Haulin_in_Dixie

Birmingham is advertising on the news that due to the cuts in funding here Reagonal Ambulances are replacing the fleet of Ford vans with the new Freightliner van which is a heavier and larger vehicle. They are powered by the Mercedes engine and claim that they get 22 MPG to save funding. It will be interesting to watch, I have driven a lot of ambulances and fire vehicles and if they get 22 with the method of running them, Mercedes has something going for them. The normal operating is get paged, jump in the cold truck in the winter, fire it up, put it in gear, put the throttle on the floor. I have to wonder if the new 6.0 is part of the reason for the change.

dodgeman01

How cold is cold? our fire trucks and stuff are all pluged in even during the summer when you put the key in to turn them on the plugs pop out and away they go. so they are not really cold are they? our first ambulance was a Dodge van with a 440/auto talking about gass hog
DM01

Haulin_in_Dixie

The ambulances are rarely plugged in because they don't sit all night. The medics will get sleep and wait for a page. Still rough on the engines. Our ISC fire truck even plugged in will pin the oil pressure gage for five minutes when it is cold outside.

mrb321us

The Freightliner ambulance , which in reality is a German-built MB tall van, has been used for this application in many parts of the world for years. I just saw one on the news arriving at the scene of another car bombing in Bagdad. They are durable, economical (5 cylinder MB diesel), stable (not prone to roll over) and proven performers. This van, sporting Dodge badging, is also known as "Sprinter." FedEx recently ordered a bunch of them for use in the US after being pleased with their performance in their European fleet for some time. They would make an excellent small RV because you can stand up in the tall version.

Hoss

Are we talking about the same vehicle?? ???

Hoss

Yeah...I've seen those...but I didn't think that's what Haulin In Dixie was talking about with the Freightliner ambulances. I could be wrong though....I'm due for it.

Haulin_in_Dixie

Thats them, the picture is decieving, they are large vehicles. They change the grille for different makes. I don't know that there are different sizes.

Monty

The Sprinter/Dodge vans come in 1 ton and 3/4 ton chassis. Every ambulance spec Sprinter I have seen was on the 1 ton chassis with DRW. Since I work at Freightliner, I have worked on quite a few. If you guys have any questions about the Sprinter line, I'll be glad to assist.

A tidbit of info. UPS has put these vehicles to use in there fleet extensively. The biggest problem we see is the EGR valve sticking due to idling. Since the Sprinter has no optimized idle or any way to bump it up when you are setting for a long period of time it causes excess carbon to build up in the EGR valve in the intake due to insufficient burning of fuel.

Monty

Jack,

The Sprinter sports the VGT turbo technology, is a 2.7ltr MB 5cyl which puts out 154 hp at 3,800 rpm and a high torque of 243-lb. ft. at 1,600 - 2,400 rpm.

To be honest, the numbers sound low to me for powering an ambulance.

Another problem that I have seen is the piston type transfer pump siezing. It is located at the front of the engine and has a small tang that connects it to the gear which is driven by the timing chain. When the pump siezes, the tang rounds off in the hole and takes out the gear and small pieces of metal through the engine. Luckily, we have been able to save the 2 engines that I have worked on for this problem. However, you have to pull the front gear cover, the 2 overhead cams, the oil pan (which is the biggest pain) and R&R.

Monty

If they are, I havent heard. ???

Vaughn MacKenzie

I spoke with a guy who drove one and he thought the power was OK. He got about 20 on the highway.

I was behind one in Boise this summer on the freeway and it was rolling out a constant stream of black smoke. Not sure if it was because it's underpowered and you have to be on it that much for the little motor to keep up, or if the EGR was already choking it off or what, but I would have my doubts about these vehicles holding up in the long run.

Another thing, the are NOT cheap!!!

Vaughn

sdaves

22 mpg is NOT a possibility no matter what they are driving. Some departments/services I have worked with in the past did long transfers. Some trucks have a governer that limited speed to 62 mph. Even with these trucks (7.3L PS) the best was around 8-11mpg.

My department now has about 20 FL-60 Type I medium duty ambulances. They have the CAT 3126 and they average about 4-7mpg. This is strictlly fire/emergency innercity. Better than our platforms which average less than 3mpg. The cost per mile for the FL-60's average out to just a little better than $3.50/mile.

Dodgeman01
As far as being plugged in. Are you sure you are talking about a block heater. 99.9% of emergency vehicles that are plugged in are battery chargers or shoreline power. I have been on bone noxes for over 13 years and the only block heater plug ins that I have seen are the factory type that are OEM (under front end). I spec our fire apparatus now and know that a Kussmaul autoeject setup isnt cheap. Just wondering.