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

[patoz]

Basements?? We call those indoor swimming pools around here!

 

[Brianpgreen]

I'm picking up my ambulance this week. I'm considering running the same wheels/tires that you've got. How do they perform at highway speed? We make regular trips from Washington to Montana. While I like the idea of these rims/tires I'd hate to be stuck at 65 when I want to go 85.

I found these locally. Seems like a good deal but I've just started looking. http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/pts/5852883975.html

 

[tgreening]

I would reconsider. This tire/wheel combo is close to 200# a piece. Tire choices are limited in the 16.5 category and quality surplus are getting harder to find and more expensive when you do.

The Craig's ad you listed: Those prices are high. The 12 jolts can be had for around $50 a pop, sometimes cheaper. The 24 bolts I'm not so sure about but I don't recall them being $95.
The 12 bolts are rated at 3850# as I recall, as are the bulk of the surplus tires available. I would imagine this would seriously impact the load capabilities of your 450. The 24 bolts come in 2 flavors if I understand it correctly. One is rated at 3850 and the other 4250 (I believe). The later will be more in line with your 450s' load capacities, as long as you get the e-rated rubber to go along with them.

I'd evaluate your usage. If you don't intend to tow a load I run E-rated singles, but if you do intend to tow I'd probably stick with the duality config, which rules out the surplus route, and is also going to impact your practical tire choices. The taller the tire, the harder it is to find them in a narrower dually friendly configuration.

I've done 75 in my van, with no major issues but.... they're 37" surplus heavy as snot tires on heavy as snot re entered rims that may or may not be all that true AND this rig is running around 10,500# on a good day. Why on earth you'd want to blast something like this down the road at 85+ mph is puzzling. It's like a building on wheels, and jacking it up on 37s with 8" of lift doesn't help in the handling dept.

At 65 I'm pretty comfortable. At 75 it feels ok but I'm starting to question stopping capability and maneuvering in an emergency, and 85 is somewhere I'd have little interest in finding myself.

 

[FDM2012]

GREAT advice, Tom. There are good deals on those setups around here, but I'm gonna pass on that route....

I assure you, that I for one, am paying close attention to all of you guys that have already converted to SRW, before I do mine.
That's why I am so inquisitive and redundant. Well, that and my ADD sometimes get the best of me..... lol

Loaded out, I am going to be pushing 12k, so I have some head scratching to do!

 

[rlrenz]

And in my case, I stuck with the original tire size. I may do something about them down the road, but right now, I need my spare funds to install the equipment needed to have a legal RV.

That's the way hobby projects go -- when money and funds permit, things happen.

 

[Brianpgreen]

Thanks for the advice! Maybe I'll try to keep the duallies. I'm intending to go with a combination of MG's kit on the front end and springs from U-Joint on the back. I think that put's it at about a 6" lift.

Yours just looks so cool though.

 

[tgreening]

Thanks for the advice! Maybe I'll try to keep the duallies. I'm intending to go with a combination of MG's kit on the front end and springs from U-Joint on the back. I think that put's it at about a 6" lift.

Yours just looks so cool though.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Any particular reason you're mixing kits?

And just for the record, if you want plug and play on your front end, 8" is the standard recommendation for 37" tires. I get away with 6" "usually", but with the right combo of turning and body roll I can get a tire just into the inner front fender. I expected issue somewhere and I'm perfectly fine with chopping/welding some of the inner to get the clearance. I'm a big fan of minimum lift for the maximum tire I want to run.

 

[Brianpgreen]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Any particular reason you're mixing kits?

And just for the record, if you want plug and play on your front end, 8" is the standard recommendation for 37" tires. I get away with 6" "usually", but with the right combo of turning and body roll I can get a tire just into the inner front fender. I expected issue somewhere and I'm perfectly fine with chopping/welding some of the inner to get the clearance. I'm a big fan of minimum lift for the maximum tire I want to run.

I might be wrong but I don't think MG has a kit for the rear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tgreening]

Does anybody have a good recommendation for digital replacement(s) for these 2 gauges? The voltmeter still works but the ammeter never has, why I dont know, but I figure now's as good a time as any to replace them.

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[Bikersmurf]

Ammeters in these rigs run in parallel to a Shunt to limit the amperage going through the wiring. The shunt carries the bulk of the amperage so that all the power is not running through the gauge.

