The Ute & Intro _ E350

[Jeep]

Very cool, always wondered how a converted ambulance would look but never visualized your creation. Looks great.

 

[deserteagle56]

Hey! You made it to Orovada and Winnemucca!

 

[Saline]

:yikes:

 

[MATTY291]

hOLY wOW!!! That turned out great. Great job on the truck!

 

[wanderer-rrorc]

I think what really does it for me is the way you trimmed the tail into a reverse-beaver platform...(going up instead of down like trailers do)..

gotta give ya a 11 on a 1-10 scale...looks sweet...

now ya got me thinkin of HOW to get the wife to want one...gonna steal some pix and put them in her breifcase...randomly...maybe on the backs of the kitchen cabinets too....just to assult her with the idea...:26_34_3:

 

[Carlyle]

That came together very nicely!

 

[Backwoods Rambler]

WOW, VERY COOL!!! What an economical way to make a viable expedition rig. What 4wd swap did you go with? Custom?

Welcom to Expo :victory:

 

[naterry]

Wow-Thank you VERY MUCH! Reading your guys replies pretty much made my day. Can I leave work and go surfing now please?

I'll answer Q's best I can-

What's the headroom in the cabin? Can you stand up?

McCoy Miller was very kind in supplying the specs and eng dwg's for the rig. I was impressed with how well they stuck to spec on the built-in's. They called out 5'-6" height and it was close. With the cheesy (re cheap) flooring I put in, it comes to ~5'- 5 5/8". So it's not ideal, standing at the stove I'm 5'-10" and have the sideways head effect. This was definitely a compromise.

Quick question: does the stove right above the fridge have much affect on the fridge temps? I can understand the location for plumbing propane.
-Chris

This was a concern. I didn't want to be de-laminating the insulation on the top of the fridge so I put a sheet of the self adhesive heat shielding on top of the fridge. With only one trip I guess it's hard to be sure, but it didn't effect the freezer's ability to make ice. One think I need to do is add a large vent to the outside for the fridge, the small one in now was easily overwhelmed..

That turned out sweet i tossed around the idea of converting a Ambulance but I did not think you could ever really get away from that look but you did a sweet job of shedding the look. I love the way you trimmed the back up at an angle. I will be interested in seeing how you cram a clutch pedal in there. I do not think ford ever put a manual in that body style. I looked into putting a manual in my old van but that is stopped me from doing it.
Good luck and I can't wit to see how the rest turns out.
You need to post this in the van section.
Derek

Cheers and Thanks! I'll post some pics below of the old rear. It was hard to imagine the Ute crossing many narrow streams with the old tail it had on it.. It had to be bobbed. One nice thing about the box was that it had a "skirt" hanging down that made the bobbing easy. The only annoyance was re-building the bottom of the driver's side rear compartment.

Manual Tranny should be interesting. Like you said there isn't much room with the wheel well by the left foot. It may come down to cutting and welding a box in to make room for pedal travel. Hopefully not-

Hey! You made it to Orovada and Winnemucca!

Cheers! That's good country!

I think what really does it for me is the way you trimmed the tail into a reverse-beaver platform...(going up instead of down like trailers do)..

gotta give ya a 11 on a 1-10 scale...looks sweet...

now ya got me thinkin of HOW to get the wife to want one...gonna steal some pix and put them in her breifcase...randomly...maybe on the backs of the kitchen cabinets too....just to assult her with the idea...

Thanks again! Let me know if you need any more material, I could photoshop a picture of the back full of happy crafty stuff wives are supposed to like.. -might win her over!

Here's a few more shots of the build. You can see the volume of material that came out of the van, and destroyed driveway.

 

[Life_in_4Lo]

ah man, this is the coolest build I've seen in a looooong time

 

[naterry]

WOW, VERY COOL!!! What an economical way to make a viable expedition rig. What 4wd swap did you go with? Custom?

Welcom to Expo :victory:

Cheers and thanks! I chose to go with Chris's (UJOINT on here) leaf spring based 4wd conversion. It was worth the money to me to buy from him vs fab it up because I literally only had two weeks to get the thing up and running before work started. It was crazy. Logistics required arranging 90% of the parts from Germany. A little stress, but the stars aligned and everything pretty much worked with only one overnight'd (sp?) part required..

 

[surfgeek33]

Awesome build!!! Great looking rig.

 

[ujoint]

Damn, I'm off portal for a day, and look what happens!!!!! Glad to see you on ExPo Nate!!!!

 

[Railvan]

Very nice build and incredible in such a short time! Have you considered a poptop that would cover just a strip down the center of the roof? It could go up a foot and allow you to stand up in the center area of the van, and still allow for storage racks alongside both edges of the roof. Just a thought, as I have thought a commercial box van would also be a good start for a similar project.

Brian

 

[Stan the Man]

That is awesome! I've never seen anyone use a retired ambulance for a wheeler. More pictures please!

 

[wanderer-rrorc]

I used to work on ambulances...Its AMAZING how much crap they pack in them...which means they can store a CRAPLOAD of stuff!!

oh...the wife saw it...and I got a thumbs up!!!:wings:

however she did say she's not gonna pay for it....dam...:smileeek:


but that means we can start lookin into finding one!!:smiley_drive: