Corporate Runaways Ambulance Build

Bikersmurf

Expedition Leader
I like the inside / outside shower @Bodon68 Can you stand up in it? It looks like it's not a full-height cabinet.

That cabinet is full height for us and it's where I just cut the hole for the fridge. We're not willing to give up much space to a bathroom. Currently we have a porta-potty in a nice box with wheels and a lid (The Box™️). We can use it when sitting at the counter, or as a spare seat. The box you have the toilet in is where we plan on storing maxtrax, and other recovery gear.

It sounds like your rig is a tad taller inside. I’d be lucky if I’ve got 67” to the aluminum crossbeam. I’ve not really measured, but there’s about 2” over a 5’4” tall person’s head. Mine is a step up from a minimod but at 88” wide (by spec) it’s narrower than most. All my lights are recessed into the ceiling and there are no overhead ducts.

It’s something to keep in mind... all the rigs have to meet standardized specs, but how the designers get there can vary. I like it’s size, but every rig has its trade offs.
 

masukomi

Member
Today we attempted to finish the fridge install.

First we plugged in an electric heater to shore power because it's barely above freezing outside. Then I stuck my head in a box, and reached around under a board and drilled a hole into the fridge compartment for the 12v power to run through.

It went reasonably well.

kays_butt_in_cabinet.jpg


The fridge just fits in the hole we made. Lots of luck involved with that.

Then we remembered the under fridge metal... thing. There's some piece of plastic coming off of the front of the fridge bottom in the center that it will protect, but other than that we're not sure why it exists. We had no idea what we were in for when we decided that a little protection was good and we should install it.

Around then Dachary's back decided it could only take so much ambulance time, and she went inside to work on wiring up the LED lights that will replace the "Dome Lights". In the current generation these are all LED to begin with.

wire_labels.jpg


The wiring is a little weird. We have one ground, and two power lines. This picture shows why I love ambulance electrics. Everything is labeled. I couldn't hold all three with labeling pointed at the camera but the black one is clearly labeled as the ground. The other two are "Dome Light Low 4" and "Dome Light High 4" (We have 6 "Dome" lights). I was expecting one line with differing power levels for high and low, but no, two lines. Where it got really weird was that they appear to have bought some 3rd party light fixture with red, black, and white. The way it's connected to the fixture the red is the ground, the white which is wired in as a ground is actually power, and the black is the other power. If you've spent any time with electric wires you'll be going "that's ALL kinds of wrong". We tried one way of wiring it and they worked on low but not high. We tried another way and they didn't work at all. We tried another way and killed all the dome lights on the left side.

This was a bit demoralizing for Dachary, and we were already late for lunch so we decided to pause there. Later in the evening I spent some quality time with the wiring diagram and discovered that it's a circuit breaker not a fuse (yay) and that circuit breaker #37 needs to be flipped. Only problem is, we have no clue where the circuit breakers are. I thought we'd seen everything but the bowels of the engine, and yet neither of us can recall a circuit board. Fuse block yes. Circuit board, no. [Side Note: OMG largest vehicle fuzes I've ever seen.]

It's somewhat annoying that the wiring diagram tells you how everything is connected but not where 99% of the stuff is on the vehicle. We'll go searching tomorrow. It really bugs me that we broke something and haven't fixed it yet.

Anyway, after lunch I went out, finished off the shelf to support the fridge, and then Dachary joined me and we began the ordeal of installing that metal... thing.

We bought this fridge for a few reasons:

  • It takes about half as much power as the Truck Fridge we had in our Vanagon.
  • Dometic fridges have a great reputation
  • It fit the spaces we were willing to put it.
We were not expecting what came next.

We don't know what to call the metal thing that goes under the front because it doesn't exist in the manual. We weren't even sure what exactly it was for or what orientation it was expected to be in. Eventually we figured out that two of its holes line up with the front feet of the fridge, and that you're expected to remove them, stick it in place, and then use them to hold it on.

