Rambo - GMC Ambo Conversion (Roof Raise)

[TheRealPapaK]

The roof line is fairly square with rounded edges. I believe that all of mine have had square roofs. Did you make the u brackets that you used.

I have always be reluctant to tare into one but I have a 4x4 Ford F350 ambo that will be my first try. I wish I could find one like your in 4x4. I am a Ford guy but this japanese designed duramax in the GMs is hard to beat.

Thanks

Yeah my GMC 4500 ambulance is nicer to drive than my F150. It makes me hesitant to convert it to 4WD as it handles like it's 1/3 its size. I also really like the Duramax. I would have to admit that I am not a Ford guy. I was very excited to be able to find a GM.

 

[TheRealPapaK]

I always say the next time I do an electrical project it’s going to be neater. I guess I meant the NEXT one after this...

Starting to chip away

 

[iggi]

My standards when installing my own stuff vs looking at it three months later are vastly different.

 

[Abitibi]

I always say the next time I do an electrical project it’s going to be neater. I guess I meant the NEXT one after this...

Starting to chip away
View attachment 639368

Not sure what you're talking about, that's pretty neat for a small space! Main thing is to know what does what & how to get at it

Sent from my SM-G973W using Tapatalk

 

[CaptainBuilt]

What's your exterior skin thickness? I'm curious what ambo's use for that.

 

[Bikersmurf]

What's your exterior skin thickness? I'm curious what ambo's use for that.

1/8” aluminum

 

[CaptainBuilt]

1/8” aluminum

Ok, good to hear thanks. That's what I thought. I didn't think it was .050 or similar.

 

[TheRealPapaK]

Not sure what you're talking about, that's pretty neat for a small space! Main thing is to know what does what & how to get at it

Thanks, I have friends that due aerospace grade wiring on their projects. Maybe I'm just holding myself to their impossible bar lol.


And yes my aluminum skin was 1/8" how ever the skin on my roof raise extension is only 1/16"

 

[TheRealPapaK]

Not much to report. Just all behind the scenes electrical. I didn’t like the switch that came with my winch to raise and lower the bed so I ordered a SPDT rocker switch and a winch relay I also ran a 6awg cable to the other side of the ambo that is powering my toilet vent, water pump, lights, and my rear heat exchanger that provides heat off the engine coolant. While it doesn’t look like anything is getting done, I’m slowly checking items off my mental to do list and it is getting smaller for sure.

I am still waiting for my shower mixer to finish off my plumbing and to finish my electrical I just need to wire the relays for the exterior lights to the switches in the cab head liner when I reinstall it, wire the water pump, and eventually add my vent fans to my dry room but that doesn’t need to be done immediately. I’m waiting on one last brass fitting to start running the propane line. I’ve never really done the tube flaring and bending but I imagine it’s pretty straight forward.

I think I’ve finally decided what I want to do for my dinette design but we are in a pretty big cold snap right now so all wood work is put off for a while.

 

[TheRealPapaK]

OK, I started filming an instagram story that got a bit out of control so I made it into a youtube video. The quality is low but this gives a "quick" rundown of the project if anyone is interested.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Awesome video! Really gives us a good perspective of the build.

 

[iggi]

Great video, nice to hear your thought process on the design. Interesting on keeping the rear AC. I was planning to remove mine but with raising the roof there is more room to tuck it up out of the way. Not that us Canadian's use AC all that much but on hot summer days I have really appreciated being able cool things down before going to bed.

 

[TheRealPapaK]

My wife had knee surgery so I haven’t had too much time to do much but I got back at it today. I finally got the plumbing finished. This is one of those things that I didn’t have a fully formed plan in my head so I didn’t know how exactly it was going to turn out. I’m pretty happy with it over all. I don’t love the drop elbow as the return fitting but it really was the only thing that worked and allowed me to use nice looking valves.


This is how it looks. The valve on the right is the on/off/mixer and the valve on the left is the three way valve to send water back to the water tank or to the shower head

Here is the return line back to the water storage tank.


This is what I looks like under the counter. The line lengths were a bit awkward but I made it work.

 

[TheRealPapaK]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I mostly have been tying up the never ending loose ends. The plumbing is 100% finished with the water pump wired up to the relay. I still need to add water to the tank and test it but since I’m on well water, I want to wait until I can get a better source.

I added an explosive gas/carbon monoxide detector. I wanted it hard wired so I found this model that plugged into the wall with a converter that brought it down to 9v DC. So I bought something that would go from 12v to 9v and wired it all up.



The exhausts for the hot water tank was added. It’s not shown in this photo but I added someRTV around to stop rattles. I still need to put a grill vent over it to clean it all up.


All the propane lines were ran. This took a bit took long but it’s finished. The only issue is when I went to flick the switch to open the solenoid valve, nothing happened. At that point I realized I accidentally bought a 110v solenoid. I ordered another one and I’m hoping I can just swap out the coil portion so I don’t need to unthread everything. Not the end of the world if I have to...



I finally permanently installed the fridge. I decided to use the two vents that were already there to get some air flow. I added a small case fan for really hot climates to help move air.

 

[iggi]

Good progress, those small things seem to take a disproportionate amount of time to finish.