Vent About Your Rig

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Simusid

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This might belong in the lounge because I'm just venting, but I'll start a thread here anyway. We have a brand new (10k Miles) International. I know sometimes you have to work the bugs out but in general I'll say I'm not very happy with it. The ride sways like mad and it's been out of service a couple of times to fix that.

Now it smells like rotton eggs in the cab from the battery compartment and the batteries are warm (not hot). While sitting on shore power with the key in "accessory" the ammeter shows a draw of 30 amps! that is nuts! and here's the weird thing.... if you open the door to the box and all the lights come on, the load drops to 14 amps. Close the door, back to 30 amps.

$230K not well spent. How I wish we could have bought another GMC 4500 :( :( :(

So what's bugging you about your rig?
 
We discovered the other day that one of our trucks is for some inexplicable reason set up so that everything except the chargers for the portable radios runs off of the shore line if it's plugged in. Of course, we only found this out when someone tried to start the truck and the battery was dead.

It's getting sent out for rewiring as we speak.
 
We purchased 2 new ambulances in late 2010/early 2011. The first thing I recognized after putting them in service, was that the sharps container(only large one in the ambulance), is placed along the rear wall of the ambulance. That is, if you are starting an IV on the bench seat(passenger side of the ambulance), and are right handed, you have to initiate access and then turn across your body away from the patient in order to dispose of the sharp. Unfortunately, despite progressive efforts to ensure that sharps are properly disposed of, we are seeing an increasing incidence of IV catheters being left on the seat or the floor.
 
Simusid said:
$230K not well spent. How I wish we could have bought another GMC 4500 :( :( :(

So what's bugging you about your rig?
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$230k for an ambulance??? Thats freaking nuts. That buys a decent fire truck. I really dont see the reason for using medium duty trucks as 911 units.

My only complaint is that my Expedition has the 4.6 V8. Wish it had the 5.4 motor...needs more power.
 
Everything in our new series of trucks is perfect, with the exception of the POS Ram Mounts for the Toughbooks. There are much better options IMO.
 
shfd739 said:
$230k for an ambulance??? Thats freaking nuts. That buys a decent fire truck. I really dont see the reason for using medium duty trucks as 911 units.

My only complaint is that my Expedition has the 4.6 V8. Wish it had the 5.4 motor...needs more power.
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well yeah it is a lot but then again it does have a custom paint job
newtruck1.jpg
 
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Our rigs are based on shift. The "nice" rig (Sprinter) I get to drive on Friday and Saturday needs new tires in a bad way. Hard and barely 1-2mm of tread left.

Of course they tires are "on order" per the supervisor but are still not on the rig over a week later.
 
FourLoko said:
Our rigs are based on shift. The "nice" rig (Sprinter) I get to drive on Friday and Saturday needs new tires in a bad way. Hard and barely 1-2mm of tread left.

Of course they tires are "on order" per the supervisor but are still not on the rig over a week later.
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Tires make a huge different. The truck everyone hated had bad tires and was like steering a ship in big seas on the highway. Suddenly new tires appeared and now no one says anything.

We started getting new AEV trucks that have a better interior layout and six point harnesses that are nice, but the powers got be got rid of the LED lights and sweet dual tone sirens :sad: :P Oh well, shiny new trucks are shiny new trucks.
 
The rig I've been in lately has some sort of weird wiring bug. The climate control system has a mind of its own and a whole bank of lights decides when it will turn on and off. Can't really complain though, it's a very nice rig otherwise...
 
The driver's side door once fell off my rig...while I was driving it...over a bridge.

My service puts a lot of cash into their rigs. I think the biggest complaint I'd have is that people don't take care of them. Someone put their foot into the stereo in the other rig (the other one on my shift) and broke it. Management said "No one's going to fess up? Fine. this is why we can't have nice things.". That crew has to sing to each other during those long transports.

When I was a call guy we had a 350+ pound crew member break the driver's seat on the new volly ambulance. Turns out he had broken it by slam dancing into it while driving back from a call. He quietly backed the rig into the station and left, never telling anyone.
 
lawndartcatcher said:
The driver's side door once fell off my rig...while I was driving it...over a bridge.

My service puts a lot of cash into their rigs. I think the biggest complaint I'd have is that people don't take care of them. Someone put their foot into the stereo in the other rig (the other one on my shift) and broke it. Management said "No one's going to fess up? Fine. this is why we can't have nice things.". That crew has to sing to each other during those long transports.

When I was a call guy we had a 350+ pound crew member break the driver's seat on the new volly ambulance. Turns out he had broken it by slam dancing into it while driving back from a call. He quietly backed the rig into the station and left, never telling anyone.
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Kicked the stereo and broke a seat by goofing off? Surely they were fired or nearly fired.
 
We have cool air horns in our rigs - but a couple of them have leaky compressors. So every hour, even after not using the horn - the compressor will go off. They are super loud and rumble-like while recharging the horn. Fun.
 
Cup holders near the dog house (the big thing that houses the sirens and switches in between the seats), instead of attached to the sliding door behind the seats.

Oh, and some of our new trucks could be a bit roomier up front...


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probably the fact that engine/transmission must get to operating temperature before goin anywhere or else the truck wont go over 30mph until it gets up to operating temperature. running emergency traffic going 30mph is pretty embarassing
 
Honestly, the only things that bother me about our sprinters are the fact that our E-lights are set to the most useless flash patterns, and the back only has two red lights that blink on and off, makes the truck nearly invisible during the day, and the fact that we have the swivel chairs instead of a bench, so patient care is interesting on 911 runs. there are other minor things, but the trucks do drive well and have some get up and go to them.
 
At Flintstone's Ambulance Service...

...we had what we called "semi-mods", basically a Dodge van chopped behind the front seat and a re-cabineted SUV body put on. Eventually everything came loose or stopped working, the most fun one being the stamped metal single piece front seat mounts. The seatbelts (no shoulder harness back then) bolted to the floor. Good thing, I went to get out once, opened the door and the the inboard side of the seat pedestal tore loose of its bolts. The two remaining bolts (outboard) had partially chewed through the heavy sheet iron pedestals. Essentially only the seat belts were holding the seat in place.
 
Our supervisor nailed a deer with 'my' rig, so after the rebuild, the right headlight goes in circles around its field of travel. Really annoying most of the time.
 
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