mk216v
Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
I'll be over this weekend with some s'mores.
Freightliner ambulance conversion project.
- Thread starter Ozrockrat
- Start date
I'll be over this weekend with some s'mores.
Ozrockrat
Expedition Leader
OK but if its not too much trouble can you also bring some rain and cooler weather :snorkel:
mk216v
Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
Exactly why no one should move to Oregon, too much rain and cooler weather.
shortbus4x4
Expedition Leader
But we did have a friend stay over to keep it company while I am neglecting it.
Did they have a play date? I like your driveway.
MaverickTRD
Adventurer
do you have any updated interior pics by chance?
pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
Just get your work done before 7:30 am. :sunny:
Ozrockrat
Expedition Leader
A few little updates since it is starting to get cool. Bit of a wordy post but you guys have plenty of spare time. 
I have tried any number of seat combinations over the last few builds. Finally (famous last words) settled on using the Sienna relining buckets with the theory that I could rotate the middle and passengers seats as comfy lounge chairs if desired. Well I probably should of waited until I actually had the vehicle before I bought the seats. After fighting the laws of physics for months I have to bow my head in defeat. There is no way they are going to work. So the options.
$800 + each truck seats that are probably too high anyway!
$300 each rebuild of the Bostrom suspension seats.
$650 each replacement Bostrom seats.
$25 each seats new 2nd row of some type of a mini van.
Guess which way I am going. Picked up the minivan seats locally. Unbolted the sliders off the passengers seat. 2 holes drilled in the Bostrom airride base (see I am not totally heartless). Some new grade 8 bolts and one is mated up to the air ride base.
Now the easy part. Lets bolt it back in. Now there is the easy way and the hard way. No prizes for guessing which one I picked. Decided to move the passengers seat across to the other mounting points (1" - 1"1/2 inboard) to give the missus more room. Straight forward as there are captive nuts under the cab to bolt them to. Oops no holes to the captive nuts and I can only really see one nut. Drill up through that nut and expand out the hole. One bolt in. Mount the base to that hole and carefully center pop where the other "should" be. Carefully drill pilot holes. 2 go through and 1 is all steel. Expand the holes out, tap out the solid one and now its ready to bolt in.
Ha you thought that was the end. No I figured that was no where near hard enough. Lets grab a couple of lockable vaults and put them in the seat bases. Nothing to stop a determined thief but good enough for documents and incidentals since the FL does not have any glovebox. That's OK I have all week to get them here and a day to put them in. Hmmm 1st one arrived and it would not unlock (Amazon prime to the rescue, 1 click and a replacement is on the way). Update. 2nd one did the same thing. Failure rate 66% so far
Come the evening prior to install we have a heck of a storm that blew one of our trees down. Early start Sunday, this is it!! Or is it. So I could get some work done on the rig I had "employed" some local landscapers to reinstall my sprinkler system. It was obvious they didn't understand either my english or my spanglish. So I spend the day gesturing and trying Spanglish, French, Indonesian, Australian and a combination of all of them to get what I wanted done (never again). I failed and still had to stand and support my own tree when I couldn't trust them to even work that out. If you haven't worked it out by now I live in the bloody desert to get away from gardening. My backyard is 1/2 acre of dirt for a reason (the wife's backyard has the pool, slide, patio, BBQ and a rock garden).
Net result, tree 1, landscapers 1, ambo 0.
Now it was not a complete waste of a week working from home. I did manage to get the 3rd seat mounted to a handicapped seat base and wired up. The idea is to get the seat out where our grand daughter can see and be comfortable. This was one of the main drivers for changing from the e350 ambo to the freightliner. Now I have a seat that faces forward, swivels to face where a desk/entertainment area will be behind the drivers seat. And it will also fold down to make a basic console or slide back behind the passengers seat out of the way so we can get through to the back without mastering yoga.
Seat base with lock box in place. (I am not sure the mount is even steel, this clearly shows my lack of welding skills and practice)
Jump seat with control switches built into base.
Passengers seat mounted. Seat is fairly hard but it does have 2 arm rests and did I mention. It was cheap.
I have tried any number of seat combinations over the last few builds. Finally (famous last words) settled on using the Sienna relining buckets with the theory that I could rotate the middle and passengers seats as comfy lounge chairs if desired. Well I probably should of waited until I actually had the vehicle before I bought the seats. After fighting the laws of physics for months I have to bow my head in defeat. There is no way they are going to work. So the options.
$800 + each truck seats that are probably too high anyway!
$300 each rebuild of the Bostrom suspension seats.
$650 each replacement Bostrom seats.
$25 each seats new 2nd row of some type of a mini van.
Guess which way I am going. Picked up the minivan seats locally. Unbolted the sliders off the passengers seat. 2 holes drilled in the Bostrom airride base (see I am not totally heartless). Some new grade 8 bolts and one is mated up to the air ride base.
