The RAMM, a chase truck for people

[DocMoose]

Now that it's officially passed it's ambulance certification, it's time to share the RAMM (Remote Access Medical Module). Backstory, my buddy owns a company that provides personnel and equipment to the USFS for wildfire response. He has been using Type 1 Ambulances, 4x4 F450's with large ambulance boxes mostly, and they get absolutely trashed every season. They cost in the neighborhood of $200-300k and are designed for regular ambulance duty of picking up patients and dropping them off at hospitals, restocking out of the box to return to service on the streets. All of this is somewhat unnecessary on the fireline, where you're going to either be passing out bandaids or having a really ************** bad day. The latter means rapid evacuation over rough terrain if air is unavailable.

So my parameters were to design/build an ambulance that is:
1. Cheaper than a type 1
2. Easier to maintain than a type 1
3. Performs well off road
4. Durable enough "that even you can't break it"

Due to his fleet being mostly Ford already, and the SD60, I started with a 2020 F350 that we found from Texas (more on that later). Ordered some goodies, got back surgery, and waited for it all to get delivered while I worked on feeling my legs again.

King coilovers, Camburg Radius Arms, Methods, 37's, MORRflate PSIpro and hoses, 200w Solar, Starlink to name a few.

 

[DocMoose]

Being a Texas truck, I guess it didn't need a ************** windshield wiper. That was a fun discovery driving it to my place.

For suspension I went with Camburg Radius Arms, King 3.0 coilovers up front and 2.5 shocks in the rear. I knew I was going to add more weight to the rear with the slide in, so I held off for the moment on spring packs vs air bags. Wound up doing air bags to be able to fine tune things, this is the prototype anyway. I really want to remove the ability for the FF/EMT to fiddle ******** with things. Tuning the rear shocks was fun with the B&W gooseneck hitch, which blocks the passenger side shock from coming off and I was real real tempted to grab the plasma cutter at a certain point.



Taught the kid some new words while I removed the hitch and installed the passenger rear shock. This is her first full build, but the tool passing skills are coming along nicely.

 

[DocMoose]

It was a long day, snow started way earlier than it was supposed to and then melted turning me into a soggy mess. But, got the fronts done.


Next day was gorgeous and let me drive it around a bit to make sure everything got seated properly. Also remembered that when you grind/sawzall coil buckets off a truck in the rain/snow all the shavings rust and stain your driveway.

It does sit a bit lower in the rear now, even after breaking it in a bit, c/o may settle at some point but I haven't seen it yet. Suspension went in back in like April.

 

[DocMoose]

Next step was to pick up the slide in. To say it was a fiasco would be insulting to fiascos.

Obviously it was going to need something to get rid of the squat, since we haven't loaded it down with medical gear yet, it's hard to guess. I will say that the Camburg arms gave it so much more ground clearance than the other options, and I have zero doubts about their strength.


Meanwhile USFS was in town to discuss contracts and I was given instructions to "Park it where people will have to walk past it". Done, and I took the keys with me. Also hid the squat until I got that sorted out.

 

[DocMoose]

Next was wiring/plumbing the module. These are set up to run off the truck's battery, and that really wasn't an option for me. The back will be run off of a 100ah LiFePo4 battery, with solar on top and charge controller to supplement with the alternator. Start battery HAD to work and couldn't risk not being able to start the truck. There's also a starlink that he wanted mounted on the roof, enhancing comms with medical control in the event of no cell service or radio holes.

This module is also bolted to the frame through the floor. Kinda interesting design, and at least the brackets seemed to be designed for the Super Duty chassis.


Then I turned myself into an OSHA video. Turns out that the stool my wife said was dangerous to stand on, was. During my tumble I thought to myself "hey dum dum, you're not even two months out from back surgery, don't fall on your back". So my highly tuned athletic body with cat like reflexes decided to kick my legs out underneath me, which then tangled in the legs of the stool and I got some crunchy celery sounds out of my knee. I laid in my driveway for a few minutes, refusing to call my wife for help.

This is what we in medicine call "dependent lividity" and it's just as bad as it sounds. Also I have a cankle now, what a lucky boy I am. Turns out I tore my ACL again, and the PFL. Good news is that I've already hit my out of pocket max for the year, and my knee doctor went to Harvard and Stanford, the bad news is he said "it's pretty ************ in there" when referring to the images of the first operation he did, the reconstruction is set for late september.

 

[DocMoose]

Anyway, you don't need two knees to wire things up at least. I pulled the ceiling panel to route things, I also took the chance to add some Baja Designs work lights up high on the module for some scene lighting if needed.

The kid has really come along in her mechanical skills, not even 2 yet and is rocking this out in a kitty cat dress and monster feet. She's also built an LS harness and built a few axles at this point.

I did change things up a little bit here and added a fuse and circuit breaker to each branch of the heavy gauge cable. I really really don't want my work to burn down. Also fabbed up a battery tray lined with foam for impact resistance.

And thats about it. Took it out to torture test it, and it has performed very very well. Very smooth over all the dirt roads I could bash it down, and the idea was that the vehicle will operate at like 25% of it's actual off road capability. Hopefully the operators will pucker and chicken out before they find the limit of this truck.

 

[Skinhyfish]

Love the single cab!

 

[mog]

WOW, very interesting build. Form AND function. This is going to be great to watch the progress. And with an assistant like that, you know it will come out awesome. Just don't teach her new words, especially when falling off non-OSHA stools.

 

[Tex68w]

This makes me miss my single cab.

 

[carleton]

Looks great! Used to use those slide-ins as medic rigs for the Oil-Patch in Alberta, this looks even better!

 

[DocMoose]

WOW, very interesting build. Form AND function. This is going to be great to watch the progress. And with an assistant like that, you know it will come out awesome. Just don't teach her new words, especially when falling off non-OSHA stools.

Form follows function, although I really hate that chrome rear bumper at this point.

This makes me miss my single cab.

Reg cab is the way Doc. Was also like 20" shorter wheelbase, the slide in requires an 8' bed.

Looks great! Used to use those slide-ins as medic rigs for the Oil-Patch in Alberta, this looks even better!

That's where we got this one from, if this goes into production I have a few changes to make.

 

[Skinhyfish]

Which motor?

 

[DocMoose]

Which motor?

Godzilla, hard to find the 6.7 in a reg cab work truck.

 

[Skinhyfish]

I have same truck… looks good