We also don't know what to call the ... flange thing that goes around the left, top, and right edge to hold it in the hole (it screws into the wall its installed in) and to hide the gap (and rough edges) between the fridge and the wall. It doesn't exist in the manual either. Additionally it goes down below the fridge to the same level as the bottom of the feet, so it's not actually possible to make it just rest its weight on the feet unless you remove that.

You may have noted that i didn't say "bottom" the thing that goes under the front does not go out and down like the flange thing. So, you've got a fridge with a nice flange around 3/4 of the sides. We think maybe Dometic's engineers thought "meh, it's most of the sides. it'll be fine". I'll admit you wouldn't want it to go down if you were installing it on the floor, but not everyone installs their fridges on the floor. Some of use actually want to be able to use them without doing toe-touches every time we want a drink.

While we had it on its side we decided to take the opportunity to flip which side the door opens from. Dometic suggests that this is easy, and technically it is. What they don't tell you is that they didn't bother to put a hole in the flange for 2 of the screws. So, you have to remove ( and replace ) 12 flange screws to undo one screw, move it to the other side, and screw it in there. There is absolutely no reason they couldn't have put a small cut-out for this.

So, we remove All The Screws™️, swap the sides, put it back together, and then I get curious. We'd never seen what the freezer looks like inside "hey, what does the freezer look like?" I ask Dachary. We pull it down...and it hits the door. We considered leaving it like that. It was almost all the way open, but I know me. It would have made me hate the fridge a little bit every time I used it if I didn't fix that.

There is a lot of play in the metal bar that holds the door in place. It doesn't have screw holes. It has screw slots. Ultimately we found out that it has to be essentially all the way out to work. So, 12 screws out AGAIN. loosen up 6 more for the bar on top and bottom. Adjust how close the door is, lightly tighten, test, repeat. Eventually tighten it all up.... again.

Now you may have noticed I said "screws" and not "bolts" This was not an error, or me speaking casually. Two of them were stripped in their holes and required creativity to remove. Maybe 2 of them were in there straight. One of them had its thread all dulled and mostly useless. Every time I had to replace one i was very careful because it's highly unlikely to go into the existing thread grooves precisely.

I suspect the assembly process is "Hey bob. See those holes? Drill a screw through each one." No robot. Not even a jig to have everything go in correctly. How hard would it be to make a jig for each side with 4 screw holes?

Everything "looks" fine, but it's the lack of attention to quality, and lack of regard to the people installing the thing that really bugs me. It would have been so easy to not cover up those two screw holes. It should have been even easier to just not install the flange before you shipped it so that people could swap the door side without having to take it off, but that would have required precision, and bolts welded to the inside in the right place, instead of screws

I'm sure it'll work fine. I'm just really irked to find such half-assed workmanship.

The Truck Fridge? That thing was awesome. It used more power, but swapping the side? Easy. No undoing a bajillion screws because of lack of forethought or empathy.

.... end rant.

Anyway, we installed a thing on the fridge, but the thing we installed, meant the bottom of the fridge was now lower. That meant using the demonic drill saw to shorten the wood. My line, unsurprisingly, went all wiggly and too low.

Then came the angle grinder. [Side note: use Diablo cutting blades are way nicer than Rigid.] Surprisingly, even though I'm dealing with a "chop your arm off" kind of tool, I have way more finesse with it than the stupid drill saw. That cut, and grid, came out nicely.

We'll try sticking it in again, and building some extra crap for the shelf to compensate for the poor design of the flange tomorrow.

It was good to make progress, but frustrating to deal with the fridge construction issues.