Now the easy part. Lets bolt it back in. Now there is the easy way and the hard way. No prizes for guessing which one I picked. Decided to move the passengers seat across to the other mounting points (1" - 1"1/2 inboard) to give the missus more room. Straight forward as there are captive nuts under the cab to bolt them to. Oops no holes to the captive nuts and I can only really see one nut. Drill up through that nut and expand out the hole. One bolt in. Mount the base to that hole and carefully center pop where the other "should" be. Carefully drill pilot holes. 2 go through and 1 is all steel. Expand the holes out, tap out the solid one and now its ready to bolt in.
Ha you thought that was the end. No I figured that was no where near hard enough. Lets grab a couple of lockable vaults and put them in the seat bases. Nothing to stop a determined thief but good enough for documents and incidentals since the FL does not have any glovebox. That's OK I have all week to get them here and a day to put them in. Hmmm 1st one arrived and it would not unlock (Amazon prime to the rescue, 1 click and a replacement is on the way). Update. 2nd one did the same thing. Failure rate 66% so far
Come the evening prior to install we have a heck of a storm that blew one of our trees down. Early start Sunday, this is it!! Or is it. So I could get some work done on the rig I had "employed" some local landscapers to reinstall my sprinkler system. It was obvious they didn't understand either my english or my spanglish. So I spend the day gesturing and trying Spanglish, French, Indonesian, Australian and a combination of all of them to get what I wanted done (never again). I failed and still had to stand and support my own tree when I couldn't trust them to even work that out. If you haven't worked it out by now I live in the bloody desert to get away from gardening. My backyard is 1/2 acre of dirt for a reason (the wife's backyard has the pool, slide, patio, BBQ and a rock garden).
Net result, tree 1, landscapers 1, ambo 0.
Now it was not a complete waste of a week working from home. I did manage to get the 3rd seat mounted to a handicapped seat base and wired up. The idea is to get the seat out where our grand daughter can see and be comfortable. This was one of the main drivers for changing from the e350 ambo to the freightliner. Now I have a seat that faces forward, swivels to face where a desk/entertainment area will be behind the drivers seat. And it will also fold down to make a basic console or slide back behind the passengers seat out of the way so we can get through to the back without mastering yoga.
Seat base with lock box in place. (I am not sure the mount is even steel, this clearly shows my lack of welding skills and practice)
Jump seat with control switches built into base.
Passengers seat mounted. Seat is fairly hard but it does have 2 arm rests and did I mention. It was cheap.
rlrenz
Explorer
I ran into virtually identical challenges with my FL ambulance - after stuffing seats into the cab that Freightliner swore would do the job, my seat was hitting the ceiling, and my wife's feet were 4" off the floor---with no air on the seats. I returned them to Freightliner, and decided to use the Bostrom FRED seat rebuild kits on mine. BTW, I didn't drill/tap any new holes in the floor, I modified the seat bases instead. At least, that part of the project went pretty well....
At least part of our seat problems come from the fact that these trucks are all at least 10 years old, and in recent years, seat manufacturers have been widening seats to accommodate wider drivers - and our trucks were never set up for wider seats.
At least part of our seat problems come from the fact that these trucks are all at least 10 years old, and in recent years, seat manufacturers have been widening seats to accommodate wider drivers - and our trucks were never set up for wider seats.
guidolyons
Addicted to Gear Oil
Great project! The new shoes look great, it's amazing what some new wheels and tires will do for the stance, should drop your cruise RPM nicely.
Any worries with using aluminum for the rear blocks? With a truck that heavy and expected washboard roads, I think I'd opt for steel...
Did you get the new front springs mounted up?
Any worries with using aluminum for the rear blocks? With a truck that heavy and expected washboard roads, I think I'd opt for steel...
Did you get the new front springs mounted up?
Ozrockrat
Expedition Leader
New front springs. And the aluminum used in the blocks is not your grandma's saucepan. There should be no issues but I do have a spare set of blocks I can get machined if needed. Freightliner actually use aluminum taper blocks for the diff alignment. And these were heavy enough to get in. A 5x6x3 block of mild steel would of been a PITA to work with.
I did check with a couple of mechanical engineers prior and they agreed that there should be no issues (and are willing to ride with me in the truck). Once I get my pinion angle worked out I will pull these blocks to machine a taper in them. That will give me a chance to see if there is any signs of fretting.
Yeah the tires made all the difference to both the looks and the usability (plus with my fat gut I could not get under it with the old tires). Stay tuned as I have a set of 365/80R20's coming soon to put on it. Double beadlocks about the same height but 3" wider. Could be a bit of a challenge on the rear.
Gearing is an ongoing intellectual experiment. It is currently way overgeared. Especially with tires rated at 68 mph. I am trying to source a locking 5.13 to 5.88 to replace the 4.30 differential. Going from 31" specified tires (it actually had 29") to 43" was just too big a step. Strangely it pulls it fine but I want have more pull down low and not so high a top speed. Currently I have trouble staying under 70 on the highway as that is where it is comfortable running (doesn't hit top gear until about 65). Hopefully I will be at home next week and can chase down a few truck wreckers to see if they have a diff that suits me. I would of loved to put in a 2 speed diff but with the axle/brake combination I have it is a lot of work (and I am a lazy bugger).
Ozrockrat
Expedition Leader
Actually they are MXT rims and the whole kit may be for sale soon. I have some beadlock military wheels coming. 20x14.5.