From Freightliner ambulance to RV - we hope!

[dlh62c]

Sounds like a fun project.

Being a business should help you to source insurance on the vehicle.

 

[Ozrockrat]

With 10 lug hubs you generally have 2 options. Budd which have tapered nuts and hub pilot which have flat nuts. I believe yours will be hub pilot and this is what is run on the majority of the across the road trucks in the USA. This opens up your options for wheels considerable.

There are also a lot of bead lock options including alloy ones ex military that run 20" tires.

http://buytruckwheels.com/hub-pilot-vs-ball-seat/

 

[rossvtaylor]

http://buytruckwheels.com/hub-pilot-vs-ball-seat/

That's a helpful explanation, thanks! Reading your thread about the tire changes you went through, and the clearance mods you made, was informative. We don't plan to go as large as you did, but perhaps bigger super singles would be a good option for us. Thanks much for the info.

EDIT/Addition: Well, that certainly did open up options. I did a bit of searching for the beadlock tires and they're all over... and they're also not an arm and a leg. There's an eBay seller in Indiana who's got Goodyear G177 tires (in great shape) on rims, for $225. The rims are stud pilot (you taught me about that!) but for that price, I could throw the rims in the metal scrap bin. So many options. This is gonna be fun!

 

[rossvtaylor]

Sounds like a fun project.

Being a business should help you to source insurance on the vehicle.

Hi dlh62c, that did seem to help. We have our business insurance through the Hartford and now have the ambulance insured there, too. I didn't realize that getting insurance on a conversion might be tough, but we got it worked out and it's actually a lot cheaper than I'd expected. We were thinking it might be $200+ a month, but it was under $80 (with a discount for paying the whole year at once). That includes our estimated $5000 exterior wrap/paint/whatever coverage. Not bad at all, we thought.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Here is a good reference to see the tire size changes.

www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc

 

[rossvtaylor]

Here is a good reference to see the tire size changes.

www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc

That was helpful - and, you even pre-plugged in our proposed tire sizes! Those 20" monsters are probably bigger that we need to go, though. And the ones I found are all rated for 68 mph max. Even though the surplus 20"ers are available for a lot less money than the 22.5-inch semi tires, I think we're going to go with a more over-the-road-friendly combo that will probably be a 4" lift with highway 22.5 inch semi tires. 255/70-R22.5 are almost an inch and a half wider, giving us a bit more bite, and (with a 4" lift) we'll have a bit over 6" more bumper-to-ground clearance. I like the idea of having wheels and tires that are available everywhere.

We expect that 90-95% of our use will be on the highway, driving to a destination. Once there, our off-road use will be pretty tame by some standards. And, if we want to get farther out to explore, we'll take the motorcycle off the rack and go.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Checkout this document for a lot better info on tire selection than I can offer.

michelintruck

 

[rossvtaylor]

Good tire and wheel info, Ozrockrat, thanks!

I've packed a few things, based on input here, including gloves and some I'm-not-a-commercial-vehicle-so-don't-mess-with-me door signs and red stucco tape (leaves no residue) and the Hula girl my oldest son gave me. And, of course, a tape measure for planning out the interior.



They folks from Global Emergency Vehicles are on their way to pick me up and I should be with the Essential Fatty Ambulance in an hour or so. And, no, that's not what we're calling it for good... In fact, there's not really a good "ambo" name for this. Anything based on the words "fat" (from our foods) and "ambulance" comes out looking like "flatulence"...

Once I hit the local Walmart for a few things, and get on the road, I'll be heading towards Nashville to take the more scenic southern route home. If anyone is along this path, let me know.

 

[patoz]

Safe travels and I hope you're taking a camera with you to start documenting your build! Besides, with a road trip that long, there's no telling what you might run into worthy of a picture or two.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Well how's it going???????

 

[rossvtaylor]

Well how's it going???????

Well! Sorry, my pics are on my phone and I can't post them. I've been a bit too busy driving the beast to update you guys, sorry.

The short summary, for now, is that this thing is great! GEV was great, too. I'm about half way back to AZ now, and just stopped for early dinner in Morrelton, Arkansas. I'll post some pics tomorrow, from AZ.

We had some nice surprises... It's got air brakes and air suspension. And, best surprise of all, the Allison tranny is already set up for all 6 speeds. With the 8.3L turbo diesel, doing 75 up the hills was no problem. At the 1100 mile mark, I was getting a total average mpg of 10.5.

Kara and I are very pleased. Pics and more details from home, we promise!

Ross and Kara

Edit: Oops, forgot to add that the Westerbeke generator is an 8kW! What the heck were they running?! It does have two different box AC/heat units (one Hoseline 12v and one CruiseAir marine). But only the CruiseAir (may be spelled wrong...) runs on 120. So that 8kW genny is huge. May be swapping that out... Or not... it is nice that it's diesel, too.

 

[rlrenz]

Fantastic! You're making great time, and the trip is cooperating. What more is there to ever want?

It sounds like your experience with GEV was just like mine -- great people to work with, and they did everything they could to help me.

Good decision on the tires - an available off-the-shelf tire has a lot going for it compared to a MIL-surplus tire that is hard to source, especially on a Sunday evening when you suddenly need a replacement.

RE: the 8 kW Westerbeke. The original owners may have been planning on darn near any kind of an electrical load you could ever think of. With a neonatal ambulance, they could have been planning on running the 120 volt AC, plus some peculiar patient support equipment. Generally, the 120 volt AC will live on a 4 kW generator just fine, including the starting surge. I'm betting that they planned a maximum load of no more than 6 kW since this was a medical application.
I would be very, very reluctant to remove the Westerbeke generator - it's installed, and it works.

Your mileage sounds like the numbers we were seeing when we ran back from GEV with my Medic Master - with the 5.9 Cummins, we got right about 11 MPG, and we sailed up every hill. My son did a lot of the driving, and he didn't have a light foot.

 

[goneagain]

man, that sounds like a nice truck... jealous!

 

[patoz]

Edit: Oops, forgot to add that the Westerbeke generator is an 8kW! What the heck were they running?! It does have two different box AC/heat units (one Hoseline 12v and one CruiseAir marine). But only the CruiseAir (may be spelled wrong...) runs on 120. So that 8kW genny is huge. May be swapping that out... Or not... it is nice that it's diesel, too.

Depending on where you're going to park that thing, you can put a transfer switch on your house, get the appropriate size cord, and run it from the generator to supply your house in a power outage.

 

[tgreening]

And with the painting. One of our ambos was painted by Maaco for around $1900. It was a 10' job but definitely OK to wrap.

Really? I went to my local Maaco and told them I wanted a 10 footer in basic white, the color it is now, and I'd pull all the lights, trim, blah blah, and they still wanted $3,000 to do it.