Buying & Building a Medium Ambulance into an RV – The FAM-BULANCE

[patoz]

I will probably leave my Honda as a gasoline fueled unit also, at least until further down the road. I have an Atwood 12 gal. Marine fuel tank I was going to do the same thing with. The aux tank would have to sit under the generator in the compartment due to width restrictions, so I'm not sure this is a good idea or not.

My biggest reason for switching to propane was for safety reasons. Much easier to carry and store propane in a compartment than gasoline, especially on a hot day. The Honda has a 3.4 gal. internal tank, and when using the Eco Throttle it's supposed to run up to 20 hours. Of course, a larger load will shorten that time.

Also, I just found this on a Honda dealer site...

We at Power Equipment Direct do not recommend converting your gasoline portable generator to an alternative fuel and doing so will void the manufacturer’s warranty and may cause damage to the generator itself. These conversions are not recommended by any of the generator manufacturers.

Gasoline has an Ignition Point of 475–536 °F. When a generator is manufactured to run solely on gasoline these temperatures are taken into consideration and the engine components are made to handle these temperatures.

Propane (LP) has an Ignition Point of 920-1020°F and Natural Gas (NG) has an Ignition Point of 900–1500°F. These higher temperatures will cause damage over time on any “gas only” powered engine.

More info here: http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Honda-EU3000ISAC-Portable-Generator/p6554.html

I hadn't thought about that, but there sure are a lot of conversion kits out there.

 

[rlrenz]

In my own case, the generator will sit on the base of the cabinet, with the starting battery alongside. The fuel supply will sit on the cabinet's shelf. Since the shelf is made from 3/16" aluminum, with 1 1/2" sides, and welded, I'm going to install a shelf drain tube at each end. Plus, by using a Johnson outboard tank, the tank can be removed and set on the ground for refueling. The cabinet will have two marine vents (Attwood) to supply generator airflow, and the generator discharges cooling air downward, so I'm not worried about any fume buildups. Doing the math, my generator is 14" high, plus 3 inches clearance to the shelf, equals 25" of space above the shelf. The MIL NATO fuel cans are only 19" high.

 

[patoz]

Ah, the advantages to having the larger body and bigger compartments!

The only way I can make my generator fit sitting in the bottom of the compartment, is to take it out of the soundproof housing and remount it directly onto another base of some type. This is compartment #2, and is the largest one I have, but the bottom 12" is 1.5" more narrow due to being notched around the frame.

I've been researching the items in your email, and working on that now.

 

[rlrenz]

By the way - the specs for the IOTA 55 amp charger state that the efficiency is greater than 80%, with a maximum input of 13.4 amps. 80% efficiency implies 20% waste heat, so 0.2 X 13.8 amps = 2.76 amps waste. At 110 VAC, this would equal 303 watts. Remember, these are worst case numbers, but 303 watts would definitely warm a cabinet. You should probably think about some outside ventilation to reduce your internal heat load.

 

[rlrenz]

I got the whole thing up and running - I like my battery monitor - it came out very nicely, and it will make it easy to track what's happening in battery land. Next week, she'll go into the shop for new brake lines -- some of the rear and some of the front lines have already been replaced, but now every remaining line will be replaced. Why do my brake lines need replacement? That's the same question I asked, and I found that fire trucks and ambulances that go out on winter runs come back to a nice, warm fire station. They get washed down, and the water and slop drain into a trench-type drain under each vehicle. The end result is that the underside of vehicles stays wet, often with some road salt for extra flavor. If you buy an ambulance from the snow belt, and it's more than 10 years old, think real seriously about all new brake lines!

Here's what the battery panel looks like - I'll make some labels for the panel when things calm down (and when I have the monitor connected to more batteries):

 

[rlrenz]

Well, it's at 4x4 Unlimited (near Rochester MN) for new brake lines. In the last year, some of the lines were replaced - rear lines when the brakes were rebuilt, and the front end when a line blew, but I like working brakes, so off it went to a shop that isn't scared of a Freightliner, and that has hoists that can pick up the whole thing. They will replace any brake lines that haven't already been replaced.

I had been having problems with an intermittent CHECK ENGINE light. We finally figured that the problem was oxidized contacts in connectors and in the sensors. About the only option I could see was re-seating / wiggling every connector I could find, but the 67 mile to the 4x4 shop solved the problem - my route was entirely on MN Highway 52, which is 4 lane, mostly asphalt, carries a lot of heavy truck traffic, has a 65 MPH speed limit, and is about as rough as it can be and still be considered a paved road. The end result was that every connector was thoroughly wiggled - very thoroughly! No problems with the CE light. Problem solved.

 

[patoz]

The problem with things that mysteriously fix themselves is, they also tend to unfix themselves. Things that do that without me knowing what the problem was, scare me. But, a fix is a fix and I won't turn it down!

 

[rlrenz]

An intermittent problem is a challenge - sometimes it never is found. Years ago, I had been issued a Motorola 220 VHF 2-way radio that must have had a crack in a multi-layer circuit board. It spent more time in the shop than in my hand. One day, I brought it to the shop again for the same intermittent problem, and the radio guy saw that the radio had white Scotchlite on the back. WHY, he asked. I told him that at least this way I could wave the radio to get someone's attention when it pooped out. At that point, he told me that the next time he had a radio headed for trade-in, he'd swap circuit cards with mine. He did, and the intermittent problem was fixed.

So, after I wiggled every connector, the intermittent problem went away.....

And how can I troubleshoot a problem that now doesn't give any indication of a problem???

So far, so good.

 

[patoz]

Just food for thought...



