Ambulance (Maintenance)

[rlepperson]

On this site, does anyone have experience in converting an ambulance into a motorhome? Somewhere, I have read that the diesel engines (7.3 Ford diesel were noted) are difficult to service: even replacing injectors or simple oil changes is stressful. Others say that an ambulance is the perfect RV conversion candidate: insulated, regular maintenance, sturdy, etc. Comments?

 

[DesertMedic66]

Personally I would not use one. We abuse the heck out of our ambulances. Running the engines for days on end. Plus the back of the ambulance is a very very dirty environment.

 

[Tigger]

I'd think the 7.3 would be an ideal engine. We actually repowered two of ours with them after finding the 6.0s to be lacking. I'm no mechanic but they are certainly reliable.

I think the hour meter on the engine matters more than miles on an ambulance. Some of lie rigs have over 200k on them but have been repowered and see mostly highway miles. They also live in a station, not on a street corner.

 

[Akulahawk]

The PowerStroke 7.3L motors were pretty well understood. They could develop a lot of power, though they didn't have quite the fuel economy that some other engines have. This is not to say that these motors were trouble-free. However, they were quite a bit more reliable than the 6.0L motors that replaced them. I think this was due to the fact that the 7.3L motors were made for service in some medium duty trucks as the Navistar T444E motor.

I must say, however, that in a previous job, we had 3 ambulances that refused to die... they'd be very cold-blooded in the morning, but once started, they could keep going until you ran them dry. They were powered with 6.9 and 7.3 naturally aspirated motors, pre-powerstroke. They were well abused and we still couldn't get them to die.

 

[UnkiEMT]

The 7.3 powerstroke is an absolute workhorse of an engine, even mildly well taken care of, you can expect to get 400k miles out of one without having to do anything more major than replace the injectors.

The 4R100 Trannies that the 7.3 got after 96 are similarly hardy (I have some issues with the sturdiness of the E4ODs).

Moreover, the engine itself is pretty easy to work on. The problem comes from it being crammed into a E-x50 chassis. On the vans, everything is so tight that access is a constant problem, I was forever taking it to a mechanic to do things I absolutely could do if it were in a F series, but just didn't feel like dealing with on the E series (I've got big hands.).

If you build on a type I, I'd strongly recommend the 7.3 powerstroke, if you've got your heart set on a type II or III...well, I'd probably still recommend the powerstroke, because I doubt any of the others are better, but I'd at least physically look at the others first.