There was one entertaining thing today. Fall invaded our garage. I swept it out. It reinvaded. There aren't even any leafy trees near our driveway or garage.

fall_came_to_our_garage.jpg
 
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Bikersmurf

Expedition Leader
For heating while shore power is available I installed a 120 v kick space heater. It has a lot of output options... currently it's wired for 450 W and on a timer to preheat the cabin on extra cold mornings.


heater.PNG
Electric Kick Space Heater
  • The Kick Space heater is factory wired for 240/208-volt at 900/675-watt and is field convertible for 240/208-volt at 1800/1350-watt, 120-volt at 450, 900, 1350, or 1800-watt configuration
  • Durable 20-gauge galvanized steel
  • Superior finned tubular element design for safety and long-life span
  • The polyester epoxy powder coat painted finish resists fading and abrasion for long-life and durability
  • Nickel chromium resistance wire heating element within a steel sheath, spiral steel fins are firm brazed to the surface to provide excellent heat transfer
  • The unit is controllable from a line voltage wall thermostat or field installed built-in tamper-proof single or double pole thermostat kit
 
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masukomi

Member
For heating while shore power is available I installed a 120 v kick space heater. It has a lot of output options... currently it's wired for 450 W and on a timer to preheat the cabin on extra cold mornings.

That's nice and compact. We don't expect to be in it AND on shore power very much. The Propex will only sip fuel and power so I think we're just going to use that one it's in.
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
I don't know how far you are through your LED conversion but I found these lights to be a good replacement for the existing fittings. The are not high/low but can be run with a dimmer. Amazon RV ceiling light.

I have 7 of these in my rig and honestly I could of gone with 3 and had sufficient lighting. I normally on use the 3 that are on the timer. But I did wire them with a combination of the existing high and low supplies so I have a lot of different options on how many are running.

RV Led Ceiling.jpg
 

Bikersmurf

Expedition Leader
I don't know how far you are through your LED conversion but I found these lights to be a good replacement for the existing fittings. The are not high/low but can be run with a dimmer. Amazon RV ceiling light.

I have 7 of these in my rig and honestly I could of gone with 3 and had sufficient lighting. I normally on use the 3 that are on the timer. But I did wire them with a combination of the existing high and low supplies so I have a lot of different options on how many are running.

View attachment 483404
Sorry for the confusion... was meaning for the overhead lights. 2.4w wedge LEDs and 5w G4 bulbs. The 2.4w and 5w are essentially the same brightness. the 5w are dim-able so I may put them on a dimmer if they all are too bright.
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
They are the ones I was talking about. Most rigs have damage to the lenses and at $16 each these cover the holes and are basically a straight replacement for the halogen portion of the existing lights.

After my fist go with replacing all of my interior lights with these we only bought a couple for the other rig and will install speakers in place of the others.

74dc9f612c8923677b5f386c269f06db.jpg
 

masukomi

Member
They are the ones I was talking about. Most rigs have damage to the lenses and at $16 each these cover the holes and are basically a straight replacement for the halogen portion of the existing lights.

Interesting. Thanks for the suggestion. We're not too late to switch, and "a straight replacement" sounds awfully convenient, but I'm not a big fan of the whole aesthetic of these or the originals. Honestly we don't need more things to do but... We went with these dimmable, small disk ones. The plan is to cut a disk the replace the metal pan they sit in, then below that (using the same screws) hang a thin round piece of wood with a round cut in it for the light.

We've got the same white plastic layer on the compartment side of the ceiling. The wood won't go with it, but that white stuff is going to be replaced in round two of renovations. I'm not sure what we'll replace it with, but the plywood above it is a perfect base to hang something thin, lightweight, and less sterile looking.

I still want to find a way to make them work on high and low though.

After my fist go with replacing all of my interior lights with these we only bought a couple for the other rig and will install speakers in place of the others.

How's that? It seems like you found a nice easy replacement method, and I assume the fluorescents were easy to replace too. Is it just that you've decided you don't need that much light?

We haven't figured out how to make our dome lights turn on unless the vehicle is, or was just, running. I really want to figure that out because the flourescents are just too much, even if i do swap them with warm light LEDs.

Side note: our dome lights are not halogen. They're just standard small automotive bulbs. They shed a useless amount of light in the day, even on high.
 

masukomi

Member
hey @Ozrockrat, what kind of vent is that? We think the cross beams on our frame are appoximately 12 inches apart which means none of the standard vents will fit (they're all 14")

I've found a solution, that doesn't involve hacking the bars but I'm not thrilled with it. Did you have to cut yours, and how far apart are they?

