M2 Freightliner Ambulance Conversion Project. 2007 Crew Cab

[Ozrockrat]

Taking RLRENZs advice I pulled the light to see what is hiding behind. Lots and lots of cables.

Strangely this is the 1st Ambo I have owned that the lights were not flush mounted. Also I noticed the strobes have extra wires from the lights. Need to do some more investigation to see if they are programable. The ones on the box I put on the Landcruiser 6 wheeler in Australia are which makes turning LED strobes into area lights real easy.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Taking RLRENZs advice I pulled the light to see what is hiding behind. Lots and lots of cables.

Strangely this is the 1st Ambo I have owned that the lights were not flush mounted. Also I noticed the strobes have extra wires from the lights. Need to do some more investigation to see if they are programable. The ones on the box I put on the Landcruiser 6 wheeler in Australia are which makes turning LED strobes into area lights real easy.

This is the front of the DOANR and that is the sort of light mounting all my other Ambo’s had. ????!

 

[Ozrockrat]

So a little investigation on the strobe and yes it can be programmed to steady burn. Even better yet it also has a low power feature that will be useful on the “domestic” side of the truck.

This is an extract from the Whelen installation guide.

Available Flash Patterns: SignalAlertTM75 / SignalAlertTM150 / SingleFlash 375 / SingleFlash 150 / SingleFlash 75 / DoubleFlash 150 / DoubleFlash 75 CometFlash75 / ActionFlashTM / ModuFlashTM / ComAlertTM / ActionScanTM / SignalAlertTM Steady / Steady (Brake)
Hi/Low Intensity: Violet Wire / This feature allows the user to step the unit down to low power operation for nighttime use.
Apply positive voltage to the VIOLET wire to put the lighthead into low power. Remove the voltage from the VIOLET wire to restore high power operation.

And just so I have a reference point on how to set them.

“
Scan-LockTM: White-Violet Wire / This feature allows the user to select from several available flash patterns
TO CYCLE THROUGH ALL PATTERNS: Apply positive voltage to the WHITE- VIOLET wire for less than 1 second and release to cycle forward. Apply positive voltage to the WHITE-VIOLET wire for more than 1 second and release to cycle backward.
TO SET A PATTERN AS DEFAULT: Allow the desired pattern to run for more than 5 seconds. The lighthead will now display this pattern when active.”

 

[patoz]

The recessed mounting areas with the big holes are generally used to mount the older Halogen or High Power Strobe light heads. The cutouts are used to facilitate the reflectors required by this type of lighting.

The surface mount areas with just a few small holes are used to mount the newer (last 10 years) LED light heads. These lights have no large reflectors, so no large cutout is required. However, the first generation LED scene lights did use a large heat sink with fins on it that did require a cutout for it to mount into. The newest version has that heat sink built into the base and is surfaced mounted using a chrome flange.

 

[rlrenz]

Since the bulb or strobe tube is a concentrated light source, halogen & strobe fixtures need a cutout to accommodate the reflector. The fixtures usually are 2" deep to take advantage of the two inch wall depth in ambulances - both for the light path, and to keep a very hot halogen bulb away from the plastic lens..

LED fixtures are entirely surface mounted - the entire surface of the fixture is the light emitter.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Those answers make me wonder if I got a box that was refurbished. All my lights are LEDs and the one I removed is flush mount over a gaping hole.

 

[rlrenz]

If an ambulance module was upgraded / refurbished, conversion to LEDs was a very easy project.

Since virtually all of the ambulance emergency lighting used to be Whelen, even the AMP connectors are the same, so it becomes a Plug & Play project. The old halogen and strobe fixtures all needed new bulbs at $30+ each for bulbs, and even more for strobe tubes. The light lenses needed to be replaced periodically as they became oxidized.

And the LED lights offered totally different lighting with their wide choice of flash patterns and color options in the same fixture.

Whelen offers LED lights that utilize the same mounting footprint as the older halogen fixtures (900 series), and if a department wants to upgrade even farther, the M2 fixtures are available with a mounting adapter that's designed to cover the cutout required for a halogen fixture.

End result - LEDs

 

[RiderBloke]

This “person” is sending out spam on two of our forums. Be careful.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Phil_one1]

OK I did a bit of digging around. That unit has over 240,000 miles. I will PM you some more information.

I ended up passing on it sales guy was a bit odd. just have to wait for the next gem to come up, thanks so much for the help.

 

[Ozrockrat]

A bit odd. I would say that is a bit of an understatement considering he somehow lost 200,000 miles off the vehicle.

 

[rlrenz]

Anyone selling a vehicle who "accidentally" forgets 200,000 miles is a little suspicious to me.

 

[Coachgeo]

Devils Advocate...... if the engine was rebuilt or replaced at 40,000 miles ago...... it would not be first or last time you would see a truck listed with mileage AFTER rebuild. Should be pointed out, but have seen them listed that way. Now if the rig that a state or county may have had completely refurbished/renewed 40 grand ago it still should be mentioned; and could even make it a sweet deal. Don't know if that is the case or not... just saying

 

[RiderBloke]

Folks, Just in case someone is interested here is one or two I thought about - especially the $6500 one:
http://www.usedambulance.com/inside12.html

It has a Mercedes motor and a 6 speed Allison box. The guy is going to get rid of all his vehicles and close his business. He is in N Ohio west of Toledo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ozrockrat]

Since the weather is being nice to us for a change I managed to do a few cleanup jobs on the rig. It seems everytime I do one job I create 4 more. In this case removing the AC in the module resulted in access to 6 cubic feet more storage inside the module. But to access it I had to rework the cabinets. That then morphed into reworking all the 110 side of the electrical with a new inverter, circuit breaker box, transfer switch, new power circuit just for inverter supplies power, battery cables for the inverter etc. that then resulted in needing to remover the old hoses for the module AC. Which resulted in having to remove the guard above the fuel tank for access.

I think I need to rename this truck to “Hydra”.

Here is the hoses I removed to make room in the cabinet for the solar regulator, breaker board, transfer switch etc.

 

[patoz]

Were those hoses inside that aluminium heat guard?

The more I work on these things, the more I see why they cost so much.