What Now?

[Quakefire]

I work for a service that is rumored to be replacing two 10ish year old Ford E350 ambulance with something new, probably crestline but it may be Demers. All of our units a diesel with the exception of our rover which is a gas expedition. With for discontinuing the diesel ambo prep what are other services looking at for chassis for new units? Chances are slim for GM just due to the fact that the chev dealer in town wont be a chev dealer soon with GMs cutbacks. We do alot of highway and alot of bad dirt roads.

Just want to see peoples opinions of what the options are

[island emt]

I work for a service that is rumored to be replacing two 10ish year old Ford E350 ambulance with something new, probably crestline but it may be Demers. All of our units a diesel with the exception of our rover which is a gas expedition. With for discontinuing the diesel ambo prep what are other services looking at for chassis for new units? Chances are slim for GM just due to the fact that the chev dealer in town wont be a chev dealer soon with GMs cutbacks. We do alot of highway and alot of bad dirt roads.

Just want to see peoples opinions of what the options are

For 2010 the Ford ambulance prep package will be offered with the V-10 Gas motor in the E-350-450 cutaway chassis. In the F-350& 450 type 1 chassis you can get the 6.4 liter diesel.

For 2011 model year , [ expected out in the spring] , Ford should have their all new 6.7 diesel, which is a completely new in-house design and manufactured by Ford. No more Navistar produced motors.

If your trucks will last another year it will more than likely be worth the wait. If not some ambulance builders stocked up on diesel chassis before they stopped production.

Here is a link to a Ford website that gives a lot of info on the new drivetrain package http://www.fordvehicles.com/2011Superduty/

[Happiness]

As a person who had owned all the above makes of personal truck makes I have had less problems with out Ford. A mechanic friend also says that Fords are the best to work on.

I vote for Ford

[Quakefire]

Any opinions on the freightliner or international chassis? Is the bigger mod well worth it? And has anyone noticed the floor in the GM chassis gets really warm behind the captains chair

[island emt]

Any opinions on the freightliner or international chassis? Is the bigger mod well worth it? And has anyone noticed the floor in the GM chassis gets really warm behind the captains chair

The international chassis is around US$ 63,000 for the 4300 lo-profile chassis, Freightliner is in the same neighborhood. Plus they are not a nice ride even with air ride suspension. Maybe OK in an urban paved street environment, but not on rural roads.

Ford 2009 E-450 chassis was US$ 36.000 for the one we bought this year.

An additional cost for next year will be new emissions requirements that are expected to add a few thousand $$ to the cost of the chassis.

[fireflymedic]

The international chassis is around US$ 63,000 for the 4300 lo-profile chassis, Freightliner is in the same neighborhood. Plus they are not a nice ride even with air ride suspension. Maybe OK in an urban paved street environment, but not on rural roads.

Ford 2009 E-450 chassis was US$ 36.000 for the one we bought this year.

An additional cost for next year will be new emissions requirements that are expected to add a few thousand $$ to the cost of the chassis.

Most of the depts that are getting new trucks are switching out to chevy rather than fords. I actually really liked the international trucks as I found them quite comfy - more room if you had a specialty team or cct and were transporting ballon pump, multi drip patient, etc. Neonates esp. We did many specialty/CCT transfers so they purchased some for the service I was with previously and they still have several. One problem was they tried to use them in a rural areas with little logging roads or narrow concrete bridges over the culverts and more than one ended up in one because people misjudged them. Or even worse roads that are so narrow it's not even funny and have a bunch of trees whatever overhanging scratching up the ambulance, busting lights, etc. Except for specialty stuff where you need the room, a typical box works just fine and in rural areas, a van wouldn't be out of the question (which they ended up getting two for those way out in the boonies runs so they didn't beat up the nice trucks)

[Arctickat]

Quakefire.

The Freightliner chassis have all been tried in P.A., Nipawin, and Yorkton. They were very short lived. Thousands of dollars were spent in attempts to soften the chassis and nothing worked. Airbags either broke in the cold weather or didn't equalize going around a curve, which is an extremely dangerous rollover risk. Lightening the spring rate resulted in more side roll. They finally gave up. When I was specing a new unit last year I almost went with an International Hybrid, but they won't permit them to be used for ambulances yet. Besides which, it is unlikely a hybrid would have been much benefit for a rural service anyways.

[island emt]

The chevy 4500 cutaway chassis was a little over US $39000.00 with the ambulance prep package Compared to the Ford E-450 chassis we bought this year at US $ 36000.00. The chev has a wee bit more belly room ,but less leg and head room and the footwells are more cramped [narrow] compared to the Ford.

The medium duty IH & freightliner chassis are just too big to maneuver down small rural roads and drive ways. Plus as I said before they ride like a dump truck even with the problematic air ride systems.

[rock_shoes]

Having used Crestline ambulances built on both Ford and Chev chassis I vote in favour of the GM products. The duramax has far better pick-up on the bottom end, the chassis feels tighter, the steering is sharper, the brakes are more linear, and the ride is far smoother. Over all I've found the Chevy (2009 we took delivery of this spring) to be better in nearly every aspect. Perhaps the new ford diesels are worth the wait. I can't say as I have yet to drive one.

The Ford Crestline (roughly 90000Km) we have sitting in our second bay by comparison has had the entire injection system replaced twice under warranty already. It rides like a lumber wagon, and the 6.0L diesel in it is so loud when the cooling fan kicks in you should be wearing hearing protection to meet WCB regulations (never mind when the siren is engaged). The only thing I like better about the Ford is the mirrors.

[Quakefire]

I doubt we will be able to wait a year for new units, our one main unit is so close to 700 000km its painful, I liked working in the GM chassis on my practicum, guess we will have to see