M2 Freightliner Ambulance Conversion Project. 2007 Crew Cab

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
Here is a teaser photo on the current project. This one is being done in first DOANR (aka LilAmbo). Anyone guess what it is?

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scooter421

Adventurer
Nice OZ! I can't wait to see how it turns out! I tried to come up with a functional Murphy bed for my ambo but it never quite worked out. My kitchen pantry is on the passenger side wall. I did not want to lose the storage space in my baby ambo. Are you going to still have some sort of a bench seat in the end?

Scooter...

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Strouty

New member
Oz, with your truck did you have Allison reprogram the transmission at all? Or did the end result of the taller tires with the lower gears make it almost factory again?
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
I didn’t have anything done to the transmission but it probably would of been advisable to have the adaptive learning reset.

Ratios are a little overgeared compared to factory. But that is because I ended up using 46” tires instead of the 43” ones.

Somewhere in this thread I published the comparison.

Biggest issue has been the tires only being rated to 55 mph. It’s hard to keep it going that slow and mostly I lock it in 5th.
 

Coachgeo

Explorer
I didn’t have anything done to the transmission but it probably would of been advisable to have the adaptive learning reset.

Ratios are a little overgeared compared to factory. But that is because I ended up using 46” tires instead of the 43” ones.

Somewhere in this thread I published the comparison.

Biggest issue has been the tires only being rated to 55 mph. It’s hard to keep it going that slow and mostly I lock it in 5th.
are these military tires? are they not rated at 55 based on the weight and tire pressure the military ordered these tires to handle? AKA.. if your running less weight... and higher pressure that changes things. Look at similar load level tires by other manufactures who list speeds based on vehicle weight and tire pressure to get a better estimate.
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
So while most of my time has been spent on LilRedAmbo and the Murphy bed project I have managed to cross a couple of items off my list (War and Peace novel size list).

The first was replacing a hub seal in the rear axle. (Where some knucklehead put the brake hose on wrong and dragged the brake around the block). It is a task and a half on these axles. But the most worrying thing was that the spindle nut was only finger tight. So after doing that one I am in the process of checking them all. It takes the best part of 1/2 a day each. Video/time lapse will be up on my Instagram thingo soon.


but in better news I did source a transfer case. These were everywhere for about $500 a year or so ago. But Axletech bought out the full stock the main guys had for sale. They will probably paint them and sell them as new or refurbished for full price. The best I could find was $1500 in Canada plus freight.

So instead I bought another full kit. Axles, wheels and transfer case. At this stage the missus is not seeing the genius in my decision/actions ?.
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The tires are a bit bigger than the ones on my truck.
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but the axles and wheels will be sold to stop me making stupid decisions with the Scottsdale trolley that’s sitting in the back yard.
 

java

Expedition Leader
Passed your info to a guy from Pirate looking for axles.....

And I vote trolley

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Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
Also I grabbed a Milwaukee High Torque 1/2 impact. Man it is a great piece of gear. I usually have to break the lug nuts loose with a torque multiplier before the impact will work. This one breaks them loose on it 2nd highest setting without a problem. Rated at 1400 lbs breakout and 1100 lbs tightening. I would highly recommend this to anyone with big nuts ?. For more normal size rigs don’t get the high torque one I think the medium one would be sufficient.
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Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
My other time waster was a diesel heater. eBay special but it works great. It fit fairly neatly into the cabinet I have 2 x 10 gallon drinking water tanks so I snaked the exhaust around the back a bit to provide some heat for the tanks. I also used a “Y” pipe to duct some of the heat into the toilet shower. Never thought I would need that until we had the combination of a composting toilet (everyone sits to pee) and some cold nights at expo last year. Now I can see why the missus has been whining about how cold toilet seat is for 35 years.
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shortbus4x4

Expedition Leader
Nice set if narrow Axletechs and sand tires. Definitely not as many axles and transfercases around like a few years ago and the prices have gone up.
And I'm all for you making stupid decisions, it makes my decisions look better when my wife calls me out on them.?
 

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