No Idea on the source. Wheeled coach if they're still in business.

If memory serves, mine only measures power when the Box is powered on. I don't recall seeing the ammeter show a drain... only charging output. It's likely due to the battery isolator's diodes. I'd try to fix what you've got before looking to replace it. Likely it is the two small wires (in my case yellow) that connect either side of the shunt to the gauge.

 

[tgreening]

This is van related. Sure!

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That top box weighs about 175# Way heavier than I would have figured. I picked them up Lowes as an impulse buy. They were on sale for $600 for a top/bottom set so I bought 2 sets. I have this mish-mash of Craftsman toolboxes, and it seems like no one set is quite big enough to hold the stuff I want to put in it, so I figured a pair of these might get it done. I've been fairly impressed with the quality of the Kobalt hand tools I've purchased so I've been branching out a bit. I bought their cordless 1/2" impact and its been awesome, so I figured tool boxes, why not.

White. I know right!

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I've kind of stalled on the Ambo. There's a couple "big" projects I want to tackle, but I've run out of motivation for the moment. One being the engine electrical. Main wire harness connectors are brittle like potato chips and just hanging together. I'm going to buy some aftermarket connectors, needed tools, and rebuild the whole thing. The other is fuel bowl delete, filter relocate, and probably a new aftermarket injection pump along with the stuff to time it. Sounds simple on paper eh?

Anyway, neither of those is critical (at the moment) so I might take some time out to build up my Superduty a bit.

 

[patoz]

I replaced all of my mechanic tools that I carry in my truck with Kobalt tools, and moved all the old mismatched stuff to the boxes in the garage. I figure if something is going to fail, I would prefer to have it happen at home rather than when I'm on the interstate or out in the woods somewhere.

I used to buy strictly Craftsman tools, but their stuff has gone downhill to the point it's not worth paying their expensive prices anymore. Plus, Kobalt has an even better warranty on their stuff. Sears started declining in the early 90's, and really went to crap when it was bought out by K-Mart in 2005. My Dad worked for Sears for 50 years, so I know the whole story.

I've seen the stainless and black Kobalt tool boxes, but never white ones. Are these new?

 

[tgreening]

Not sure if they're new, but I've got sneaky suspicion that under the paint they're SS as well. The SS versions are absolutely identical. I mean genetic twin carbon copies of each other except the paint. I know a key to assembly line style manufacturing is don't change the program. I'd be willing to bet they make them all SS because they can paint them, sell them as the "budget" brand and still make money at that price point, while really taking it in on the SS "premium" versions

 

[rlrenz]

I replaced all of my mechanic tools that I carry in my truck with Kobalt tools, and moved all the old mismatched stuff to the boxes in the garage. I figure if something is going to fail, I would prefer to have it happen at home rather than when I'm on the interstate or out in the woods somewhere.

I used to buy strictly Craftsman tools, but their stuff has gone downhill to the point it's not worth paying their expensive prices anymore. Plus, Kobalt has an even better warranty on their stuff. Sears starting declining in the early 90's, and really went to crap when it was bought out by K-Mart in 2005. My Dad worked for Sears for 50 years, so I know the whole story.

I've seen the stainless and black Kobalt tool boxes, but never white ones. Are these new?

I agree on "Crapsman"'s quality decline - years ago, I heard that their power hand tools were built by Singer Sewing Machine Company, and I moved to Makita, Milwaukee, Bosch, and the other manufacturers. I still have and use Craftsman hand tools, because mine were built LONG before their quality went downhill-- I think my newest ratchet is probably 15 years old or so -- and my oldest is probably about 40 years old. My favorite premium brand is Proto (a heck of a lot cheaper than S-On), but I have some Williams, Armstrong and Ingersoll Rand for some of my large impact sockets.

And anyway -- when push comes to shove, you'll use whatever works. I have some wrenches that I modified with some torch bending to reach into railroad air brake equipment, and a few more that now have an offset to reach into my old test equipment. I admit that I never modified my newest and greatest, though - I tried to limit the mods to the off brands when I could.

 

[patoz]

Tom, slap a magnet on the side of it and see if it sticks. Of course cheap SS will stick to some extent also.

Bob, I like Proto tools also. I only have a few sockets and they are so old the markings on the sides are just about worn off, but they still work just as well as they did when they were brand new.