92 E350 Ambulance, Not in Kansas Anymore

j.ethan.morin

New member
Greetings!
I've enjoyed checking out everyones rigs and all the good info on the vans here on the forum. Over the past year or so I'd been toying with idea of an expedition van and how it would be a great platform to allow our young family to get up into the mountains on the weekends and to do ski trips while providing a place for nap time.

Recently I got on a kick looking for vans and noticed a couple vans already converted to 4x4 for a high $. I checked into a couple for sale locally and then happened upon a craigslist ad in Kansas for a 92 E350 ambulance 7.3 liter with 80k on the odometer. Not a 4x4 but a good platform. It looked to be in good shape from the pictures and when I talked to the owner he seemed straight forward and the price seemed fair.

I got a one way bus ticket from Denver to Kansas and 7 hours later test drove the ambulance at 5 am. It seemed to check out and I bought it from the seller. He was nice enough to treat me to a steak and egg breakfast before I hopped on the road and drove 7 hours back to Colorado.

So it's been a couple weeks now since I bought the ambulance. I would really like to do a pop top conversion and I am planning the lay out of the interior. I've removed the O2 tank (still full), the divider, bulkhead upper cabinets and have started to expose the interior.

I need to come up with a location to mount the inverter which is pretty large and a little noisy.

I am also planning to do some serious sound deadening with mlv and closed cell foam. After removing the bulkhead and looking at the a/c heater unit I think I would like to extend the hoses and possibly mount this unit at the back of the ambulance abover the rear doors. I would cut out a portion of the top and build a box around it. It looks like with a simple modification it could be oriented vertically and wouldn't overhang too much.

Ideally after the pop top and the interior I would start on the dana 60 front axle and transfer case.

Well I guess that's about it for now. Just wanted to share the project. Its been great so far with my daughter who is 2.5. She helped me last weekend as I dismatled the interior I would give her the screws and she would carry them over an place them in the tackle box. Can't wait for our first trip in the van.

Regards

Josh
 

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bknudtsen

Expedition Leader
Congrats! What's the plan to de-ambulance it? When you say "pop-top", do you mean in addition to the top you have or a complete replacement?
 

j.ethan.morin

New member
Congrats! What's the plan to de-ambulance it? When you say "pop-top", do you mean in addition to the top you have or a complete replacement?

Thanks for the replies!

It took my wife a few days to get used to having an ambulance in the driveway. She kept saying " we have an ambulance in the driveway?!"

The neighbors love it and are stoked about the idea of it being a family camper. We live in Boulder so they are probably used to wackier things!

My plans to de- ambulance it are to replace the exterior lights with lower draw LED's and remove the red lights and light bar. Toying with the idea of making a few of them outdoor speakers but that's not really a priority right now.

I have stripped out the interior and exposed the fiberglass and the internal welded tube frame that supports the fiberglass top. I would like to add a colorado camper van top on top of the exisiting top. I am hoping to make it a low profile top and add a about six inches of overall height so I could walk in the van upright while the top is down.

Would like to add/replace the seating putting in two captains chairs behind the existing front seats. Make a bench/bed running the length of the passenger side.


Possibly add an internal propane tank to supply a stove, catalyst heater and fridge.

I had an idea to cut out the floor where the spare tire mounts and drop a recessed fibrergalss mop tub in that spot. I would weld a support structure under it. It would have a trap door over it so that it is normally covered. The door would lift off and inside would be a flexible hose with shower head.Possibly rig up a curtain so we could have an indoor shower. Haven't measured it out but just a hair brained idea.

I'm thinking to mount the stove/ sink at the rear on the drivers side so that in nice weather it would be easy to have the doors open and not have to be stuck inside. Possibly mount some sort of pull out kitchen set up for warmer weather.

In this video you can see the heater a/c unit that was behind the bulkhead. I am thinking to mount this above the rear doors vertically sort of half in and half out of the fiberglass top. It would be about 9 inches deep and I would build an enclosure around it.

Any thoughts??

My big concerns for usability are good sound deadening up front with the 7.3 liter. Thoughts?

 

wyocoyote

New member
Did you pop top it?

Greetings!
I've enjoyed checking out everyones rigs and all the good info on the vans here on the forum. Over the past year or so I'd been toying with idea of an expedition van and how it would be a great platform to allow our young family to get up into the mountains on the weekends and to do ski trips while providing a place for nap time.

Recently I got on a kick looking for vans and noticed a couple vans already converted to 4x4 for a high $. I checked into a couple for sale locally and then happened upon a craigslist ad in Kansas for a 92 E350 ambulance 7.3 liter with 80k on the odometer. Not a 4x4 but a good platform. It looked to be in good shape from the pictures and when I talked to the owner he seemed straight forward and the price seemed fair.

I got a one way bus ticket from Denver to Kansas and 7 hours later test drove the ambulance at 5 am. It seemed to check out and I bought it from the seller. He was nice enough to treat me to a steak and egg breakfast before I hopped on the road and drove 7 hours back to Colorado.

So it's been a couple weeks now since I bought the ambulance. I would really like to do a pop top conversion and I am planning the lay out of the interior. I've removed the O2 tank (still full), the divider, bulkhead upper cabinets and have started to expose the interior.

I need to come up with a location to mount the inverter which is pretty large and a little noisy.

I am also planning to do some serious sound deadening with mlv and closed cell foam. After removing the bulkhead and looking at the a/c heater unit I think I would like to extend the hoses and possibly mount this unit at the back of the ambulance abover the rear doors. I would cut out a portion of the top and build a box around it. It looks like with a simple modification it could be oriented vertically and wouldn't overhang too much.

Ideally after the pop top and the interior I would start on the dana 60 front axle and transfer case.

Well I guess that's about it for now. Just wanted to share the project. Its been great so far with my daughter who is 2.5. She helped me last weekend as I dismatled the interior I would give her the screws and she would carry them over an place them in the tackle box. Can't wait for our first trip in the van.

Regards

Josh

Wow would sure like to see it poptopped? How cool would it be if the whole thing could go up with real windows like an Alaskan!
 

89s rule

Adventurer
Any updates? Sorry to bring up an older thread, but I haven't seen many builds of type II Ambos. I have seen several Type II Ambulances FS lately and wonder if it might be a better option that a cargo van. I'm looking for a 7.3 preferably 97-03.

I have two concerns:
1. Idle time, many ambulances idle for many hours, if it has 200K miles on it, this could be equal to 500K on run time.
2. The top, I would have to change the top out for another style, just could not live with it looking like an ambulance for lack of other words.

Then again I have had a few people locally tell me that a cargo work van goes through a ton of crap from most workers.

Whatever I get will be a DD and family road trip/camping vehicle.
 

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