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what kinda gas milage does that thing get ya think?i love the idea on haveing one some of them are even 4x4 how cool is a that a four wheel drive camper

Most of the ones I've been around get 10-12 gpm. As far as 4x4 goes I've only seen one that was. The Ambulance district had bought a 1 ton ford and put the box from their old ambulance on it. Their is actually a company somewhere on the east coast that does that. So if anyone has a one ton pickup sitting around and comes by an ambulance box in good shape you can marry the two together and make a camper.

What was that movie that those kids took their dead uncle around and pretended he was alive? Maybe you should watch that Jay, because thats pretty much going to be you if you dont let them pronounce you.
 
I don't know what the fuel mileage is on one. I know my Suburban gets 8 pulling the boat and 6 pulling the race trailer. I wouldn't think they would be any worse than that. They both of these have 7.3 diesels. I don't know if they are turbo diesels or not though. I will call and talk to him again. I am guessing the red one (1992) will go for about $1000 and the white one (1991) might go as cheap as $500 maybe.
you could probally get a bully dog power programmer for it to get you all kinds of extra tow power. those programmers make gobs of extra power for diesels. also you can go to captian d's or long john silvers and hit them up for their used veggie oil to run your cat camper on. then your cat camper will smell like you mean buisness:smile2:
 
One thing yo watch for on those is the hours the motor has actually run. They hardly ever get shut down arond here. A lot of idle hours on them.
 
Here's a couple of other things to check out. What kind of running gear does it have? I mean, is it just an ambulance box sitting on a Ford frame? Or has the frame & running gear been made up special? That can make a big difference if you ever have to locate replacement parts. The other thing is the gearing. If it's geared to run mostly in town, you may find that you're having to run the diesel at higher rpms than recommended to maintain highway speeds. I bought a 3/4 ton Ford 7.3 (not turbo) diesel, and found that it was geared so low that I was turning 3500 rpms when I was doing 70 mph. That caused me to get only 10mpg when running empty.
 
I looked into buying one years ago. The guy I talked to said these things are usually in pretty poor shape by the time they auction them. Really high mileage not to mention the idle time that they were ran without moving.

Also they are EXTREMELY HEAVY and get really poor mileage. Seems like I was told maybe 6mpg?????

Good luck, sounds like a good concept. If it works out post plenty of pics of your conversion. I know they can usually be had CHEAP!

It also might be a LEGAL requirement to remove the flashing lights.
 
the 7.3 is a good motor. They were put in the Fords but are an International motor. May want to check the maintinance records if possible,the injection pumps usually need a rebuilding around 2 - 3 hundred thousand miles or so. And they also like to eat up glow plugs now and then they arent bad tho only about 10 bucks a piece or so I think when I was putting on rebuilt pumps they were around 2 -3 hundred bucks but don't quote me on that because it has been a few years since I was doing mechanic work
Have heard nothing but horror stories about the bio diesel and the plugging of filters. But I dont have a diesel so don't know this first hand. Good luck I think it would be a cool unit. :smile2:
 
The 7.3's were good motors. Ford changed that sometime in the not so distant past and started putting 6.0's or 5 somethings in the ambulances. Those are a piece of junk engine. out of 60 ford ambulances bought new around my area, 10 of them had to have new engines within the first year.:eek:oooh: As of last year ford had stopped making ambulances until they got the engine thing worked out. We are making the switch over to chevy duramax's where I work.
 
Yeah, an ambulance isnt any good if it cant get ya to the hospital.
Do they still charge ya if you break down on the way?:smile2:
I think Id rather take a limo, and save some money.:crazy::smile2:
Yeah, the parts will be expensive, but they are made to run for a LONG time if taken care of. There are lots of them around with almost 1/2 million miles on them.
 
I never thought about the idle time. I bet they did idle a lot in their day.

Depends on the size of the city the were for. Like St. Joseph, mo (12000 calls per year between 8 ambulances) those ambulances run almost 20 hours a day. but troy, ks (300 calls per year between 2 ambulances) they rarely idle and dont even run every day.
 
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