My plan is to wait until we have the Propex installed, drive to our friend's house in MA, crank the heat, then go up on top after a bit with his Flir heat camera and a ruler, and measure where the bars are and how far apart they are exactly (or at least their center points). We know they have notably different thermal properties because even without heat, on a cool morning you can see sometimes condensate above where the bars are.

If anyone has a better idea I'd love to hear it. I'm running under the assumption PL Custom won't send random people their blueprints. ;)
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
I had a rooftop AC on mine from the factory so it had the 14” hole. The actual fan is a Maxxair.

If you pull the ceiling lights you can get a fair idea of where the frame goes. But using heat and a thermal camera or infrared thermometer will give you a fair idea as well.
 

masukomi

Member
I had a rooftop AC on mine from the factory so it had the 14” hole. The actual fan is a Maxxair.

If you pull the ceiling lights you can get a fair idea of where the frame goes. But using heat and a thermal camera or infrared thermometer will give you a fair idea as well.


that's... far too obvious a solution. No. we must do something far more obtuse. ?‍♂️ Sigh. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I've been up in that hole with the lights already. Thanks.
 

masukomi

Member
Today we had to drive to Troy NY for Dachary's 4th eye exam (don't ask) which resulted in us killing time in a mall

every_kiss_begins_with_kay.jpg


(I'm Kay so... )

and Dachary... FINALLY getting a final prescription. Unlike everyone else who gets old, her eyes are getting better as she ages.

dachary_has_new_glasses-1.jpg


Before that though, I went searching for the circuit breakers. It turns out they are very illusive beasts.

I found the timer, which we can't physically remove without removing the inverter, but we can set it to be much longer with some needle-nosed pliers. Dachary says we're going to have to remove the inverter anyway to get access to the battery wires, so that's good news... I guess. I have no idea what to do with the wires after we remove it, but hopefully we'll get some advice on that before we get that far.

Side Note: I forgot to mention that yesterday we discovered that someone had unplugged the converter, so all the days we'd plugged in the ambulance to shore power it never got charged. Dachary just happened to ask me to check the voltage for some reason and we were all "that's not right..."

I also found the flasher controller, which is good because I want to convert the flashers to floods. One of our police friends knows a guy who sells used emergency vehicle lights, and might be willing to swap our red and yellow flashers for some white ones at a minimal cost. I'm sure he has more requests for flashers than floods... probably. I'm not sure what to do with the flasher controller to make things stop flashing. Maybe just take it out and run the wires as if it didn't exist? Wiring diagram may help, but we'll just not screw with it until we know the answer. The internet doesn't seem to have a lot of people with flashers who want to make them stop flashing.

I also found a PowerTouch Remote Control Systems box.

remote_control_system-1.jpg


I have no idea what this thing does, but there's a phone number and a serial number and by combining the two I'm thinking I may solve the mystery. An FCC database suggests it's some sort of alarm with a radio that works at 310Mhz.

I remembered we hadn't ever opened the heater box area above the pass-through.

heater_box.jpg


In there we found lots of space we can convert into a storage box, an explanation for why there are hoses in the front cabinet (water pump leading to heater). There's also easy access to the back of some of our flashers, poor insulation, and the base of another antenna. In the front cabinet we found another antenna wire that we can't really explain. That's a mystery for another day though.

And last but not least, I measured one of the cabinets on the passenger side that we're considering using for fresh water tank storage. New space holds ~ 22 gallons (~83 L) which is almost double what the under bed area would hold. Preventing winter freezing would be an issue with both places and I'm going to loose a lot of volume to insulation. We're thinking foam core with aluminum backing, or maybe foam core + Reflectix (or some other radiant barrier).

The advantage to under the bed is much more exposure to internal air. Only the bottom side would be a freezing vector, but we don't have space to insulate under it, except on the underside of the floor, which isn't great. This is way less exposed to our nice warm internal air, but it's also way bigger. As per usual, everything is a trade-off.
 

masukomi

Member
Lots of progress since our last update.

