My Adventure Ambulance - 1997 E350 Horton Mini Mod
- Mini Mod My Adventure Ambulance - 1997 E350 Horton Mini Mod -425.jpg (72.94 KiB) Viewed 5282 times
- Mini Mod My Adventure Ambulance - 1997 E350 Horton Mini Mod - 2016-11-05 23.03.48.jpg (67 KiB) Viewed 5282 times
- Mini Mod .jpg (65.76 KiB) Viewed 5282 times
The van part is a 1997 E350 with 170k on the 7.3 PSD. Possibly rebuilt E40D Auto, with a Dana 70 SINGLE rear wheel axle, with recently rebuilt LSD.
The module is a Horton Type III Mini Mod. Only has two exterior compartments, on the drivers side, for the O2 and batteries. Inside is still mostly "stock ambulance" but I've worked on the bench/bed that folds down from the pass. side wall. Real quality interior construction. Most everything is powdercoated aluminum, with minimal particleboard. Not sure what I really want to change around as it's all built so well. For now I've just been using it, enjoying it, and figuring out what I really want to change. I'd rather spend a Saturday mtn. biking than working on a vehicle...
I contacted Horton, and was able to get full documentation and a PDF of the original production order for this. It was originally bought by Mercy Flights in Oregon, and then sold to Jackson County Fire District 5. So it spent most of its life in Southern Oregon, and hopefully put most miles on driving longer distances. I've heard that Fire Depts. maintain their rigs better than EMS services, but I'm not sure.
My neighbor bought this from the Fire District in an auction. I bought this from my neighbor with ~170k and 7000 hours on it. He'd been parking it across the street from me for 2 years, so it was hard to not get curious about ambulance RV life. He replaced the Ambo with a huge RV that has a E350 front. My neighbor took it to Burning Man twice, so any bad vibes from it's ambulance days have been well cleansed...
So far I've had some work done to get it reliable.
-New radiator, hoses, & fluid flush
-Oil change and new fuel/oil filters.
-Rear axle LSD rebuilt & new fluid w/ proper additive.
-New BFG AT KO2 tires.
-Had a local Powerstroke shop check it out. They said it looks good, with just the standard oil leaks.
Slowly cleaning up the duct tape and decals. My neighbor had to cover the red lights and fire lettering to go through NV and CA. Then he left the tape on for 2 years, so it's taken some time with plastic razor blades and 3M 03618 Adhesive Remover (great stuff).
I re-engineered the folding bench/bed system inside. The goal is to have a half-bed, or double, as needed. The nice thing about the half-bed is that there's still room inside for bikes, gear, etc. More pics to come of that setup. A small dorm fridge is installed, along with a solar panel on the roof.
So for now it's mainly been used for adventure weekends hauling camping gear, MTBs, and my KLR250. Camping inside was great in the heat, stayed nice and cool in a field while everyone else was blazed out of their tent hours earlier. So far in the cold it's been a bit chillier. I got a Little Buddy heater, but I haven't tested it out yet. More insulation and propane plumbing is on the list...
I've definitely gotten some strange looks pulling into places with an ambulance...
