Looking At Purchasing Used Ambulance

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If I were to buy one for such a project I think I would look for one of those crew cab rescue ambulances on the 4 wheel drive Freightliner chassis.  Having said that I too would be wary of ones that spent their lives in typical daily service, instead I would try to search for ones that spent their lives in service in some sleepy little town with very low population density, preferably in some sort of service where it did not get heavy daily use.
 
My son's ambulance has ghosts of the markings in the paint.  You can't make out the town, but you can clearly see that it was a SWAT team ambulance at some point. 
He did have to put quite a bit of money into catching up on maintenance that should have been done to the drive train and front suspension(it's a Ford after all), but after that it runs and drives solid.  His major nightmare has been electrical problems. 
If I still lived at the S&B with full shop facilities, I'd have ripped the whole harness out and re-done it from scratch.  But, we all know they frown on that stuff at most campgrounds. 
We did rebuild the bed area at one place my wife and I were staying.  Got it done in one day and cleaned up our mess as we went, so they never said a thing.
 
I agree with what patnsuzanne said.  I was also in F&ES for 35 years and all of my medic units (ambulances) were run to death and hard before they were replaced.  They were run from 0 to 70 most of the time with extremely heavy brake use.  That takes a toll on all mechanical systems, engine, transmission, brakes, suspension, etc...  They also have an extremely heavy electrical load usually requiring a second alternator just to keep up.  I also see many of the units on the web site were AMR.  I wouldn't touch those with a 10 foot pole.  High use, with little or no PM.  Jurisdictional units usually have pretty good PM but again they still receive heavy, hard use.  The guys keep them looking good on the outside and pretty clean in the back patient compartment but shouldn't translate that they were taken care of well.

Personally I wouldn't touch one but if your set on buying one don't be surprised by the breakdown and maintenance tail WILL follow.
 
Isaac-1 said:
If I were to buy one for such a project I think I would look for one of those crew cab rescue ambulances on the 4 wheel drive Freightliner chassis.  Having said that I too would be wary of ones that spent their lives in typical daily service, instead I would try to search for ones that spent their lives in service in some sleepy little town with very low population density, preferably in some sort of service where it did not get heavy daily use.
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You may have trouble finding such an animal.  Based on what I see in my neck of the woods the very small towns buy used ones from the larger towns and use them till the wheels fall off and then buy another used one. The latest trend is for large towns to provide ambulance service to small suburbs by posting ambulances at remote locations and eventually building small stations to house them.  In my small town a large nearby hospital started stationing ambulance crews at various points in town and they moved around from something like a service station to a restaurant parking lot to a big box store lot.  That went on for 6 or 7 years and now they are building small stations to house an ambulance and crew in a central location of the town.  In one town further out they even stationed a helicopter at a newly built station.  But my point is you may have one heck of a time finding a decent buy from a small town.

Bill
 
Our truck shop worked on a number of area ambulances, and as said, they really get beat to death. About the only vehicle I can think of that's a generally poorer choice for an RV conversion would be an airport shuttle bus.
 
Well, I guess i?ll Just shell out the $120,000 for a new ambulance. All kidding aside, I have found some with as little as 50k miles on them. Many advertise how many hours on the motor also.
 
I think a lot depends on local use patterns, in areas where ambulances tend to patrol like police cars this may be a poorer choice than in areas where they tend to sit at a station waiting for a call, such as ones operated by volunteer fire departments, etc.
 
Gator, there's an ambulance on a Chevy chassis at East Coast RV in Frankord. I didn't stop to get any particulars.
 
Oldgator73 said:
Well, I guess i?ll Just shell out the $120,000 for a new ambulance. All kidding aside, I have found some with as little as 50k miles on them. Many advertise how many hours on the motor also.
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If it's a big city ambulance with 50K on it, run, don't walk, far away from it. I'd rather take my chances on a rural ambulance with 100K on it.
 
Maybe this can help

https://omaha.craigslist.org/cto/d/e350-ford-ambulance/6743497283.html
https://augusta.craigslist.org/cto/d/2004-ambulance-for-sale/6706729767.html
https://nmi.craigslist.org/cto/d/retired-ambulance/6742444259.html
https://auburn.craigslist.org/cto/d/ambulance-4500-duramax-diesel/6702709432.html
https://www.ambunet.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrrKT3-DF3gIVTNbACh1U1QkHEAAYASAAEgIaI_D_BwE
http://www.craigslistcars.org/result?q=ambulance

 
WOW SpencePJ - those are real eye openers.  Late models averaging 50-60K per year.  I never imagined that those vehicles only 3 or 4 years old would have been run that much.  Live and learn.

Bill
 
SpencerPJ said:
Maybe this can help

https://omaha.craigslist.org/cto/d/e350-ford-ambulance/6743497283.html
https://augusta.craigslist.org/cto/d/2004-ambulance-for-sale/6706729767.html
https://nmi.craigslist.org/cto/d/retired-ambulance/6742444259.html
https://auburn.craigslist.org/cto/d/ambulance-4500-duramax-diesel/6702709432.html
https://www.ambunet.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrrKT3-DF3gIVTNbACh1U1QkHEAAYASAAEgIaI_D_BwE
http://www.craigslistcars.org/result?q=ambulance
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Some have very low miles. Wish they included prices. My max is around $10k.
 
I can complicate things but I'm learning. Are you sure you're not complicating things?
 
Maybe I missed it but I did not see any on that list that made mention of having a generator.  A couple mentioned an inverter but you need a pretty good battery system including charging to power an inverter large enough to run all the equipment in an ambulance.  I could be  overthinking this but I would think a small generator would be a requirement.

Bill
 
Oldgator73 said:
Some have very low miles. Wish they included prices. My max is around $10k.
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I am sure you have seen this one.  Probably above your max but worth a call?  https://tinyurl.com/y82hqal7
 
Bill N said:
Maybe I missed it but I did not see any on that list that made mention of having a generator.  A couple mentioned an inverter but you need a pretty good battery system including charging to power an inverter large enough to run all the equipment in an ambulance.  I could be  overthinking this but I would think a small generator would be a requirement.

Bill
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Many do come with generators. Some with refrigerators.
 
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