We realized that instead of a complicated bit of routing on the underside of the nice wood counter to accommodate the bump around the sink, we could instead route down into the existing evil blue counter and simply drop the sink farther into it.

Unfortunately that counter is evil and the little jig saw and Dremel work we did with it before let us know that attempting to route an inch around the whole thing might kill us or at least give us cancer by week's end. So, we made a trip to home depo for respirators. We got the best ones they had because we have no clue what evil petrochemicals we're dealing with and we wanted a nice fit. This presented a minor complication for me though, because I have a beard. Well, I had a beard. Sometimes overlanding requires sacrifices.

Dachary ended up getting close and personal with the evil while routing it.

dachary_routes_closely.jpeg


We later added a face shield to keep the little flakes off of her when she was close. Those things stuck to everything nearby.

counter_flakes.jpeg


After that it was time to finally, finally deliver it to the wood shop for finishing. Which meant driving over the mountain through a cloud. At one point there were three vehicles directly ahead of us and we could only see one of them. This picture doesn't even begin to convey how bad it was.

foggy_drive.jpeg


When we arrived at the woodshop we realized we'd forgotten to finish sanding the inside of the sink hole (oops) and we were informed that they were now getting into their wholesale season so there was only one guy who could work on it and only on weekends. So, it may be a month before we get it back now. :( It's totally our fault, and we should have thought of it, but shrug. It is what it is.

...

We decided to try and make some progress on the prerequisites for installing the propane, which were to cut a hole in front of the sink, partially to have a cabinet there and partially to have access to the wall where we need to drill a hole for the propane to go through.

cutting_undersink_hole.jpeg


Then we build and installed the supports and framing for the stove, as well as some wood to keep crap from falling down behind it.

stove_supports.jpeg


stove_support_box.jpeg


That box is primarily to support the stove, and secondarily to be somewhere we can keep flat things like cookie sheets and cutting boards. If you look closely you'll note that the hole is off-center. This is intentional. There is a flat plane of metal on top of the wheel well, and the left support of the box is on the left edge of that plane. We wanted a nice perpendicular angle between the support and the floor so that left support is shifted a bit to the right. It's also the left wall of the box, so it's not centered.

The stove fits just about perfectly.

stove_in_place.jpeg


...

Today we had our first snow of the season.

lita_watches_snow.jpeg


Dachary decided we should work on something inside the garage while it snowed so we built the sliding bed.

First she used the miter saw to cut a pile of slats.

dachary_uses_miter_saw.jpeg


cut_slats.jpeg


Then we drilled a bunch of pilot holes, installed lots of screws, and eventually shoved it in the ambulance to make sure everything fit. We had to do some creative cuts to make some of the pieces fit under the seat belts. Dachary doesn't look particularly happy because by this point both of our backs were unhappy, especially hers.

bed_in_place.jpeg


Dachary did a good job with the design, and we did a good job with the construction. None of the slats are rubbing against each other, but we were amazed at just how much friction there is holding the sliding slats in place.

Our next step is to pull it apart, sand a little underneath where the pieces will rub, wax where they'll slide over each other. To facilitate this, and have the wax not be frozen when we're trying to apply it, we brought it in and laid it out on the dining room table.

We've made a lot of progress recently and it feels good. Our backs don't agree, but our hearts and minds do.

Dachary is relaxing with a dog behind her shoulders, a cat across her legs, and Fallout 76 on the TV.

Side notes:

We're keeping the seat belts back there so that we can legally sit back there and work while the other person is driving, and so that we don't die if we're struck while sitting back there. We like not dying.

Yes, we will definitely be making cookies. We craved baked goods so badly in south America.

This is the respirator we ended going with. I would highly recommend it. We were incapable of detecting the evil in the air when wearing them. We know it was there because at one point dachary accidentally leaned hers on the counter while trying to get a closer look at something, and it pushed it away from her face and let her smell it. Bleh. We, of course, had the exhaust running too. But still, these things are amazing. If you're anywhere near the forest fires currently going on in California, I recommend you pick up one of these.

3m_respirator.jpg
 

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