That would sure solve the cooling and ventilation problems also, but I think I would like to be able to put the bottom panel back in place when traveling or the generator was not in use. Of course, you would have to have adequate ground clearance under the vehicle to be able to roll the generator out also.

 

[rlrenz]

OK, gents - we spend a lot of time looking for a suitable chassis or module to turn into what we want, and now I find out that the Frazer ambulance company (http://www.frazerbilt.com/) has already thought of many of my planned upgrades - they build an ambulance that doesn't rely on large 12 volt batteries, inverters, and the rest of the fiddling it takes to do what we do with 12 volts. Instead, they power the whole thing with a 5.5 kW Onan generator. Comments on the on-line chat sites say the only GOTTCHA is that owners have to be fussy about doing a 150 hr. maintenance on the generator (probably an oil and filter change).

Even if I had been able to find a used Fraser when I did my ambulance search, I'm willing to bet that the price would have been a LOT more than I paid. Take a look at their site for some ideas, thouugh-

 

[java]

OK, gents - we spend a lot of time looking for a suitable chassis or module to turn into what we want, and now I find out that the Frazer ambulance company (http://www.frazerbilt.com/) has already thought of many of my planned upgrades - they build an ambulance that doesn't rely on large 12 volt batteries, inverters, and the rest of the fiddling it takes to do what we do with 12 volts. Instead, they power the whole thing with a 5.5 kW Onan generator. Comments on the on-line chat sites say the only GOTTCHA is that owners have to be fussy about doing a 150 hr. maintenance on the generator (probably an oil and filter change).

Even if I had been able to find a used Fraser when I did my ambulance search, I'm willing to bet that the price would have been a LOT more than I paid. Take a look at their site for some ideas, thouugh-

This is how my RV is set up, two small batteries and a large gen set. (it was a mobile radio command truck) I am not a huge fan, having to run the generator sucks some times. Its noisy and the exhaust will come inside if the wind blows just right.... The two batteries I have will just get me through the night, running the fridge, heater and some lights, they are DEAD in the morning. Between solar, and a 90A charger I usually only have to run the generator a little, but its still annoying. I would like 2-4 more batteries and I would be good to go.

 

[rlrenz]

Everything is a compromise - solar, diesel, LP, gasoline --- about the only thing I haven't seen is a sailboat wind generator waving in the breeze. Solar doesn't so much at night, diesel tends to be smelly and noisy, LP can be a challenge to refill, gasoline doesn't always like constant operation. If you get a package that will make it all night, then you are doing pretty good.

 

[patoz]

Everything is a compromise - solar, diesel, LP, gasoline --- about the only thing I haven't seen is a sailboat wind generator waving in the breeze.

Here ya go Bob!

http://www.angelwindenergy.com/RVProducts.html

 

[rlrenz]

Progress is happening - the buggy is at the 4x4 shop for all new brake lines. When MNtal did the brakes in his ambulance, he needed 65 ft of brake line, so the shop owner ordered in 50 ft to start. It sounds like it will be done next week.

Ambulances tend to self-discharge over time - MNtal added a battery disconnect switch for that reason, but my system seems to have lower leakage, so I added a NOCO solar battery charger (http://www.amazon.com/Noco-Genius-S...1435198806&sr=1-3&keywords=noco+solar+charger). Not a giant, only 5 watts, but it should be sufficient to handle the normal slow discharge while it's parked. Here at home, I can just plug it in, though.

While it's been at the 4x4 shop, I've been building an electrical cabinet for the 120 VAC and for the 12 VDC (deep cycle battery) system. The AC side will have a coffee pot, a microwave, and the battery charging system, while the DC side will support the refrigerator and a water pump, and maybe a few lights. The best place to build and install this system was the old radio cabinet, so before the buggy went to the shop, I pulled the radio cabinet so it could be modified.

Step 1 was removing the old access window for the oxygen bottle. I cut an exact matching plywood plug and epoxied it into place. When I rebuilt the cabinet, I installed a new back layer of laminate (Wilsonart Grey Glace) to cover up the plug and all the abandoned holes from years of radio gear.









I knew what I needed for switchgear, so I matched it up with Blue Sea, and ordered the parts. Blue Sea is far from cheap, but it is beautifully made, and should outlast me by many years. I decided to cut a recess in the radio cabinet, and back-mount the Blue Sea components so they would be more protected from accidental contact. AS I've gotten older, I found that I can't saw along a straight line as easily anymore, so I did the cutout with a 1/4" bit in my router and a guide template. It did the job very nicely. All the Blue Sea components are mounted on an 1/8" aluminum panel. I could have used wood, but I liked the durability and the grounding possible with a metal panel. Unfortunately, Blue Sea components all have lots of internal square corners, and my Bridgeport is in the middle of being moved right now, so the cutouts were done with a jig saw, and trimmed with some really impressive coarse files. It came out very nicely, and looked great with a coat of self etching primer & satin black.

In order to get the best appearance possible near the electrical panel, I added a new layer of Gray Glace laminate, and then installed "L" extrusions to the cutout edges (the extrusions were purchased from McMaster). Mitering the corners was simple - I cut the pieces about 1/8" oversize, then used my 12" disc sander and a miter gauge to get the ends at 45 degrees. TIP: cut the short ends first, then cut the long sections. The long sections can be sprung into place for a very nice, neat job.



I have to leave access in the cabinet for the pieces needed for the 120 volt air conditioner installation (80 amp converter, Hoseline 3000 temperature control panel, and Hoseline RCB 12/120 AC control panel), so the Blue Sea components will be prewired before installation, and will go through a series of terminal strips for easy installation and easy servicing.

 

[goofballracer]

Wow i really like the panel