What happens when you drive an ambulance through the winter snow and slop, then park it in a nice, warm, cozy firehouse? Things corrode real fast! I was taking the beast out on Monday when the brake warning light came on - I needed to check the books to figure out what the international symbol meant, but the puddle of brake fluid was also a strong hint. I had blown a front steel brake line.
I knew the brake lines were showing corrosion - I had been replacing them as time and cash permitted, starting with the rear end, but the front lines were on the "tomorrow" list. The front lines have now moved to a higher position - it's now in the shop where they are trying to figure out a replacement for a discontinued Freightliner-unique brake line with a rubber hose in the middle of the line - it will probably wind up as several turns of tubing as a vibration absorber.
So, cheap advice: take a good look at your brake lines...
In other news:
My wife did not want me to buy a cot along with the ambulance. I had to agree with her thoughts (plus, even on e-bay, an ambulance cot costs more than I ever wanted to spend), so I never worried about a cot. Now that I am working to make it into an RV, the thought of a bed or a nap-place has arisen. An Army cot was my first thought for a place for an on-the-road snooze, but anyone who has worked with them would move an Army cot farther down the list - any bed that needs a 2x4 prybar to assemble or break down is perfect for a building full of 20-somethings, but not for us old retired gents. I got an e mail from REI (the camp folks) that they had a top of the line camp cot on sale - I looked at it, then ordered one. It can be strapped to the existing ambulance cot anchors (so we won't re-create the old Keystone Cops runaway ambulance cot scene...), and it folds up into about an 8" pancake, so it can readily fit into one of the interior compartments. I'll still have to figure out a mattress down the road, but now we have a guest room...
I'm also building up the circuit breaker panel for the 120 volt system. Blue sea has an interlock bar that can be used on a panel so only one main breaker can be "on" at one time. The panel is available with two already-interlocked 30 amp, 2 pole, breakers. I decided to add a third breaker to the locked-out portion: a breaker for the Vanner inverter output. Ambulances usually have a Vanner 1050 watt sine inverter - I had thought about upgrading it to a 2000 watt inverter, but the cost of a sine 2000 watt inverter has moved this down on my list - for now, I'll work around the Vanner's 1050 watt output. The third breaker will be a 10 amp breaker. If someone tries to connect something that pulls more than the Vanner can supply, the breaker will trip. Someday, when I am oozing money, I'll install a larger inverter, and increase the fuse size accordingly, but this will work well as a short term solution. I'll show some photos when I get the project done.
