, the stock bumper would have to be hacked or ditched altogether, and not sure what else without taking another look-see. Conventional wisdom says I should have an 8" lift with this rubber but I'm a big fan of having your desired tire with as little lift as possible, while still keeping things in proportion.

One of the things I absolutely hate is when someone takes a conventional anything, slaps a monster sized tire on it, and because it doesn't stand a snowballs chance of stuffing at ALL, they lift it so high that the fender opening is completely above the top of the tire. They do this crap because buying a taller lift is easier and cheaper than the body work required to fit the tires they want. These folks are all about form and could care less about real function, as long as it looks "kewl". If you're fine with the 80s show truck look, more power to you because to each his own and all that, just don't kid yourself you've built a capable off road rig.

Hell, even mine is marginal really, depending on where I want to go. It's a pretty laughable trail rig. Way too big and bulky. Wouldn't stand a chance of floatin its way across deep mud using wheel speed and momentum. And good grief could you see me trying my way across a serious rock field? Not sure how far off camber I could get but if I went juuust a bit too far I better have a whole bunch of heavy winch equipped trail buddies to get Tyranasaurus Turtle off its back and back on its feet.


Man, off on a rant again when all I needed to say was Thanks.

You're welcome...?

I'm completely with you on keeping it low with as big of a tire that will still work and be proportionate. Living is SoCal, you see a little of everything and I laugh when I see the guys with their street trucks on 38 mud tires lifted to the sky. "Brodozers," if you will.

"Tyranasaurus Turtle"

 

[Bikersmurf]

My rear A/C had a leak. Actual location was unknown other than it was inside the box in the wall where the A/C unit was. I was really not looking forward to tearing into it because I figured pulling the unit out would suck, fishing the leaky line(s) out would suck, and paying the bill for a new line would suck. Pulled the cover/vents off to find this.

[/URL][/IMG]

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It was held down with a whopping 4 screws. Spun it around a bit to find this gooey mess.

[/URL][/IMG]


And under all that was this. I think it's called the Expansion Block, something like that. As it turns out the bottom soft line was the problem. As best we could tell the o-ring gave up the ghost which allowed the coolant to seep out through the fitting, which corroded and seized itself up. It had to be cut off and replaced.

[/URL][/IMG]


I got uber lucky because the shop I went to, Roma's Radiator, had the correct fitting in his parts bin and the hose was long enough to trim some off and still have plenty left over. This hydraulic crimper was the cat's ***.

[/URL][/IMG]


Hook all the wires back up and my A/C was back in business, front and rear. Just running the front it works great, good and cold, and if I keep the pass through door closed the cab can get chilly. Running front and rear and you can tell the system is being taxed. Run it long enough and it will eventually get everything chilled pretty good, but it takes a good hour or so of running before the air gets recycled enough to get ahead of the heat. I might check into replacing that rear unit if something can be plugged in that takes some load off the engine mounted compressor, and yields better performance. I'm not an A/C guru by any stretch so I might be pipe dreaming it, but we'll see.

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Mine has a similar mess on one of the lines.

FYI, under the plastic caps at the bottom corner of the cab there are shutoffs where those lines connect. Both my 97 lines and the 2001 replacement lines have them. You've likely noticed them. They can help adjust front rear balance.

I've Just had a shop bring in line ends... I haven't got so lucky. The only local shop that has the tools to fix'em in place thought they had them, but my 2001 lines are metric so the new ones were 1-3 weeks away. They're now at the shop waiting for me it'll likely cost me $500+ at the shop to finish the repair... Hoping to keep A/C repair cost under a grand... Expensive for something that is only rarely needed in normal vehicles here... But in an ambo with only 1 small opening window in the box, there's no other option unless you want kids with heat stroke in the summer. Plus side is that it isn't actually that hot, so the refurbished system should work fairly well :fingers crossedguess there's no imoji for that)

 

[patoz]

Thanks Tom, for the info on the seats!

 

[tgreening]

Mine has a similar mess on one of the lines.

FYI, under the plastic caps at the bottom corner of the cab there are shutoffs where those lines connect. Both my 97 lines and the 2001 replacement lines have them. You've likely noticed them. They can help adjust front rear balance.

I've Just had a shop bring in line ends... I haven't got so lucky. The only local shop that has the tools to fix'em in place thought they had them, but my 2001 lines are metric so the new ones were 1-3 weeks away. They're now at the shop waiting for me it'll likely cost me $500+ at the shop to finish the repair... Hoping to keep A/C repair cost under a grand... Expensive for something that is only rarely needed in normal vehicles here... But in an ambo with only 1 small opening window in the box, there's no other option unless you want kids with heat stroke in the summer. Plus side is that it isn't actually that hot, so the refurbished system should work fairly well :fingers crossedguess there's no imoji for that)

Knew about the shut offs. Had them closed so I could at least have A/C up in the cab without draining the systems.

Dayuum, that sucks on the cost. Do you have to replace all the lines, or just replacing fittings? I seriously considered buying the tools and all the materials myself and having a go. In the beginning I thought I was going to have to replace all the lines from those shut off valves back. I always like having the tools to do a job myself but in this case I got out for less than $75, and that included the additional charge the system needed to bring the pressure back up.

 

[Bikersmurf]

That's just for two ends and a system recharge. I also replaced the compressor and the system will need to be purged.

 

[cjken]

I remember having to make a special adapter hose to get my rear AC working.
Rear works but not nearly as effective as the front AC

 

[tgreening]

That's just for two ends and a system recharge. I also replaced the compressor and the system will need to be purged.

I'd really consider DIY. On mine it didn't take 5 minutes to cut off the old fitting and crimp the new one on. I did the leg work like pulling the panels and getting the hoses freed up and all that, but the shop did the cutting, fitting, and reattaching enough to charge and check for leaks.

Have you looked at hoseline.com? They've got all kinds of fittings and hose, and even the tools if you want, but those will be a bit more high dollar. You can buy cheaper hobby grade crimpers online that are essentially identical to the one I showed in e pic.

Might be worth a look.

 

[tgreening]

I remember having to make a special adapter hose to get my rear AC working.
Rear works but not nearly as effective as the front AC

Not sure how your system works but with mine when I fire up the rear it drags the performance of the front down with it. I'm sure the long hose run from the engine bay, through the dog house, down the frame rail, across the box, then up the wall to the A/C unit doesn't help. Wonder if I could wrap the hoses with something to minimize heat soak along that trip?